They Almost Killed Hitler

THIS book is based on the personal experiences of Fabian von Schlabrendorff, one of the most persistent German plotters against the life of Adolf Hitler and one of the very few to escape execution when their conspiracies failed. Written without distinction, the book’s importance lies in the factual material now fully revealed for the first time. The reader is bound to be struck by the depth and breadth of the underground hostility to Hitler. Many of the conspirators were high-ranking officers in the Army or Navy; many of them were of the old Junker nobility; a considerable number were men of lofty ideals and character, Christians and gentlemen. To them, Hitler was not only a false and wicked leader but an enemy of mankind. They planned his death as an indispensable preliminary to the regeneration of Germany and the German people.

Hitler proved to be a hard man to assassinate, particularly as his death had to coincide with full preparedness for widespread and coördinated revolution. Once he escaped by sheer luck and the perversity of mechanical material. Von Schlabrendorff describes how, in March, 1943, he managed to persuade Colonel Brandt, one of Hitler’s aides, to carry with him a case containing “two bottles of brandy” to General Helmuth Stieff, in the plane which was transporting Hitler and his personal staff from Eastern Headquarters to Hast Prussia. The case was in reality a high-explosive bomb of English design capable of destroying the entire plane. The bomb was timed to explode in half an hour. To quote from the narrative: —

After more than two hours of waiting we got the shattering news that Hitler had landed safely on the Rastenburg airfield in East Prussia, and had reached his headquarters. There was no doubt that the attempt which we had so carefully prepared had failed. . . . We were deeply shaken.

It was serious enough that the attempt had not succeeded. But even worse would be the discovery of the bomb, which would unfailingly lead to our detection and the death of a wide circle of close collaborators.

After considerable reflection Tresckow resolved to ring up Colonel Brandt at Hitler’s headquarters and ask whether the parcel for General Stieff had already been delivered. Brandt replied that it was still in his keeping. This gave us hope that the bomb had not been discovered. Its delivery had to be prevented by all means. . . . On some military pretext, I flew to Headquarters with the regular messenger plane. I called on Colonel Brandt and exchanged a parcel actually containing two bottles of brandy for the one containing the bomb.

What a moment in the life of an assassin!

Hitler carried his personal cook with him everywhere, and all food prepared for him was tested before his eyes by his physician. He made a point of almost never traveling on schedule or keeping engagements at the expected time and place. The last attempt on his life, on July 20. 1944, when Graf von Stauffenberg’s “bomb in the brief ease” exploded at a military staff conference, was almost successful. The “if’s" were negative; the plot failed, and the conspirators were executed or committed suicide, almost to a man. That Schlabrendorff escaped execution was apparently due to the confusion in courts and prisons caused by bombing raids and the advance of the Allied armies.

This is a fascinating story by virtue of the “brute incidents” involved and the deadly and prolonged precariousness of the situation. Even if the reader knows the answers in advance, he cannot escape the temptation to learn the who and the how and the why.

R. E. DANIELSON