Operation Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler | Free Documentary History

[Music] so [Music] at 12 noon on the 20th of july 1944 colonel klaus von stauffenberg entered the office complex of field marshal kaitlyn at wolfshanser the fuhrer's headquarters for the eastern front in east russia he was scheduled to report to hitler on the readiness of the home army [Music] keital informed the officers that the briefing would not take place in the bunker as usual but in the nearby conference room of the larger barracker the situation barracks [Music] kaitlyn beckoned the officers to follow him but stauffenberg stopped and asked if he could change his shirt keitel's aide john von fayen took him to a nearby room while stauffenberg was inside the phone rang it was general felgebo head of the communications post said he'd call back as soon as possible kaitlyn became impatient [Music] stauffenberg emerged at last and the officers continued on their way to the conference room on the other side of the inner security center [Music] at 12 35 pm stauffenberg entered the conference room exactly seven minutes later the world would be forever changed one of the most astonishing chapters in the history of the second world war had begun an assassination attempt on the furore by a group of senior officers at the very pinnacle of german military might operation valkyrie [Music] the valkyrie plan was an official german plan for dealing with some sort of massive internal uh disturbance within germany whether it might be an uprising of foreign labourers or a particularly concentrated air raid which sort of disrupts local services and everything else it turns out that in 1944 there were seven and a half million foreign workers in germany uh and the germans had this worry that there could be a civil disturbance [Music] the reserve army troops with officers at the bentley strasse in berlin with the men designated to execute operation valkyrie the circles of the resistance in the bendless class from berlin were the ones that were in control of that plan so it seemed very logical for them to turn that operational plan to their own to their own devices also in berlin was a young officer serving on the general staff of the german high command class scheck count von stauffenberg [Music] the von stauffenberg family was one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic families of southern germany both klaus father alfred and his mother caroline were nobility of rank caroline had already presented her husband with two sons the twins berthold and alexander in november 1907 when she was eight months into her next pregnancy she decided to travel to schnaufenberg [Music] [Music] conrad died shortly after birth but klaus survived for the next 10 years the three boys grew up in the privileged comfort of the german nobility under kaiser wilhelm ii the loudlingen estate some 50 miles south of stuttgart was the home where klaus grew up and later lived with his family in 1914 germany had declared war on both france and russia caroline took tea to the soldiers passing through the local train station and in the summer urged her sons to help the local women now deprived of their men folk with the harvest in his spare time klaus read and learned to play the cello so that he and his brothers could perform as a trio sonatas by mozart and haydn the day they learned that germany had requested an armistice klaus was in tears and he was of course still a boy when that war ended in germany's defeat and in the national was so seen by so many people including stauffenberg's family as the national humiliation of the treaty of versailles 1919. [Music] germany was in a state of siege as various mobs communist or right-wing vied for power [Music] this turmoil prepared the way for the rise of the dictatorship of adolf hitler the political upheaval of those years made a powerful impression on klaus he resolved to become an officer for he believed that the officer corps had always served as a powerful stabilizing force in german life in 1926 he joined the family's traditional regiment the 17th cavalry regiment in bamberg klaus had grown to be a tall and strikingly handsome young man with a shock of dark hair prominent cheekbones a firm jaw and dreamy eyes [Music] [Music] a very devout catholic he always attended mass on sunday [Music] [Music] one day he met a pretty young 16 year old called nina she was at a local girls boarding school in 1930 after he had been promoted to second lieutenant klaus proposed to nina even though he was only 23 on the 26th of september 1933 eight months after hitler became chancellor nina and klaus were married at sir james church in bamberg he was in uniform and wore his steel helmet to the ceremony to wed is to be on duty he explained to nina in 1936 klaus took the entrance exams to berlin's prestigious war academy bertold von stauffenberg had also moved to berlin with his new wife mika while his cousin can cesar von hoffaker lived in berlin on the kaiser wilhelm strasse my father was a direct cousin of count klaus stoutenberg my grandmother and the mother of klostelfenberg were sisters so there is a it was a very close relationship and i think that had definitely something to do that my father ended up in the resistance his military career progressed rapidly in 1937 he became a cavalry captain and in 1938 he was assigned as a general staff officer to the first light division later known as the sixth panzer division [Music] that same year the sa and ss launched the so-called crystal knocked when shops and homes of jews were smashed and many synagogues were burned to the ground in them the idea of restricting jewish influence in the arts and public life but he strongly condemned this action his gradual disillusionment with the nazi regime had irrevocably begun stauffenberg was serving as quartermaster of the first light division when hitler decided to invade poland in september of 1939 [Music] uh he said in response to one attempt to motivate him to help overthrow hitler in november 1939 uh i'm not ready yet what does that mean uh he was a captain at the time he was a captain in the general staff uh how many opportunities to oppose a dictator and uh commander-in-chief are open to a captain uh schnaufenberg's entire ethos was that the army was there to uphold and defend germany and therefore a was a very loyal member of the army that went into poland in 1939 germany was now in a war this was the regime that was leading germany and he i think believed to some extent this war had been in a way forced upon germany that it wasn't solely down to hitler's crazy foreign policy by that time hitler was already plotting the invasion of the low countries in france on the 10th of may stauffenberg was with sixth panzer as its tanks plunged into luxembourg and belgium creating the spearhead of the six armored divisions that cost the most and raced across france french resistance crumbled more quickly and division headquarters in the rear could keep track of one week later to his infinite disappointment stauffenberg was withdrawn from the front and promoted to the army general staff before taking up his new post staffenberg found time to see his family he was now the proud father of three children franz ludwig heimermann and bertolt named after his elder brother one year later nina had their fourth a girl they called valerie [Music] from his perch at the army general staff stauffenberg witnessed the invasion of the soviet union but it was not until later in 1941 that news of the systematic killing of jews and gypsies by ss troops reached the higher levels of the wehrmacht i don't believe i would [Music] [Music] you know the early days of the russian campaign the holocaust was ongoing at that point and it tended to be a very very brutal affair this is not the you know the later supposedly humane uh gassings auschwitz and everything else this was very very brutal you know pits dug and civilians lined up and shot into them so it was dreadful what was going on and reports of of each of these atrocities would obviously go up through the through the military lines if one looks at the total number of jews for example who are exterminated in the holocaust by far the largest number come from what was the former soviet union in yellow russia in ukraine and places like that and those are the areas that the germans occupy in the summer and fall of 1941 and truly horrible things happen there large-scale killings uh and the like that is [Music] who was serving on the eastern front in the heroes group had been plotting hitler's overthrow since the late 1930s intelligence [Music] on the eastern front had a unique opportunity to incubate a conspiracy given its independence from the sd the gestapo and the ss [Music] in july of 1941 von tresco received a visitor from the general staff staffenberg the young officer agreed with tresco that hitler was a danger but he was not yet ready to join the conspiracy as late as the second half of 1942 during one of his fact-finding tours in ukraine stauffenberg remained convinced that the eastern front could be held but in that same year stauffenberg received the first reports of the mass murder of russian jews by ss special forces known as einsatz trooper and he got wind of these and was astonished and horrified that this was going on in germany's name and in fact as i say i think that is where his real conversion to the courts uh comes from some of his religious background as a catholic you're there's a greater there's always a greater authority you know there's a greater authority than than your fuhrer all this came together then um and made um a loyal member of the officer cast into a um into a rebel he began a one-man campaign to convince commanders at the eastern front to try to to confront hitler and rest control from him that winter of 1942 the german army came to a halt before the gates of stalingrad even when the sixth army under general von palace faced certain defeat hitler refused to authorize a withdrawal and man [Music] prestige stauffenberg was now convinced that hitler had to be removed he was so vocal in his criticism that his fellow officers became concerned it was decided to post him far away to the 10th panzer division in tunisia [Music] in libya and tunisia the victories of the famed africa corps under erwin rommel had been reversed the americans had landed in north africa during operation torch rommel launched a daring panzer attack against the still inexperienced american troops driving them all the way to the kasserine pass but the victory was short-lived the germans began a fighting retreat on the 7th of april stauffenberg tried to lead his column through the narrow el jefe pass fighter bombers caught up with him [Music] stauffenberg was badly injured he was taken to a field hospital in svaxx where he lost his right hand two fingers on his left hand and his left eye [Music] his recovery was slow but steady on the 5th of july he arrived back in lautlingen for a month-long convalescence here he was reunited with his children heimermann franz ludwig and little valerie as well as his niece elizabeth and nephew alfred at around that time the position of chief of staff of the general army office in the bentley strasse in berlin became vacant general albrecht well aware of stauffenberg's commitment to remove hitler quickly arranged for stauffenberg to be offered the post stauffenberg immediately agreed in the august of 1943 stauffenberg arranged to meet with henning vontresco to discuss the implementation of the valkyrie plan they began to draft an outline of the new government that was to take charge immediately after the coup d'etat general ludwig beck would become head of state long-time resister carl friedrich gerdler would become germany's new chancellor vontresco would take control of all german security services including himless gestapo and sd general hupna would become head of the ministry of war either albrecht or stauffenberg himself would serve as state secretary the only minister in hitler's government which the plotters intended to retain if he agreed was the minister of armaments albert speer under his leadership armaments production had actually increased despite the devastating british and american bombing campaigns i interviewed albert speer and indeed he knew that he had been penciled in to become minister of war in the new government had hitler been assassinated and all of that had been carried off successfully stauffenberg increasingly became the core of the valkyrie plan but one major problem remained neither von tresco or other conspirators such as mertz vonfernheim had actual access to the fuhrer but then in june of 1944 stauffenberg was appointed as chief of staff to none other than general from head of the home army hitler frequently wanted to be appraised of its combat readiness so stauffenberg suddenly found himself in a position where he himself would see hitler on a regular basis of all the conspirators he was now best placed to become the assassin at the same time field marshal rommel commander of army group b in france had finally agreed to cooperate with the conspiracy which in the west was headed by the military governor of france general von stultnagar the success of valkyrie depended heavily on stupnago and his deputy none other than stauffenberg's cousin cesar von hoffaker he stood [ __ ] was his immediate past and i think my father and stewart niagara were very good friends at the end another key figure in the conspiracy was general von haaser city um that stauffenberg couldn't be in two places at once uh he was instrumental in organizing the operation of valkyrie in berlin so he needed to be there he was a tremendously powerful dynamic man so he could pick up the phone and talk to all corners of germany at once and convince everybody to act in the way that they should do um but at the same time he realized um that summer that he actually had to be the assassin as well so he also had to be 300 miles to the east planting the bombing in in the map room in rustenburg since stauffenberg had to remain alive and returned to berlin to orchestrate the coup he had to use a timer in the form of a fuse [Music] helmut thief secured the necessary bombs and fuses from lieutenant von berselager [Music] it's a stiff floor the valkyrie plans objective was to decapitate the german leadership field marshals von kluger and rommel insisted that not only hitler but also himmler head of the ss and hermann goering head of the luftwaffe and hitler's designated successor should be too the problem was that these three men were rarely together on the 11th of july stauffenberg travelled to the berkhoff with steve they were ready to detonate the bomb but neither himmler nor goring were present steve decided to call it off [Music] three days later hitler moved his headquarters from the berkhoff to wolfshanser originally built in 1941 in preparation for barbarossa wolfshanzer had since been expanded into a vast complex comprising three security rings the first complex known as security zone two contain barracks and facilities for the staff as well as guests a communications center and a mess hall known as casino 2. to the north-east lay security zone 1 containing the offices of top figures in the nazi leadership including gerring general yodel and field marshal wilhelm keitel to the immediate left of zone one was another highly guarded sector known as the furizona here was a huge bunker reserved for the fuhrer as well as airaid shelters and various wooden barracks one of which contained a map situation room [Music] on the 14th of july stauffenberg and general frohm were summoned to appear at wolfshutzer the next day in this famous photo stauffenberg stands ramrod straight as hitler greets general bodenshats of the luftwaffe back in berlin general albrecht was already issuing orders for valkyrie but stauffenberg was once again prevented from setting the bombs because himmler and guring were not in attendance it gave stauffenberg the opportunity of a dress rehearsal [Music] he saw that the chance of activating the bomb in the furore bunker itself was slim he would have to break the fuses somewhere else preferably in caitl's office complex he also saw that the distance between the two buildings was about 400 meters which would take around 10 minutes on foot a 10 minute fuse wouldn't do he would need 30-minute fuses on the morning of the 20th of july 1944 a heinkel 111 carrying stauffenberg and von haeften arrived at rastenberg the small airport serving wolfshanser security was tight major herbert books remembers the mood at the fuhrer headquarters in the east the situation was extremely critical also the weather was very hot and the humidity high conditions that hitler didn't like the overall mood in the vulchanza was tense [Music] i didn't know that my husband was going to try the assassination himself he did tell me that in case the attempt should fail i shouldn't try to be loyal to him the most important thing was he said that one of us should survive to look after the children stauffenberg sat down for breakfast joining him was captain von murlindorf adjutant to the wolfshansa commander shortly after 11 o'clock accompanied by von heefden stauffenberg proceeded to the office of wilhelm keitel in preparation for the presentation to the furore here stauffenberg received some disturbing news the conference would not take place in the bunker as usual but in a wooden building reinforced with concrete known as the laga baraka or situation room keital was then told that the briefing had been rescheduled for 12 30 pm given the pending visit of mussolini he decided that they should get over to the conference room as soon as possible the bomb had to be activated immediately stauffenberg asked if he could change his shirt von friend took the officers to a nearby bedroom once inside the room hefton and stauffenberg feverishly began to activate the bomb stauffenberg used a special pair of pliers to squeeze the casings of the british fuse haefden then took the fuse to insert it into the bomb at that moment vos tried to open the door to tell stauffenberg of a phone call von haeften had just finished activating the first bomb but the second fuse hadn't been crushed keital was impatient and told stouffenberg to hurry they'd run out of time one bomb would have to do [Music] von friend offered to carry staffenberg's briefcase stauffenberg refused i want to sit as close to the furore as possible he said my hearing is very bad when they reached the conference room hitler was listening to a report by general adolf hirsinger a friend of trescos and the only general in the room who was aware that a plot to kill hitler was brilliant to hirsinger's right were colonel heich brandt colonel rudolph schmundt a senior adjutant [Music] colonel heinrich borgman of the vermont and a stenographer berger as well as other officers to hitler's left were general alfred yodel chief of the operations staff and his deputy general varmant neither goering nor himmler were present but stauffenberg knew he must proceed von friend stepped forward and asked oberst von braun to move aside so that stauffenberg could be closer to hitler [Music] with the bomb in place stauffenberg told von friend that he had to make a phone call and left faithfully brandt moved back into his old spot once outside stauffenberg quickly made his way out of the funeral zone to the adjutant's building where he knew general fell keeper would be waiting for him [Music] back in the conference room hewsinger's presentation continued the seconds ticked by [Music] glass and wood splinters shot through the air the large table on which all the situation maps were spread collapsed after a few seconds of silence i had a voice saying where is the fuhrer [Music] in the turmoil that followed stauffenberg and von heftham made their escape as they passed the site of the situation barracks stauffenberg saw a corpse covered with hitler's long trench coat being carried out on a stretcher at the first security ring and later at the second checkpoint they were allowed to proceed the valve shutter commandant had ordered a complete lockdown at the last checkpoint schtaufenberg was stopped [Music] he decided to call the commander himself by coincidence he was put through to captain von murlindorf the officer with whom he had had breakfast earlier that morning von mullendorf gave him the go-ahead to leave the compound on the way to the airport von hepthan opened his briefcase and threw the second bomb into the woods [Music] their heinkel took off at 1 15 pm back in wolfshunsen fell gibble noticed that something was very wrong a rumor was going around that hitler was very much alive and only slightly injured although a communications blackout was in effect the news reached bentley strasse that the plot may have failed general albrecht decided to wait with launching valkyrie until stauffenberg could report in person when stauffenberg landed in berlin he found that nothing had been done precious hours had been wasted during which the conspirators had had the element of surprise general fromm commander of the home army refused to activate plan valkyrie he said that he had just spoken with kaitlyn and was told that the fuhrer was very much alive stauffenberg thought he had seen hitler's corpse with his own eyes and that the news from volcanzer was a trick anxious to wash his hands of the entire affair from ordered all the conspirators to be placed under arrest but stauffenberg put from under arrest instead together with albrecht and metz von kvenheim staffenberg frantically began to issue the telex orders to the various army units urging them to move to their assigned locations in paris all went according to plan my father went ahead and arrested all the major people of the ss and the gestapo in paris and then they had the problem to solve because the general field marshal klugel who was the head of the military in france he had known about the resistance but he had not definitely decided and then there's that famous word kluge that's very often cited gentlemen as long as that pig lives i cannot and you know that gloogal committed suicide just four weeks after that so my father and stood and ugly went back to paris and they had to open the prison doors the clatter of typewriters in the bendlesstruster came to a halt when radio berlin issued a communique there had been an attempt on the fuhrer's life but hitler was alive and would speak on the radio shortly not one but a sequence of events had doomed the conspiracy the first factor was van phian's decision to place stauffenberg to the right of hitler next to husinga when later brandt kicked his foot against the briefcase he moved it to the right of the wooden post which then served to shield hitler from the blast had stealthenberg been placed to hitler's left it is possible that the blast would have injured hitler far more severely even fatally [Music] significantly all of the officers killed in the blast were standing to the right of the briefcase bomb unshielded by any of the wooden posts the second setback was the phone call from felgibl compounded by titles and patients which prevented the activation of the second bomb schtaufenberg had been able to place both bombs in the conference room the likelihood is that hitler would have been killed but the most important factor was the decision to move the meeting from the bunker to the wooden conference room had the bomb exploded within the concrete confines of the bunker the blast would have been contained and everyone in the room would have been killed hitler was convinced that he had been saved by providence shaking hands with his left arm since his right arm was hurt in the explosion he proudly welcomed his guest italy's ex-dictator benito mussolini [Music] as hitler showed mussolini the ruins of the barracks he said you see there's nothing left of it and yet i got out without a scratch in truth he had injured his shoulder so he put his right hand between the buttons of his tunic like napoleon until then everyone was convinced that it must have been one of the laborers working on the barracks but the sudden disappearance of stoutenberg put things in an entirely different light by that evening hitler knew that a clique of army officers had been responsible [Music] back in berlin the final act had begun major aimer who had defied von haase's orders had arranged his troops around the bentleystrasser soon thereafter reima's forces were relieved by the ss valkyrie was lost [Music] from was released and promptly ordered the conspirators to be placed under arrest eager to cover up his complicity from decided to dispose of the conspirators immediately so that none of them could implicate him in the investigation that was sure to follow stauffenberg hefton albrecht and quernheim were summarily condemned to death an execution detail was formed lit by the headlights of ss vehicles they were then marched to the courtyard of the bentley block at the same time hitler was making his radio address from wolfshanzer [Music] foreign long live our sacred germany [Music] it was 1am on the morning of the 21st of july 1944 [Music] fate had perhaps been merciful to klaus von stauffenberg many other senior officers were not so lucky the attempt convinced hitler that the vermont leadership could not be trusted he launched a purge of the officer corps and used the shock of the attack to also round up all the surviving members of the old opposition in the reichstag [Music] those officers who had been injured or killed by the bomb were hailed as heroes hitler went in person to the rastenburg hospital to pay his respects to them [Music] hitler ordered a series of show trials in the volks gerichtzhof or people's court presided over by a dreaded judge roland freisler high-ranking officers like field marshal von fitzler were forced to wear shabby ill-fitting clothes stripping them of their former dignity [Music] [Music] [Music] from thought seeing everything they breathe the war continued for another 10 months so [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary - History

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full Documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), History, History Documentaries, Free Documentary History, history documentary, 20 July Plot, Adolf Hitler, Assasination, Operation Valkyrie, Claus von Stauffenberg, Erwin von Witzleben, Wolfsschanze, Wolf's Lair, World War II, WWII, Second World War, Bendlerblock Berlin, hitler, Kreisauer Kreis, georg elser, Stauffenberg, German Resistance, Plot to Kill Hitler, Adolf Hitler Assasination

Id: Z9pD7x-yrf0

Length: 47min 28sec (2848 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021