July Plot

In German history, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the dictator Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. Colonel von Stauffenberg planted a bomb under the conference table at Hitler's headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia. Believing that Hitler had been killed, Stauffenberg flew to Berlin to join Field Marshal von Witzleben and General von Beck to proclaim a government headed by resistance leader and former lord mayor of Leipzig Carl Goerdeler. However, in his absence someone moved the briefcase, so Hitler was only slightly injured, though five senior officers were killed. Telephone communications remained intact, counter measures were taken in Berlin by Major Otto Ernst Remer (1912-97), and the conspirators fumbled their coup attempt. Reprisals were savage: the conspirators and their sympathizers were given the choice of committing suicide or being hanged. At least 250 officers died this way, including Field Marshal Rommel, and some 10,000 people were sent to concentration camps.