Tuez Hitler (2015) - full transcript
KILL HITLER!
THE LUCK OF THE DEVIL
Georg Elser,
Henning von Tresckow
Fabian von Schlabrendorff,
Rudolf von Gersdorff
and Claus von Stauffenberg.
A simple workman
and four officers, aristocrats.
Five men
who refused to accept the unacceptable.
Five men of honour.
Five men who wanted to kill Hitler.
What they didn't know
was that Hitler was protected.
By the luck of the Devil.
This is their story.
The Germans troops were singing
when they first
swept across the Russian plains.
Hitler called the tune
as he led Germany
to the brink of world conquest.
He had promised his men victory,
but he gave them hell.
The songs of glory
soon faded in the Russian winter.
And Hitler's insane dreams
vanished in the icy winds.
Hitler is an imbecile and a criminal.
We have to put an end
to this society.
It's not about telling Hitler
the truth.
It's about killing him,
and I'm ready to do it myself.
Is there not a single officer
in Hitler's HQ
who's able to slay this beast?
History may have overlooked them,
but a few determined men,
some of those
who were closest to him,
did try to slay the beast.
After Hitler first seized power in 1933,
more than 30 attempts to eliminate him
failed.
Hitler had the luck of the Devil
on his side.
BERLIN, AUGUST 1934
As the new Chancellor of the Reich,
Hitler gave himself the title
of "Führer of the German people".
"The guide".
He also declared himself
to be the supreme chief of the army.
And it was to him that soldiers
had to swear obedience and loyalty.
The army and its officers
were bound to Hitler personally.
We were all very ill at ease,
because according
to proper Prussian military tradition,
we had sworn allegiance to a man
who was a foreigner to us,
and utterly despicable.
But who could have guess that Hitler
would use our oath
to entrap us within criminal factions?
Rare were the officers
such as Baron von Gersdorff
who disapproved of the Nazis' methods.
In the late 1930's,
Hitler was adored
by almost 90% of his fellow citizens.
The rest remained silent
or were in prison.
But millions
formed an ardent swastika
around their Führer.
In Munich, one man decided to act.
His name was Johann Georg Elser.
A skilled carpenter
and a communist sympathizer,
Elser worked in his workshop
for three months,
preparing a bomb.
Conditions in Germany
could only change
with the elimination
of the powers that be.
By the powers,
I mean the superiors.
I mean Hitler, Goering
and Goebbels.
I was convinced
that the elimination of these three men
would enable others
to enter government,
and help
to improve the social conditions
of the working classes.
Elser was not alone.
General Beck, chief of the General Staff,
along with several fellow officers,
was also preparing a putsch
against the Führer they despised.
Hitler forced them to resign,
and after Austria and Czechoslovakia,
he launched his troops against Poland
on September 1st, 1939.
Nothing could resist the German armies,
as Stukas inaugurated
the first terror attacks on Warsaw.
It was a full-scale dress rehearsal,
where the first victims were civilians.
In Munich,
Elser continued his preparations,
now the only man who could stop Hitler.
I learned the next meeting
the leaders would attend
was to be held on November 8th and 9th
at the Bürgerbräukeller.
I left the smaller hall,
where I almost always sat
at the same place,
and went through the dressing-room
into the main hall,
which was never locked.
I hid in a storeroom near the exit,
the door of which
was hidden by a large screen.
After dining at the beer hall,
and finding a way to be locked inside,
Georg Elser spent 35 nights
preparing a hiding place for his bomb
in a pillar near the lectern
where Hitler would give his speech.
Finally, on November 6th,
he installed the bomb in the cavity,
setting the timing mechanism
for the device
to explode on November the 8th
between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m.
On the evening of November 8th,
Hitler boarded his private plane
and headed for Munich.
He was one of the first politicians
to prefer flying to the train,
as it allowed him
to speak at several places
in a single day.
The plane was tailor-made
for security and comfort.
And Hitler was able to work
on his legendary speeches.
...for we are a powerful nation.
It was not yet eight o'clock
when the Führer
entered the packed Bürgerbräukeller.
He took the stage at 20:08.
He surprisingly ended his speech
at 20:58.
Victory!
Hitler left the room at 21:09.
He seemed to be in a hurry
and preoccupied.
Hans Bauer, his pilot,
had told him the weather conditions
meant he would have to take the train.
For a simple question of timing,
Hitler cut his speech in two,
ruining Georg Elser's
meticulous planning.
The bomb went off at 21:20
as planned,
killing eight people
and injuring 63 others.
Hitler was on his way to Berlin.
Barely an hour later,
investigators discovered the remains
of a home-made bomb.
The explosive was of a type
used in quarries,
and the timer
was made from clock parts.
This information
greatly facilitated the investigation
and the very next day, November 9th,
it was all over.
Georg Elser was arrested
as he attempted
to cross the Swiss border.
My only considerations
involved ways
in which the lot of the working classes
could be improved,
and war avoided.
I was encouraged by no one.
And I was never influenced
by anyone else, in any way.
I never heard conversations
of a similar nature.
I never heard Radio Moscow
say that the German government
and regime
had to be overturned.
I did it so that no more blood
would be spilled.
I acted alone
and was encouraged by no one.
I never doubted the worthiness
of my action.
For the German authorities,
it was unthinkable that a single man,
a man of the people,
could have come so close
to succeeding.
The press published photos
of two British agents
who were said to have attempted
to assassinate the Führer
with Elser's help.
It was pure propaganda.
Georg Elser, the loner,
was sent to a prison camp,
to await a trial intended
to denounce the role of the British.
Without a change in the weather,
Hitler should have died.
And the future of the world
may have been very different.
Elser's failed attack
was a boon for the Führer.
He was able to say that he was
protected by divine Providence.
Soon after the funerals
of the victims of the attack,
a report drawn up
by the SS's intelligence service, the SD,
noted:
"The assassination attempt in Munich
has greatly
strengthened the notion of solidarity
among the population.
And love for the Führer has intensified."
Despite the reticence of his staff,
it was time for Hitler
to attack Western Europe.
Hitler detested the generals
who resisted him.
On May 10th 1940,
he sent his troops
to attack Holland, Belgium and France.
Reputed to be the best in the world,
the French army was swept aside
in barely five weeks.
Audacious German planning
and the brutality of the Blitzkrieg
overcame the French forces,
betrayed by defective leadership.
The French government capitulated.
The appalling defeat was consummated
with marshall Pétain's request
for an armistice on June 20th.
For Adolf Hitler, victory was total.
General Keitel,
chief of the Supreme Command,
now called Hitler
"Grösster Feldherr aller Zeiten".
The greatest natural leader
of all time.
Hitler's insane wager had paid off.
He was now the master of France
and of Europe.
For the conquering hero,
it was time to explore his new domain.
On June 23rd 1940,
at six o'clock in the morning,
Hitler made a lightning tour of Paris,
escorted by cameramen
from the propaganda department.
The Arc de Triomphe,
the Opera, Madeleine,
the Invalides and Napoleon's tomb,
and finally, the Trocadero esplanade,
where Hitler posed for the cameras
before the Eiffel Tower.
A few months later,
officers under field-marshall
Erwin von Witzleben
planned to kill Hitler during a parade
down the Champs-Élysées.
But Hitler never set foot in Paris again.
With the war won in the West,
Hitler turned back to the East.
It was time to attack the Soviet Union,
or the Judeo-Bolshevik empire,
as he called it.
On June 22nd 1941, at dawn,
Operation Barbarossa began.
Hitler sent 125 divisions
against the Soviet Union.
Preceded by thousands of planes
which devastated Soviet defences
in just a few hours,
three huge armies with 5 million men
and 4,300 tanks
swept over the Red Army,
heading north toward Leningrad,
east toward Moscow,
and south toward the Ukrain grain belt
and the Caucasus oilfields.
The greatest military invasion
of all time.
A warfaring of steamroller.
Leningrad
was soon within artillery range.
Moscow,
less than a hundred kilometres away,
and Kiev, already captured.
Nothing could stop Hitler
from expanding his lebensraum,
or living space.
Red Army losses were colossal.
Millions of prisoners were taken,
few of whom
would survive the Nazis' barbarism.
At the Wehrmacht HQ,
marshall Keitel handed out orders
to his officers.
A license to kill.
Permission to assassinate.
The most frightful document
landed on my desk.
It bore Hitler's signature
and ordered that any commissar
or political leader from the Red Army
who came into our hands
should be delivered
to the Security Services
in order to be eliminated
or shot in situ.
The war was already brutal.
And led by Hitler,
it would only get worse.
Every Wehrmacht unit
was to be followed up by an SS group,
the Einsatzgruppen,
entrusted with "mopping up" operations.
Savage arrests, mass assassinations
and executions.
No holds were barred.
And they enjoyed total impunity,
beyond all jurisdiction.
Their victims were communists,
and above all, the Jews.
We are soldiers.
Not assassins.
As long as I am
Chief Operation Officer
at the Army Group Centre,
there will be no execution
of political agents or prisoners.
May such things
never be allowed to happen.
We must act now.
In hundreds of years,
the world will still remember
what we have done.
People were made to undress,
dig their own graves,
and wait for the coup de grace.
Almost a million men, women
and children were slaughtered
in what history has called
"the holocaust by bullets".
The men who govern us, in my view,
are nothing more
than common criminals.
Their unlawful methods,
employed both within the Reich
and in conquered territories,
are unworthy of a civilised country.
They dishonour Germany
and lead it towards its ruin.
Schlabrendorff was adjutant
to colonel Henning von Tresckow
at the Army Group Centre HQ.
Von Tresckow
would formed a group of allies,
all prepared to eliminate Hitler.
Numerous attempts were made.
All of them failed.
Hitler's security was reinforced
and his schedule and movements
kept secret.
Schmundt, Hitler's chief of staff,
had told me
that all of Hitler's vital organs
were protected from small arms' fire
by an effective bulletproof vest
and that his cap
was lined with a metal plate.
The world held its breath
when German and Soviet forces
faced off at Stalingrad,
between July 1942
and February 1943.
The battle of Stalingrad
was the bloodiest
and most costly in human lives
in all military history.
Six months of combat.
2 million dead.
Stalingrad became a symbol.
Hitler forbade his troops
from taking one step back.
Surrounded, overwhelmed,
and beaten by the Soviets,
the cold and hunger,
on February 2nd 1943,
more than 90,000 German soldiers
surrendered.
Including 2,500 officers,
24 generals,
and a marshall,
Friedrich von Paulus.
Stalingrad put an end
to the myth of Hitler's invincibility.
In the aftermath of the Stalingrad defeat,
many officers realised
they had been duped by a mad man.
Despite their oath of allegiance,
some considered
turning against their master, the Führer.
At his headquarters in Smolensk,
colonel Henning von Tresckow
was waiting to take action.
ARMY GROUP CENTER HEADQUARTERS
We had learned
that Hitler was planning
to visit Kluge's command post.
The opportunity was too good to miss.
I believed that the highest German
military authorities
were incapable
of initiating a coup d'État
They would only follow orders.
In order to act quickly,
I therefore decided
to take the first steps myself.
There was absolutely no alternative
if we wanted to maintain our dignity
ad self-respect.
It had to be done.
We dealt with the final preparations
ourselves.
Tresckow
had envisaged the following strategy:
to be sure of the effect,
we favoured not one,
but two explosive devices.
We made a package
that resembled the shape
of two bottles of cognac.
Then we had to rig the package
so that it would be possible
to set off the detonator
without damaging the box.
Two identical Condors
from Eastern Prussia
were preparing to land.
Security precautions meant that no one
knew which plane Hitler was on.
The convoy was escorted by fighters.
Halt! Get your rifles ready!
The Führer spent the morning
in meetings with his staff.
Lunch was served in the officer's mess.
Rifles down!
At ease.
At table, we had to put up
with Hitler's good mood,
as he was pleased
to be among real soldiers.
The Führer
had brought his personal cook
and the doctor
entrusted in tasting his food.
Hitler trusted no one.
12 food tasters
were at his service.
And his personal SS guard,
cooks and doctor,
accompanied him everywhere.
Hunched over his plate,
with his elbows on the table,
and only sitting up straight
to take a swig from his glass,
he was a contemptible sight.
...a German city.
We had to act quickly.
The Führer was about to leave.
I therefore approached colonel Brandt,
who was to travel on the same plane.
I casually asked him
if he would take a package for me.
I said I had lost a stupid bet
with colonel Stieff,
from the Army Supreme Command,
and that it'd cost me
two bottles of cognac.
That was my excuse.
Thank you.
Prepare the car!
Car is ready.
...from this city
to a renowned place...
Attention!
Colonel Brandt
agreed to transport the package.
All Schlabrendorff had to do
was to prime the bomb.
-Brandt !
-Departure!
Thank you.
Relieved,
and certain their duty was done,
Tresckow and Schlabrendorff
watched the Führer's convoy F200
take off.
Hoping it was destined for Hell.
We were aware that Hitler's plane
had a special security system.
It was composed
of several separate cells.
Hitler's place was armoured
and designed to enable
an immediate escape by parachute.
In our opinion, the explosive charge
had to be sufficient
to blow up the whole plane.
If, against all expectations,
this didn't occur,
the explosion would tear apart
such a considerable part of the fuselage
that the plane, in any event,
would crash to the ground.
Accompanied by its twin,
another fighter escort,
Hitler's plane set course for Berlin.
Colonel Brandt was unaware
he had smuggled a bomb
on board his leader's aircraft.
SELLING FORBIDDEN
Back at HQ in Smolensk,
nerves were fraught
as they waited by the radio.
The explosion was to take place
after 30 minutes,
when, according to our calculations,
the plane would not be far from Minsk.
At any moment,
we were hoping to receive a message
from one of the fighters
escorting the Führer's plane,
saying it had exploded.
But we heard nothing.
Finally, after two hours,
a routine message arrived from Berlin,
saying that after an inspection visit
on the eastern front,
Hitler had safely returned to Berlin
and reached his headquarters
at the appointed time.
So we had to face the facts.
As incredible as it may seem,
our attempt had failed.
Tresckow and myself
were literally stunned.
For the two conspirators,
it was vital to recover the package
that could seal their fate.
Schlabrendorff flew to Berlin
with real bottles of cognac
and exchanged them,
explaining to colonel Brandt
that a mistake had been made.
Schlabrendorff and von Tresckow
would soon
find another opportunity
to use their bombs.
A remembrance ceremony
at the military museum
was planned
to celebrate Heroes' Memorial Day,
Heldengedentag.
It was a fine opportunity.
According to the schedule,
the Führer was going to attend,
accompanied by Heinrich Himmler
and Hermann Goering.
Any of us
who was determined to kill Hitler
had to be prepared
to sacrifice his own life.
At the Zeughaus, the old arsenal,
on Unter den Linden,
Hitler
was welcomed by Hermann Goering,
General Keitel
and Heinrich Himmler.
My friend, colonel von Gersdorff,
after a few moments' thought,
said to me:
"I will carry out this mission.
I will do it.
For the country's salvation."
As every year,
the ceremony began with a concert
in the court of honour.
On the programme this year:
"Bruckner's 7th symphony".
I suggested that the volunteer
who agreed to carry out the attack
should place a bomb
in each of his coat sleeves,
trigger the detonator
at just the right moment,
then position himself
as close as possible to the Führer.
In this way,
the man
prepared to sacrifice his own life
would at least have the greatest chance
of attaining the objective.
After the concert,
Hitler was to visit the museum,
to inspect trophies and weapons
taken from the Soviets.
Colonel Gersdorff
was to act as his guide.
In order to be able to salute
with his right arm,
Gerdorff placed only a single bomb
in his left sleeve.
After triggering the chemical detonator,
he would need 15 minutes to act.
At that point,
Gersdorff who be close to Hitler
and the mission would be accomplished.
When the Führer
entered the exhibition hall,
general Schmundt,
Hitler's aide-de-camp,
came up to me
and told me that the Führer
would only be spending five minutes
to inspect the trophies.
It was therefore
no longer possible physically
to carry out the plan,
as I needed at least ten minutes.
Five minutes.
The longest five minutes
in Gersdorff's life.
He had accepted the ultimate sacrifice,
to blow himself up with the dictator.
Hitler barely glanced at the trophies.
He raced around the exhibition
in less than ten minutes.
The visit was over.
Hitler seemed in a hurry.
As if sensing danger.
And to his staff's surprise,
he left the building.
Intact.
The detonator was triggered,
but had no time to take effect.
Gersdorff just had time
to rush to the restroom
and defuse the deadly device.
Gersdorff was safe and sound,
but the mission had failed.
The second failure within a week.
Unaware of the mortal danger
he had avoided,
Hitler was now greeting the troops
assembled in his honour
along Unter den Linden.
In the weeks that followed,
the Führer would emerge unscathed
from two further assassination attempts.
As Germany was losing the war
on the eastern front,
the Allies
prepared the Normandy landings.
Hitler rewarded general Rommel
for his exploits with the Afrika Corps
with his marshall's baton.
Erwin Rommel
was one of the most popular figures
in the Nazis' film propaganda.
For the Germans, he was an icon.
Tresckow
and the anti-Hitler Wehrmacht officers
longed for the support of a man
Germany loved and would follow.
But Rommel,
like many high-ranking officers,
felt he had to respect
the oath he had sworn to his Führer.
In the winter of 43-44,
Hitler sent Rommel, his favourite officer,
to strengthen the Atlantic wall,
the defence system
intended to prevent landings
on the French coast.
The wall would fall.
The Allies were expected,
and indeed arrived,
as Rommel himself had predicted.
"The landings
will take place in Normandy
and that day will be the longest day."
On June 6th 1944,
1,213 warships,
736 support ships,
864 cargo vessels
and 4,126 barges and landing crafts
landed 20,000 vehicles
and 156,000 men
on the beaches of Normandy.
The Allies set foot in France
and nothing could have stopped them
on their march towards Berlin.
Rommel knew the battle was lost
and even wanted
to negotiate a separate peace
with the Allies.
Montgomery from Britain,
Eisenhower from the USA.
German resistants
had sounded Rommel out,
but he hesitated,
knowing that an attempt was to be made
on Hitler's life.
Perhaps he sympathized
with the conspiracy,
but he imposed his own conditions.
Hitler should be arrested and tried.
He was
resolutely opposed to assassination.
July 17th,
and as usual, Rommel was
inspecting his troops on the front.
As ever, adjutant Daniel was driving,
as captain Elmut Lang
watched the skies.
Allied planes were everywhere.
It was almost impossible
to move around.
But Rommel didn't care.
The Desert Fox had seen worse.
It was five p.m. when a Spitfire patrol
spotted Rommel's car
on the road to Vimoutiers.
Two enemy aircrafts approaching.
They are on their way to attack us.
The two pilots decided to descend
and strafe the vehicle.
Captain Lang saw the planes
bearing down on them.
It was too late to seek shelter.
Rommel ordered Daniel to accelerate
and to take evasive action.
The long straight road
offered no safe haven
and the car
was already in the fighters' sights.
Machine guns crackled
and bullets ripped through the car.
Daniel was hit and killed instantly.
The car skidded and spun
and hurtled into a ditch.
The fighters were already
soaring into the clouds above.
Rommel lay on the Normandy grass,
with a severe head wound.
For Stauffenberg, von Tresckow
and the resistance,
it was an irredeemable loss.
They were deprived from the most popular
and competent officer
who could have rallied to the cause.
The generals have achieved nothing.
So now it is up to the colonels to act.
As officers, it's our duty
to save Germany.
We've accepted that challenge
before God, in our consciences.
It has to be done.
Because that man, Hitler,
is pure evil.
The 20th of July 1944
was destined to be the big day.
In Berlin, colonel von Stauffenberg
and his aide-de-camp,
Werner von Haeften,
set off for the Wolf's Lair
near Rastenburg.
In his bags,
Stauffenberg had two bombs.
The same bombs that had been used
for the failed attacks
in Smolensk and Berlin.
A colonel and a count
from an old Prussian aristocracy,
von Stauffenberg
was one of the military nobles
who had
welcomed Hitler's rise to power.
He was a brilliant officer
and served under Rommel
in North Africa.
In 1943, he was seriously wounded
and lost an eye, his right hand
and two fingers of his left hand.
His long convalescence
was a period of painful soul-searching.
His conscience and sense of honour
led him to act.
He joined the resistance
led by von Tresckow.
His appointment to the Army HQ
made him a valuable asset,
as he could approach Hitler regularly.
It was he who brought to the Führer
the version of Operation Valkyrie
that had been modified
by general Olbricht,
colonel Tresckow and himself.
As usual, Hitler signed the documents
without reading them.
The trap was set,
as the modified plans
enabled those who possessed them
to take control of Berlin, if need be.
Kill Hitler, launch Operation Valkyrie,
and set up a new government.
Germany's fate now rested
on colonel von Stauffenberg's knees.
After a flight of two and a half hours,
Stauffenberg and von Haeften
arrived at the Wolf's Lair.
Lieutenant, sir.
Your ID, please.
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
11:30 AM
Open the gate.
Go on.
Before them stood Hitler's bunker.
It was behind these thick concrete walls
that strategy meetings
usually took place.
And it was here that Stauffenberg
wanted to strike.
The concrete would
intensify the blast from the explosion,
making it an ideal location.
However, because of the heat,
and reconstruction work,
Hitler had decided to hold the meeting
in one of the barracks.
-Heil my Führer.
-First Lieutenant Stauffenberg.
Lieutenant.
Cowards have no place
on this earth.
12:20.
After greeting Hitler and his staff,
Stauffenberg
asked for permission to freshen up
and change his clothes,
as the heat was stifling.
Hitler and his entourage headed
for the barrack's conference room.
In a further blow to Stauffenberg,
the meeting
had been brought forward an hour,
due to a visit from Mussolini
that afternoon.
I asked to get to the washroom.
It was very hot.
And my very visible war wounds
meant that no one asked any questions.
The conference room would be less likely
to intensify the explosion
than the underground bunker.
So it seemed more prudent
to prime both explosive devices.
Von Haeften handed me the briefcase
containing the bombs.
We placed two detonators
in the explosives.
And I began to set the first timer.
Coming!
-Lieutenant?
-Yes!
Suddenly, I heard someone
calling me through the door.
-First Lieutenant Stauffenberg?
-Just a second!
There was a call for me
from general Fellgiebel.
It's urgent.
The first charge was set.
There was no time for the second.
It was in von Haeften's briefcase.
Only one bomb. Never mind.
It should be enough.
12:25.
Around 20 Reich dignitaries
and generals
gathered in the room around Hitler.
Marshall Keitel presented a report
on the situation in the East.
Hitler followed attentively,
studying troops positions on maps.
At 12:30, Stauffenberg
sat down at the end of the table
to the Führer's right.
He greeted his neighbour,
colonel Heinz Brandt,
and placed his briefcase
under the table.
-May I leave my briefcase here?
-Of course.
I put my briefcase on the floor,
under the table.
Next to colonel Brandt's foot.
I told him I was leaving it there
for a moment,
as I had an urgent call
to make to Berlin.
No one was surprised,
as all the officers
at this type of meeting
are very busy
and there were lots of calls
to be made to the front.
That was it.
Everything was in place.
It was merely a question of time.
I found a new excuse to leave the room.
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
12:40 PM
-I have a call to make.
-Go ahead.
The briefcase was in Brandt's way
and he moved it,
planted it against the thick pillar
that supported the heavy oak table.
With this casual but faithful gesture,
colonel Brandt unintentionally
deflected the blast
away from Hitler.
It's time.
I'll wait for you.
12:40.
Stauffenberg had left the building.
It was only a matter of time.
I felt the blast on my cheeks.
Hitler was dead.
No one
could have survive such an explosion.
-General, where's the Führer?
-Alert!
-Alert!
-The Führer is in the shack!
The conference room was blown apart.
There was total confusion
as guards and soldiers rushed
to remove the wounded
from the wreckage.
Call for help!
Where's the rescue team?
Stauffenberg
was convinced that Hitler was dead.
He saw his body on a stretcher.
My back!
12:47.
Stauffenberg and von Haeften
rushed to their car.
They had to reach Berlin
as soon as possible.
Clear the road!
The conspirators
believed their accomplices
had cut all communication
between the Wolf's Lair and Berlin.
But in their haste,
a number of possibilities
had been overlooked.
Contradictory reports
were already circulating.
At 1:15, Claus von Stauffenberg
took off from the aerodrome,
heading for Berlin.
For him, the operation was a success.
Hitler was dead.
In Berlin, the sealed orders
for Operation Valkyrie
had been distributed
and provisional government
formed by general Beck.
But nothing was to go as planned.
Co-conspirators general Olbricht
and colonel Quirnheim
were waiting for confirmation
to launch the operation.
Three precious hours were lost
before Stauffenberg landed
and told them that Hitler was dead.
At four p.m., Operation Valkyrie
was launched at last.
All the officers mobilised for Valkyrie
had received a sealed envelope
containing brief orders.
All the heads of the SS
were to be arrested immediately
and their men disarmed.
As well as Goering, Bormann,
Himmler and Goebbels.
But nothing was to go as planned.
Suddenly,
towards the end of the afternoon,
a voice rang out
from every loudspeaker in the city.
The Führer's.
"A very small clique
of ambitious and unscrupulous officers
formed a conspiracy
to do away with me."
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
4:00 PM
Hitler was alive and kicking.
He put on a new uniform
to welcome his friend Mussolini
at the station,
only hours after the explosion.
Hitler told Il Duce:
"I regard this
as a confirmation of the task
imposed upon me by Providence.
Nothing is going to happen to me.
Everything
can be brought to a good end."
A misplaced briefcase,
a solid table leg,
wooden walls that absorbed the blast,
and a few minutes for Stauffenberg
to prime the second bomb.
Those were the reasons
for Hitler's miraculous escape.
As Hitler said goodbye to Mussolini,
reprisals were already well underway
in Berlin.
And they would be brutal.
Major Otto Remer,
the guard regiment commander,
had been ordered to arrest Goebbels.
Goebbels phoned Hitler,
who then spoke to Remer,
proving he was alive.
The hunt for the insurgents began
and Operation Valkyrie was doomed.
...until we emerge victorious!
That evening, general Olbricht,
colonel von Quirnheim,
lieutenant von Haeften
and colonel von Stauffenberg
were arrested and sentenced to death
without trial, by general Fromm.
GENERAL FRIEDRICH FROMM
Fighting for his own survival,
Fromm betrayed his fellow conspirators.
The witnesses to his collaboration
had to disappear.
Take aim!
Close to midnight,
Stauffenberg and his friends
were executed.
Fire!
They were initially
given a soldier's burial
with their uniforms and medals.
But Hitler, furious,
had their bodies dug up,
stripped of their medals and cremated.
For count Henning von Tresckow,
recently promoted general,
the soul and brain
behind the resistance to Hitler,
it was time to make his will.
To protect his wife Erika
and their children,
he decided to disguise his suicide
as an ambush.
Numerous Russian partisans
in the forests
made frequent raids.
On July 21st,
despite the morning mist,
it was a fine day in Ostrow,
on the eastern front.
In his parting words, Tresckow said:
"He who can keep his childhood dreams
alive and pure,
who can preserve them in his bare,
defenceless heart,
who, despite the world's mockery,
dares to live
as he dreamed as a child,
until his final days,
then, he is a man.
A true, complete man.
The whole world will attack
and vilify us now.
But as ever,
I am still totally convinced
that we did the right thing.
Hitler was the archenemy,
not only of Germany,
but of the entire world.
When, in few hours' time,
I go before God
to account for what I have done,
and left undone,
I know I will be able
to justify what I did
in the struggle against Hitler.
In the same way that God
promised Abraham
that he would not destroy Sodom
if just ten righteous men
could be found in the city,
I hope that for our sake,
out of respect for us,
God will not destroy Germany.
I would have liked for you
to witness my death.
I have no wish to allow my enemies
to take me from this life.
Farewell.
We shall meet again in a better place."
In civilian clothes,
stripped of their rank and discharged,
the conspirators appeared in court.
There would be a single verdict
for them all. Death.
The court
was presided by judge Roland Freisler,
already responsible
for sentencing thousands of Germans
to death
for opposing the regime.
Almost 200 of them
would be sentenced to death,
including a marshall,
19 generals,
26 colonels,
two ambassadors, seven diplomats,
one minister,
three secretaries of state,
and the Reich's chief of police.
Hitler said he wanted
to see their bodies
hung up like slabs of meat
on butcher's hooks.
To make the hangings more painful,
and above all slower,
the hemp rope
was replaced by piano wire.
And for the Führer's personal pleasure,
the executions were filmed.
Death was not immediate.
The agony could go on for 20 minutes.
The reels of film were taken each night
to Hitler's headquarters.
A bill for 500 Reichsmarks
was sent to each of the families
by the Berlin administration.
125 Reichsmarks
was set aside for the hangman's wages.
Now!
On October 18th 1944,
Hitler offered a state funeral
to his favourite field marshall,
Erwin Rommel.
In his eulogy,
marshall von Runstedt said:
"His heart belonged to the Führer."
But only four days previously,
at midday,
two generals
had arrived at Rommel's home
to propose a rather sinister deal.
During the post-Valkyrie investigation,
Rommel's name
was said to have been mentioned
during interrogations.
Hitler therefore ordered
that Rommel
should face the ignominy of a trial,
or commit suicide, with honour,
and the guarantee that nothing
would happen to his family.
After kissing his wife
and his son, Manfred,
Rommel
climbed on board the generals' car.
Five minutes later,
he swallowed to cyanide capsules.
The Germans' greatest military hero
had just officially died
from an embolism.
Hitler had threatened
to unleash a storm on the world.
But now, it was over Germany
that his storm raged.
Since his failed attack at the beerhall,
on November 8th, 1939,
Georg Elser had been locked up.
He was known as "the secret prisoner"
or "Hitler's prisoner".
At the Dachau concentration camp,
on April 9th 1945,
on orders from the Führer himself,
two SS officers
shot Elser in his cell.
20 days later,
American forces liberated the camp.
20 days too late
to save the man who tried to kill Hitler.
On April 21st 1945,
the first Soviet shells fell on Berlin.
Two million more would follow them.
In an attempt
to stop the Soviets' T34 tanks,
arms were distributed to old men
and young boys.
Hitler's last army
was made up of children
not yet 12 years old.
After saluting them,
and sending them to their deaths,
Hitler returned to his bunker.
He would not leave it again alive.
The battle of Berlin
raged for more than ten days.
A bitter desperate fight.
But the Soviets were irresistible.
Losses on both sides were appalling.
2,000 Soviets tanks
were rendered ineffective,
some by unarmed children.
The city had no intention
of surrendering to the Russians.
But it was too late.
The Reich,
due to last for thousand years,
collapsed.
At one o'clock in the morning,
on April 29th 1945,
Hitler's mistress of 13 years,
Eva Braun,
finally married her Fürher
at a short ceremony.
The witnesses
were Goebbels and Bormann,
assisted by a Nazi civil official.
The guests shared some sparkling wine
with the newlyweds.
Eva Braun, delighted,
was now Frau Hitler.
Around three o'clock in the morning,
Hitler dictated his private will
to his secretary.
Three typed pages,
where he announced:
"I myself and my wife,
in order to escape the disgrace
of deposition or capitulation,
choose death.
It is our wish
to be burnt immediately."
April 30th.
The red flag flies over the Reichstag.
At 3:30 p.m., Hitler retires to his room
with his wife Eva.
She has chosen poison,
he fires a bullet into his temple.
At 3:50,
the two bodies are taken outside.
200 litres of petrol are poured over them
and ignited.
Many people wanted to kill Hitler,
but he died by his own hand.
When he wanted and where he wanted.
In the heart of his capital city, Berlin.
War is madness.
We have to prevent it.
The key figure is Hitler.
He has to be killed.
The world has to be saved
from the greatest criminal of all time.
We have to kill him.
Like a mad dog.
Threatening all humanity.
They were guided by their courage
and their honour.
Tresckow, Schlabrendorff,
Gerstorff, Stauffenberg,
Elser.
They all wanted to kill Hitler.
They all failed.
If but one of these men had succeeded,
millions of lives
could have been saved.
And the history of the world
may have been very different.
THE LUCK OF THE DEVIL
Georg Elser,
Henning von Tresckow
Fabian von Schlabrendorff,
Rudolf von Gersdorff
and Claus von Stauffenberg.
A simple workman
and four officers, aristocrats.
Five men
who refused to accept the unacceptable.
Five men of honour.
Five men who wanted to kill Hitler.
What they didn't know
was that Hitler was protected.
By the luck of the Devil.
This is their story.
The Germans troops were singing
when they first
swept across the Russian plains.
Hitler called the tune
as he led Germany
to the brink of world conquest.
He had promised his men victory,
but he gave them hell.
The songs of glory
soon faded in the Russian winter.
And Hitler's insane dreams
vanished in the icy winds.
Hitler is an imbecile and a criminal.
We have to put an end
to this society.
It's not about telling Hitler
the truth.
It's about killing him,
and I'm ready to do it myself.
Is there not a single officer
in Hitler's HQ
who's able to slay this beast?
History may have overlooked them,
but a few determined men,
some of those
who were closest to him,
did try to slay the beast.
After Hitler first seized power in 1933,
more than 30 attempts to eliminate him
failed.
Hitler had the luck of the Devil
on his side.
BERLIN, AUGUST 1934
As the new Chancellor of the Reich,
Hitler gave himself the title
of "Führer of the German people".
"The guide".
He also declared himself
to be the supreme chief of the army.
And it was to him that soldiers
had to swear obedience and loyalty.
The army and its officers
were bound to Hitler personally.
We were all very ill at ease,
because according
to proper Prussian military tradition,
we had sworn allegiance to a man
who was a foreigner to us,
and utterly despicable.
But who could have guess that Hitler
would use our oath
to entrap us within criminal factions?
Rare were the officers
such as Baron von Gersdorff
who disapproved of the Nazis' methods.
In the late 1930's,
Hitler was adored
by almost 90% of his fellow citizens.
The rest remained silent
or were in prison.
But millions
formed an ardent swastika
around their Führer.
In Munich, one man decided to act.
His name was Johann Georg Elser.
A skilled carpenter
and a communist sympathizer,
Elser worked in his workshop
for three months,
preparing a bomb.
Conditions in Germany
could only change
with the elimination
of the powers that be.
By the powers,
I mean the superiors.
I mean Hitler, Goering
and Goebbels.
I was convinced
that the elimination of these three men
would enable others
to enter government,
and help
to improve the social conditions
of the working classes.
Elser was not alone.
General Beck, chief of the General Staff,
along with several fellow officers,
was also preparing a putsch
against the Führer they despised.
Hitler forced them to resign,
and after Austria and Czechoslovakia,
he launched his troops against Poland
on September 1st, 1939.
Nothing could resist the German armies,
as Stukas inaugurated
the first terror attacks on Warsaw.
It was a full-scale dress rehearsal,
where the first victims were civilians.
In Munich,
Elser continued his preparations,
now the only man who could stop Hitler.
I learned the next meeting
the leaders would attend
was to be held on November 8th and 9th
at the Bürgerbräukeller.
I left the smaller hall,
where I almost always sat
at the same place,
and went through the dressing-room
into the main hall,
which was never locked.
I hid in a storeroom near the exit,
the door of which
was hidden by a large screen.
After dining at the beer hall,
and finding a way to be locked inside,
Georg Elser spent 35 nights
preparing a hiding place for his bomb
in a pillar near the lectern
where Hitler would give his speech.
Finally, on November 6th,
he installed the bomb in the cavity,
setting the timing mechanism
for the device
to explode on November the 8th
between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m.
On the evening of November 8th,
Hitler boarded his private plane
and headed for Munich.
He was one of the first politicians
to prefer flying to the train,
as it allowed him
to speak at several places
in a single day.
The plane was tailor-made
for security and comfort.
And Hitler was able to work
on his legendary speeches.
...for we are a powerful nation.
It was not yet eight o'clock
when the Führer
entered the packed Bürgerbräukeller.
He took the stage at 20:08.
He surprisingly ended his speech
at 20:58.
Victory!
Hitler left the room at 21:09.
He seemed to be in a hurry
and preoccupied.
Hans Bauer, his pilot,
had told him the weather conditions
meant he would have to take the train.
For a simple question of timing,
Hitler cut his speech in two,
ruining Georg Elser's
meticulous planning.
The bomb went off at 21:20
as planned,
killing eight people
and injuring 63 others.
Hitler was on his way to Berlin.
Barely an hour later,
investigators discovered the remains
of a home-made bomb.
The explosive was of a type
used in quarries,
and the timer
was made from clock parts.
This information
greatly facilitated the investigation
and the very next day, November 9th,
it was all over.
Georg Elser was arrested
as he attempted
to cross the Swiss border.
My only considerations
involved ways
in which the lot of the working classes
could be improved,
and war avoided.
I was encouraged by no one.
And I was never influenced
by anyone else, in any way.
I never heard conversations
of a similar nature.
I never heard Radio Moscow
say that the German government
and regime
had to be overturned.
I did it so that no more blood
would be spilled.
I acted alone
and was encouraged by no one.
I never doubted the worthiness
of my action.
For the German authorities,
it was unthinkable that a single man,
a man of the people,
could have come so close
to succeeding.
The press published photos
of two British agents
who were said to have attempted
to assassinate the Führer
with Elser's help.
It was pure propaganda.
Georg Elser, the loner,
was sent to a prison camp,
to await a trial intended
to denounce the role of the British.
Without a change in the weather,
Hitler should have died.
And the future of the world
may have been very different.
Elser's failed attack
was a boon for the Führer.
He was able to say that he was
protected by divine Providence.
Soon after the funerals
of the victims of the attack,
a report drawn up
by the SS's intelligence service, the SD,
noted:
"The assassination attempt in Munich
has greatly
strengthened the notion of solidarity
among the population.
And love for the Führer has intensified."
Despite the reticence of his staff,
it was time for Hitler
to attack Western Europe.
Hitler detested the generals
who resisted him.
On May 10th 1940,
he sent his troops
to attack Holland, Belgium and France.
Reputed to be the best in the world,
the French army was swept aside
in barely five weeks.
Audacious German planning
and the brutality of the Blitzkrieg
overcame the French forces,
betrayed by defective leadership.
The French government capitulated.
The appalling defeat was consummated
with marshall Pétain's request
for an armistice on June 20th.
For Adolf Hitler, victory was total.
General Keitel,
chief of the Supreme Command,
now called Hitler
"Grösster Feldherr aller Zeiten".
The greatest natural leader
of all time.
Hitler's insane wager had paid off.
He was now the master of France
and of Europe.
For the conquering hero,
it was time to explore his new domain.
On June 23rd 1940,
at six o'clock in the morning,
Hitler made a lightning tour of Paris,
escorted by cameramen
from the propaganda department.
The Arc de Triomphe,
the Opera, Madeleine,
the Invalides and Napoleon's tomb,
and finally, the Trocadero esplanade,
where Hitler posed for the cameras
before the Eiffel Tower.
A few months later,
officers under field-marshall
Erwin von Witzleben
planned to kill Hitler during a parade
down the Champs-Élysées.
But Hitler never set foot in Paris again.
With the war won in the West,
Hitler turned back to the East.
It was time to attack the Soviet Union,
or the Judeo-Bolshevik empire,
as he called it.
On June 22nd 1941, at dawn,
Operation Barbarossa began.
Hitler sent 125 divisions
against the Soviet Union.
Preceded by thousands of planes
which devastated Soviet defences
in just a few hours,
three huge armies with 5 million men
and 4,300 tanks
swept over the Red Army,
heading north toward Leningrad,
east toward Moscow,
and south toward the Ukrain grain belt
and the Caucasus oilfields.
The greatest military invasion
of all time.
A warfaring of steamroller.
Leningrad
was soon within artillery range.
Moscow,
less than a hundred kilometres away,
and Kiev, already captured.
Nothing could stop Hitler
from expanding his lebensraum,
or living space.
Red Army losses were colossal.
Millions of prisoners were taken,
few of whom
would survive the Nazis' barbarism.
At the Wehrmacht HQ,
marshall Keitel handed out orders
to his officers.
A license to kill.
Permission to assassinate.
The most frightful document
landed on my desk.
It bore Hitler's signature
and ordered that any commissar
or political leader from the Red Army
who came into our hands
should be delivered
to the Security Services
in order to be eliminated
or shot in situ.
The war was already brutal.
And led by Hitler,
it would only get worse.
Every Wehrmacht unit
was to be followed up by an SS group,
the Einsatzgruppen,
entrusted with "mopping up" operations.
Savage arrests, mass assassinations
and executions.
No holds were barred.
And they enjoyed total impunity,
beyond all jurisdiction.
Their victims were communists,
and above all, the Jews.
We are soldiers.
Not assassins.
As long as I am
Chief Operation Officer
at the Army Group Centre,
there will be no execution
of political agents or prisoners.
May such things
never be allowed to happen.
We must act now.
In hundreds of years,
the world will still remember
what we have done.
People were made to undress,
dig their own graves,
and wait for the coup de grace.
Almost a million men, women
and children were slaughtered
in what history has called
"the holocaust by bullets".
The men who govern us, in my view,
are nothing more
than common criminals.
Their unlawful methods,
employed both within the Reich
and in conquered territories,
are unworthy of a civilised country.
They dishonour Germany
and lead it towards its ruin.
Schlabrendorff was adjutant
to colonel Henning von Tresckow
at the Army Group Centre HQ.
Von Tresckow
would formed a group of allies,
all prepared to eliminate Hitler.
Numerous attempts were made.
All of them failed.
Hitler's security was reinforced
and his schedule and movements
kept secret.
Schmundt, Hitler's chief of staff,
had told me
that all of Hitler's vital organs
were protected from small arms' fire
by an effective bulletproof vest
and that his cap
was lined with a metal plate.
The world held its breath
when German and Soviet forces
faced off at Stalingrad,
between July 1942
and February 1943.
The battle of Stalingrad
was the bloodiest
and most costly in human lives
in all military history.
Six months of combat.
2 million dead.
Stalingrad became a symbol.
Hitler forbade his troops
from taking one step back.
Surrounded, overwhelmed,
and beaten by the Soviets,
the cold and hunger,
on February 2nd 1943,
more than 90,000 German soldiers
surrendered.
Including 2,500 officers,
24 generals,
and a marshall,
Friedrich von Paulus.
Stalingrad put an end
to the myth of Hitler's invincibility.
In the aftermath of the Stalingrad defeat,
many officers realised
they had been duped by a mad man.
Despite their oath of allegiance,
some considered
turning against their master, the Führer.
At his headquarters in Smolensk,
colonel Henning von Tresckow
was waiting to take action.
ARMY GROUP CENTER HEADQUARTERS
We had learned
that Hitler was planning
to visit Kluge's command post.
The opportunity was too good to miss.
I believed that the highest German
military authorities
were incapable
of initiating a coup d'État
They would only follow orders.
In order to act quickly,
I therefore decided
to take the first steps myself.
There was absolutely no alternative
if we wanted to maintain our dignity
ad self-respect.
It had to be done.
We dealt with the final preparations
ourselves.
Tresckow
had envisaged the following strategy:
to be sure of the effect,
we favoured not one,
but two explosive devices.
We made a package
that resembled the shape
of two bottles of cognac.
Then we had to rig the package
so that it would be possible
to set off the detonator
without damaging the box.
Two identical Condors
from Eastern Prussia
were preparing to land.
Security precautions meant that no one
knew which plane Hitler was on.
The convoy was escorted by fighters.
Halt! Get your rifles ready!
The Führer spent the morning
in meetings with his staff.
Lunch was served in the officer's mess.
Rifles down!
At ease.
At table, we had to put up
with Hitler's good mood,
as he was pleased
to be among real soldiers.
The Führer
had brought his personal cook
and the doctor
entrusted in tasting his food.
Hitler trusted no one.
12 food tasters
were at his service.
And his personal SS guard,
cooks and doctor,
accompanied him everywhere.
Hunched over his plate,
with his elbows on the table,
and only sitting up straight
to take a swig from his glass,
he was a contemptible sight.
...a German city.
We had to act quickly.
The Führer was about to leave.
I therefore approached colonel Brandt,
who was to travel on the same plane.
I casually asked him
if he would take a package for me.
I said I had lost a stupid bet
with colonel Stieff,
from the Army Supreme Command,
and that it'd cost me
two bottles of cognac.
That was my excuse.
Thank you.
Prepare the car!
Car is ready.
...from this city
to a renowned place...
Attention!
Colonel Brandt
agreed to transport the package.
All Schlabrendorff had to do
was to prime the bomb.
-Brandt !
-Departure!
Thank you.
Relieved,
and certain their duty was done,
Tresckow and Schlabrendorff
watched the Führer's convoy F200
take off.
Hoping it was destined for Hell.
We were aware that Hitler's plane
had a special security system.
It was composed
of several separate cells.
Hitler's place was armoured
and designed to enable
an immediate escape by parachute.
In our opinion, the explosive charge
had to be sufficient
to blow up the whole plane.
If, against all expectations,
this didn't occur,
the explosion would tear apart
such a considerable part of the fuselage
that the plane, in any event,
would crash to the ground.
Accompanied by its twin,
another fighter escort,
Hitler's plane set course for Berlin.
Colonel Brandt was unaware
he had smuggled a bomb
on board his leader's aircraft.
SELLING FORBIDDEN
Back at HQ in Smolensk,
nerves were fraught
as they waited by the radio.
The explosion was to take place
after 30 minutes,
when, according to our calculations,
the plane would not be far from Minsk.
At any moment,
we were hoping to receive a message
from one of the fighters
escorting the Führer's plane,
saying it had exploded.
But we heard nothing.
Finally, after two hours,
a routine message arrived from Berlin,
saying that after an inspection visit
on the eastern front,
Hitler had safely returned to Berlin
and reached his headquarters
at the appointed time.
So we had to face the facts.
As incredible as it may seem,
our attempt had failed.
Tresckow and myself
were literally stunned.
For the two conspirators,
it was vital to recover the package
that could seal their fate.
Schlabrendorff flew to Berlin
with real bottles of cognac
and exchanged them,
explaining to colonel Brandt
that a mistake had been made.
Schlabrendorff and von Tresckow
would soon
find another opportunity
to use their bombs.
A remembrance ceremony
at the military museum
was planned
to celebrate Heroes' Memorial Day,
Heldengedentag.
It was a fine opportunity.
According to the schedule,
the Führer was going to attend,
accompanied by Heinrich Himmler
and Hermann Goering.
Any of us
who was determined to kill Hitler
had to be prepared
to sacrifice his own life.
At the Zeughaus, the old arsenal,
on Unter den Linden,
Hitler
was welcomed by Hermann Goering,
General Keitel
and Heinrich Himmler.
My friend, colonel von Gersdorff,
after a few moments' thought,
said to me:
"I will carry out this mission.
I will do it.
For the country's salvation."
As every year,
the ceremony began with a concert
in the court of honour.
On the programme this year:
"Bruckner's 7th symphony".
I suggested that the volunteer
who agreed to carry out the attack
should place a bomb
in each of his coat sleeves,
trigger the detonator
at just the right moment,
then position himself
as close as possible to the Führer.
In this way,
the man
prepared to sacrifice his own life
would at least have the greatest chance
of attaining the objective.
After the concert,
Hitler was to visit the museum,
to inspect trophies and weapons
taken from the Soviets.
Colonel Gersdorff
was to act as his guide.
In order to be able to salute
with his right arm,
Gerdorff placed only a single bomb
in his left sleeve.
After triggering the chemical detonator,
he would need 15 minutes to act.
At that point,
Gersdorff who be close to Hitler
and the mission would be accomplished.
When the Führer
entered the exhibition hall,
general Schmundt,
Hitler's aide-de-camp,
came up to me
and told me that the Führer
would only be spending five minutes
to inspect the trophies.
It was therefore
no longer possible physically
to carry out the plan,
as I needed at least ten minutes.
Five minutes.
The longest five minutes
in Gersdorff's life.
He had accepted the ultimate sacrifice,
to blow himself up with the dictator.
Hitler barely glanced at the trophies.
He raced around the exhibition
in less than ten minutes.
The visit was over.
Hitler seemed in a hurry.
As if sensing danger.
And to his staff's surprise,
he left the building.
Intact.
The detonator was triggered,
but had no time to take effect.
Gersdorff just had time
to rush to the restroom
and defuse the deadly device.
Gersdorff was safe and sound,
but the mission had failed.
The second failure within a week.
Unaware of the mortal danger
he had avoided,
Hitler was now greeting the troops
assembled in his honour
along Unter den Linden.
In the weeks that followed,
the Führer would emerge unscathed
from two further assassination attempts.
As Germany was losing the war
on the eastern front,
the Allies
prepared the Normandy landings.
Hitler rewarded general Rommel
for his exploits with the Afrika Corps
with his marshall's baton.
Erwin Rommel
was one of the most popular figures
in the Nazis' film propaganda.
For the Germans, he was an icon.
Tresckow
and the anti-Hitler Wehrmacht officers
longed for the support of a man
Germany loved and would follow.
But Rommel,
like many high-ranking officers,
felt he had to respect
the oath he had sworn to his Führer.
In the winter of 43-44,
Hitler sent Rommel, his favourite officer,
to strengthen the Atlantic wall,
the defence system
intended to prevent landings
on the French coast.
The wall would fall.
The Allies were expected,
and indeed arrived,
as Rommel himself had predicted.
"The landings
will take place in Normandy
and that day will be the longest day."
On June 6th 1944,
1,213 warships,
736 support ships,
864 cargo vessels
and 4,126 barges and landing crafts
landed 20,000 vehicles
and 156,000 men
on the beaches of Normandy.
The Allies set foot in France
and nothing could have stopped them
on their march towards Berlin.
Rommel knew the battle was lost
and even wanted
to negotiate a separate peace
with the Allies.
Montgomery from Britain,
Eisenhower from the USA.
German resistants
had sounded Rommel out,
but he hesitated,
knowing that an attempt was to be made
on Hitler's life.
Perhaps he sympathized
with the conspiracy,
but he imposed his own conditions.
Hitler should be arrested and tried.
He was
resolutely opposed to assassination.
July 17th,
and as usual, Rommel was
inspecting his troops on the front.
As ever, adjutant Daniel was driving,
as captain Elmut Lang
watched the skies.
Allied planes were everywhere.
It was almost impossible
to move around.
But Rommel didn't care.
The Desert Fox had seen worse.
It was five p.m. when a Spitfire patrol
spotted Rommel's car
on the road to Vimoutiers.
Two enemy aircrafts approaching.
They are on their way to attack us.
The two pilots decided to descend
and strafe the vehicle.
Captain Lang saw the planes
bearing down on them.
It was too late to seek shelter.
Rommel ordered Daniel to accelerate
and to take evasive action.
The long straight road
offered no safe haven
and the car
was already in the fighters' sights.
Machine guns crackled
and bullets ripped through the car.
Daniel was hit and killed instantly.
The car skidded and spun
and hurtled into a ditch.
The fighters were already
soaring into the clouds above.
Rommel lay on the Normandy grass,
with a severe head wound.
For Stauffenberg, von Tresckow
and the resistance,
it was an irredeemable loss.
They were deprived from the most popular
and competent officer
who could have rallied to the cause.
The generals have achieved nothing.
So now it is up to the colonels to act.
As officers, it's our duty
to save Germany.
We've accepted that challenge
before God, in our consciences.
It has to be done.
Because that man, Hitler,
is pure evil.
The 20th of July 1944
was destined to be the big day.
In Berlin, colonel von Stauffenberg
and his aide-de-camp,
Werner von Haeften,
set off for the Wolf's Lair
near Rastenburg.
In his bags,
Stauffenberg had two bombs.
The same bombs that had been used
for the failed attacks
in Smolensk and Berlin.
A colonel and a count
from an old Prussian aristocracy,
von Stauffenberg
was one of the military nobles
who had
welcomed Hitler's rise to power.
He was a brilliant officer
and served under Rommel
in North Africa.
In 1943, he was seriously wounded
and lost an eye, his right hand
and two fingers of his left hand.
His long convalescence
was a period of painful soul-searching.
His conscience and sense of honour
led him to act.
He joined the resistance
led by von Tresckow.
His appointment to the Army HQ
made him a valuable asset,
as he could approach Hitler regularly.
It was he who brought to the Führer
the version of Operation Valkyrie
that had been modified
by general Olbricht,
colonel Tresckow and himself.
As usual, Hitler signed the documents
without reading them.
The trap was set,
as the modified plans
enabled those who possessed them
to take control of Berlin, if need be.
Kill Hitler, launch Operation Valkyrie,
and set up a new government.
Germany's fate now rested
on colonel von Stauffenberg's knees.
After a flight of two and a half hours,
Stauffenberg and von Haeften
arrived at the Wolf's Lair.
Lieutenant, sir.
Your ID, please.
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
11:30 AM
Open the gate.
Go on.
Before them stood Hitler's bunker.
It was behind these thick concrete walls
that strategy meetings
usually took place.
And it was here that Stauffenberg
wanted to strike.
The concrete would
intensify the blast from the explosion,
making it an ideal location.
However, because of the heat,
and reconstruction work,
Hitler had decided to hold the meeting
in one of the barracks.
-Heil my Führer.
-First Lieutenant Stauffenberg.
Lieutenant.
Cowards have no place
on this earth.
12:20.
After greeting Hitler and his staff,
Stauffenberg
asked for permission to freshen up
and change his clothes,
as the heat was stifling.
Hitler and his entourage headed
for the barrack's conference room.
In a further blow to Stauffenberg,
the meeting
had been brought forward an hour,
due to a visit from Mussolini
that afternoon.
I asked to get to the washroom.
It was very hot.
And my very visible war wounds
meant that no one asked any questions.
The conference room would be less likely
to intensify the explosion
than the underground bunker.
So it seemed more prudent
to prime both explosive devices.
Von Haeften handed me the briefcase
containing the bombs.
We placed two detonators
in the explosives.
And I began to set the first timer.
Coming!
-Lieutenant?
-Yes!
Suddenly, I heard someone
calling me through the door.
-First Lieutenant Stauffenberg?
-Just a second!
There was a call for me
from general Fellgiebel.
It's urgent.
The first charge was set.
There was no time for the second.
It was in von Haeften's briefcase.
Only one bomb. Never mind.
It should be enough.
12:25.
Around 20 Reich dignitaries
and generals
gathered in the room around Hitler.
Marshall Keitel presented a report
on the situation in the East.
Hitler followed attentively,
studying troops positions on maps.
At 12:30, Stauffenberg
sat down at the end of the table
to the Führer's right.
He greeted his neighbour,
colonel Heinz Brandt,
and placed his briefcase
under the table.
-May I leave my briefcase here?
-Of course.
I put my briefcase on the floor,
under the table.
Next to colonel Brandt's foot.
I told him I was leaving it there
for a moment,
as I had an urgent call
to make to Berlin.
No one was surprised,
as all the officers
at this type of meeting
are very busy
and there were lots of calls
to be made to the front.
That was it.
Everything was in place.
It was merely a question of time.
I found a new excuse to leave the room.
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
12:40 PM
-I have a call to make.
-Go ahead.
The briefcase was in Brandt's way
and he moved it,
planted it against the thick pillar
that supported the heavy oak table.
With this casual but faithful gesture,
colonel Brandt unintentionally
deflected the blast
away from Hitler.
It's time.
I'll wait for you.
12:40.
Stauffenberg had left the building.
It was only a matter of time.
I felt the blast on my cheeks.
Hitler was dead.
No one
could have survive such an explosion.
-General, where's the Führer?
-Alert!
-Alert!
-The Führer is in the shack!
The conference room was blown apart.
There was total confusion
as guards and soldiers rushed
to remove the wounded
from the wreckage.
Call for help!
Where's the rescue team?
Stauffenberg
was convinced that Hitler was dead.
He saw his body on a stretcher.
My back!
12:47.
Stauffenberg and von Haeften
rushed to their car.
They had to reach Berlin
as soon as possible.
Clear the road!
The conspirators
believed their accomplices
had cut all communication
between the Wolf's Lair and Berlin.
But in their haste,
a number of possibilities
had been overlooked.
Contradictory reports
were already circulating.
At 1:15, Claus von Stauffenberg
took off from the aerodrome,
heading for Berlin.
For him, the operation was a success.
Hitler was dead.
In Berlin, the sealed orders
for Operation Valkyrie
had been distributed
and provisional government
formed by general Beck.
But nothing was to go as planned.
Co-conspirators general Olbricht
and colonel Quirnheim
were waiting for confirmation
to launch the operation.
Three precious hours were lost
before Stauffenberg landed
and told them that Hitler was dead.
At four p.m., Operation Valkyrie
was launched at last.
All the officers mobilised for Valkyrie
had received a sealed envelope
containing brief orders.
All the heads of the SS
were to be arrested immediately
and their men disarmed.
As well as Goering, Bormann,
Himmler and Goebbels.
But nothing was to go as planned.
Suddenly,
towards the end of the afternoon,
a voice rang out
from every loudspeaker in the city.
The Führer's.
"A very small clique
of ambitious and unscrupulous officers
formed a conspiracy
to do away with me."
RASTENBURG, "WOLF'S LAIR"
4:00 PM
Hitler was alive and kicking.
He put on a new uniform
to welcome his friend Mussolini
at the station,
only hours after the explosion.
Hitler told Il Duce:
"I regard this
as a confirmation of the task
imposed upon me by Providence.
Nothing is going to happen to me.
Everything
can be brought to a good end."
A misplaced briefcase,
a solid table leg,
wooden walls that absorbed the blast,
and a few minutes for Stauffenberg
to prime the second bomb.
Those were the reasons
for Hitler's miraculous escape.
As Hitler said goodbye to Mussolini,
reprisals were already well underway
in Berlin.
And they would be brutal.
Major Otto Remer,
the guard regiment commander,
had been ordered to arrest Goebbels.
Goebbels phoned Hitler,
who then spoke to Remer,
proving he was alive.
The hunt for the insurgents began
and Operation Valkyrie was doomed.
...until we emerge victorious!
That evening, general Olbricht,
colonel von Quirnheim,
lieutenant von Haeften
and colonel von Stauffenberg
were arrested and sentenced to death
without trial, by general Fromm.
GENERAL FRIEDRICH FROMM
Fighting for his own survival,
Fromm betrayed his fellow conspirators.
The witnesses to his collaboration
had to disappear.
Take aim!
Close to midnight,
Stauffenberg and his friends
were executed.
Fire!
They were initially
given a soldier's burial
with their uniforms and medals.
But Hitler, furious,
had their bodies dug up,
stripped of their medals and cremated.
For count Henning von Tresckow,
recently promoted general,
the soul and brain
behind the resistance to Hitler,
it was time to make his will.
To protect his wife Erika
and their children,
he decided to disguise his suicide
as an ambush.
Numerous Russian partisans
in the forests
made frequent raids.
On July 21st,
despite the morning mist,
it was a fine day in Ostrow,
on the eastern front.
In his parting words, Tresckow said:
"He who can keep his childhood dreams
alive and pure,
who can preserve them in his bare,
defenceless heart,
who, despite the world's mockery,
dares to live
as he dreamed as a child,
until his final days,
then, he is a man.
A true, complete man.
The whole world will attack
and vilify us now.
But as ever,
I am still totally convinced
that we did the right thing.
Hitler was the archenemy,
not only of Germany,
but of the entire world.
When, in few hours' time,
I go before God
to account for what I have done,
and left undone,
I know I will be able
to justify what I did
in the struggle against Hitler.
In the same way that God
promised Abraham
that he would not destroy Sodom
if just ten righteous men
could be found in the city,
I hope that for our sake,
out of respect for us,
God will not destroy Germany.
I would have liked for you
to witness my death.
I have no wish to allow my enemies
to take me from this life.
Farewell.
We shall meet again in a better place."
In civilian clothes,
stripped of their rank and discharged,
the conspirators appeared in court.
There would be a single verdict
for them all. Death.
The court
was presided by judge Roland Freisler,
already responsible
for sentencing thousands of Germans
to death
for opposing the regime.
Almost 200 of them
would be sentenced to death,
including a marshall,
19 generals,
26 colonels,
two ambassadors, seven diplomats,
one minister,
three secretaries of state,
and the Reich's chief of police.
Hitler said he wanted
to see their bodies
hung up like slabs of meat
on butcher's hooks.
To make the hangings more painful,
and above all slower,
the hemp rope
was replaced by piano wire.
And for the Führer's personal pleasure,
the executions were filmed.
Death was not immediate.
The agony could go on for 20 minutes.
The reels of film were taken each night
to Hitler's headquarters.
A bill for 500 Reichsmarks
was sent to each of the families
by the Berlin administration.
125 Reichsmarks
was set aside for the hangman's wages.
Now!
On October 18th 1944,
Hitler offered a state funeral
to his favourite field marshall,
Erwin Rommel.
In his eulogy,
marshall von Runstedt said:
"His heart belonged to the Führer."
But only four days previously,
at midday,
two generals
had arrived at Rommel's home
to propose a rather sinister deal.
During the post-Valkyrie investigation,
Rommel's name
was said to have been mentioned
during interrogations.
Hitler therefore ordered
that Rommel
should face the ignominy of a trial,
or commit suicide, with honour,
and the guarantee that nothing
would happen to his family.
After kissing his wife
and his son, Manfred,
Rommel
climbed on board the generals' car.
Five minutes later,
he swallowed to cyanide capsules.
The Germans' greatest military hero
had just officially died
from an embolism.
Hitler had threatened
to unleash a storm on the world.
But now, it was over Germany
that his storm raged.
Since his failed attack at the beerhall,
on November 8th, 1939,
Georg Elser had been locked up.
He was known as "the secret prisoner"
or "Hitler's prisoner".
At the Dachau concentration camp,
on April 9th 1945,
on orders from the Führer himself,
two SS officers
shot Elser in his cell.
20 days later,
American forces liberated the camp.
20 days too late
to save the man who tried to kill Hitler.
On April 21st 1945,
the first Soviet shells fell on Berlin.
Two million more would follow them.
In an attempt
to stop the Soviets' T34 tanks,
arms were distributed to old men
and young boys.
Hitler's last army
was made up of children
not yet 12 years old.
After saluting them,
and sending them to their deaths,
Hitler returned to his bunker.
He would not leave it again alive.
The battle of Berlin
raged for more than ten days.
A bitter desperate fight.
But the Soviets were irresistible.
Losses on both sides were appalling.
2,000 Soviets tanks
were rendered ineffective,
some by unarmed children.
The city had no intention
of surrendering to the Russians.
But it was too late.
The Reich,
due to last for thousand years,
collapsed.
At one o'clock in the morning,
on April 29th 1945,
Hitler's mistress of 13 years,
Eva Braun,
finally married her Fürher
at a short ceremony.
The witnesses
were Goebbels and Bormann,
assisted by a Nazi civil official.
The guests shared some sparkling wine
with the newlyweds.
Eva Braun, delighted,
was now Frau Hitler.
Around three o'clock in the morning,
Hitler dictated his private will
to his secretary.
Three typed pages,
where he announced:
"I myself and my wife,
in order to escape the disgrace
of deposition or capitulation,
choose death.
It is our wish
to be burnt immediately."
April 30th.
The red flag flies over the Reichstag.
At 3:30 p.m., Hitler retires to his room
with his wife Eva.
She has chosen poison,
he fires a bullet into his temple.
At 3:50,
the two bodies are taken outside.
200 litres of petrol are poured over them
and ignited.
Many people wanted to kill Hitler,
but he died by his own hand.
When he wanted and where he wanted.
In the heart of his capital city, Berlin.
War is madness.
We have to prevent it.
The key figure is Hitler.
He has to be killed.
The world has to be saved
from the greatest criminal of all time.
We have to kill him.
Like a mad dog.
Threatening all humanity.
They were guided by their courage
and their honour.
Tresckow, Schlabrendorff,
Gerstorff, Stauffenberg,
Elser.
They all wanted to kill Hitler.
They all failed.
If but one of these men had succeeded,
millions of lives
could have been saved.
And the history of the world
may have been very different.