Audio/Articles- Operation Valkyrie

[Amanda]

Four audios on Operation Valkyrie are posted here:  http://mk.christogenea.org/valkyrie

These are the Christian Identity guys, but I honestly didn't notice much talk about religion. Audios seemed focused on the history.  They mainly read four articles by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann that were published in Barnes Review. They have links to the actual Barnes Review articles, but I don't really know how to bring them over here (they are jpeg files).  I found the four articles on Carolyn's site (posted below), but they may not be exactly the same as the ones published at Barnes Review.  They also read some interesting segments from David Irving's book on Rommel.

Carolyn Yeager/Wilhelm Mann-Hitler's Architect

http://carolynyeager.net/content/ein-anderer-hitler

Ein Anderer Hitler

The following articles were written during 2008-2009-2010-2011 and published in The Barnes Review magazine. They are translations into English from EIN ANDERER HITLER by Hermann Giesler.

Confidant and personal architect to Adolf Hitler from 1942 to 1945, Hermann Giesler published his memoir Ein Anderer Hitler (Another Hitler) in 1977. There has never been an English translation. Here, for the first time, are selected chapters translated from the German, along with attached commentary, by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann.

Wilhelm Mann is a native-born German speaker and WWII scholar who served with the Luftwaffe from 1939-1945, during which time he was awared the Iron Cross, first and second class.

In addition to info on Operation Valkyrie,  Carolyn's page also has links to this info:

Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: biography
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Paris
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Fateful Decisions
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: The West Offensive
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Sea Lion
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Barbarossa
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Headquarters 1942
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part one
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part two
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part three
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part four
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: After Stalingrad
Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Farewell Berlin



http://carolynyeager.net/ein-anderer-hi ... e-part-one

Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie!

Part One:  Valkyrie! The Last Plot against Hitler

Part One – The Bomb

Translation and Commentary by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann
Copyright 2009 Carolyn Yeager

Translators' Introduction:

With the release of the Hollywood blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise, the public has been given a dramatization of the historic confrontation between two visions of Germany during a time of total war – that of the old military-industrial aristocracy versus the new National Socialist. While media mavens have made heroes of the members of the Valkyrie conspiracy, Herman Giesler points out the substantial damage their plotting and communicating with the enemy did to the German war effort, costing many thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of German lives. In this and following articles in this "Valkyrie" series, you're shown the view from the other side – from the very commanding center of the struggle for the life of a nation.

Many of the same men were involved in earlier assassination attempts in November 1939 and March 1943; there was even a plot in 1938 led by Lt Colonel Hans Oster to prevent a military invasion of Czechoslovakia. Contacts with the British Foreign Office at that time led Undersecretary Vansittart to comment: "But that is treachery!" After the war, publication of an account of those contacts was forbidden in England.

In 1939, Georg Elser planted a bomb near the lectern at the November 8th, 1923 Putsch Anniversary dinner in Munich, but Hitler left early, escaping the explosion that left several dead and injured.

In 1942 and '43, resistance member Helmuth von Moltke persisted in trying to arrange meetings in Stockholm with the British Political Warfare Executive. It was blocked by Churchill. In this regard, it should be remembered that beginning in 1939 the Hitler government was itself sponsoring secret peace feelers, and even detailed proposals, to high British government officials. All were rejected.

March 1943 saw two attempts to kill Hitler masterminded by General Henning von Tresckow. The first was a bomb placed on Hitler's plane that failed to detonate [see Inside Secret Headquarters, Part Two, TBR May/June]; a week later Tresckow got Colonel Freiherr von Gersdorff to act as a suicide bomber at an exhibition Hitler would be attending. With two10-minute fuse bombs in his coat pockets, he was to get near to Hitler before they went off. But Hitler stayed only 8 minutes, leaving Gersdorff to run to the lavatory to defuse his bombs!

Hitler repeatedly escaped harm, making it seem that fate was on his side.

Much has been made of Hitler's supposed "rage" against his generals and other military staff – for example, over the Elbrus affair (see TBR, May/June) and Halder's dismissal. But Giesler reports nothing like that. Adolf Hitler didn't chew the carpet or throw chairs around, but he did get angry. He seemed to have a reliable sense for loyalty or lack of it around him. It turns out that leading generals like Beck, von Kluge, von Hammerstein and Witzleben, and even von Brauchitsch, were already in the mid-thirties expressing cynical remarks and doubts within their old Reichswehr circles.

These men were often from old, aristocratic families with long military service; they felt resentment toward Hitler's strategic and tactical directives, often disagreed with his decisions, considered them interference with general staff's established knowledge and wisdom. It should be noted that most of the conspirators were from the general staff, not commanding officers in the field.

What makes Giesler a rare source is his close relationship to Adolf Hitler. As someone whose company Hitler enjoyed, Giesler was often called to Führer Headquarters to spend long evenings in discussion and drawing of city building projects. This time he arrived at Wolf's Lair in East Prussia at the beginning of August; to keep Giesler from asking questions of the Führer, Martin Bormann made all the investigatory reports of the conspiracy available to him.

Giesler's account begins in Munich on that fateful day.

On the late afternoon of July 20, 1944 my brother called me. "Close your office; organize all your co-workers who have military training and form a guard unit – if necessary, supply them with weapons. Send the rest home and stay by your telephone.

"After you give the necessary orders, drive immediately to my office and by no means allow yourself to be stopped on your way, even by military police. Do you have a weapon? No? It may be better I send a car and driver to pick you up. Your place now should be at my office."

"What happened?"

"Assassination of the Führer and the military is alarmed; Valkyrie has been unloosed in Berlin; the situation is still unclear."

My brother, as an experienced company commander, secured his post and the immediate surrounding area. We then waited tensely for further news from Führer headquarters via the telegraph, from telephones, from the liaison office of the Wehrkreis (military district), for messages from the Party office, from the SS and the Gau1. It was with great relief when finally, in the late evening, we heard the Führer's voice. In Munich and the whole Wehrkreis VII, everything was quiet; it remained that way, as far as we could judge, during the night.

A week later, architect and Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, under time pressure, picked up Giesler on his way to Stuttgart so they could discuss war construction, the labor force and steel quotas.

We then talked about July 20th ... Speer had been at Führerheadquarters and gave me his impressions of the fuller extent of the conspiracy. Worried, he said: "Even now, after the assassination, the Führer is still very much involved with the military and political consequences ... he needs some distance from the assassination and all the disappointments. I believe that it's time that you arrive at headquarters, Giesler, as you are the only one who can distract him, even for a few hours a day. Present him with city building plans – Linz and the Danube Bank construction; that will still be of interest and lead him out of permanent worrying."

After a few days, the call came from Führer headquarters. Bormann was short: "Please come as soon as possible; the Führer is expecting you. Please bring along all the plans that might interest him; naturally everything that refers to Linz!"

Full of excitement to see Adolf Hitler and talk to him, I arrived at Hitler Headquarters Wolfsschanze. But what he told me confidentially during the following week, and what I found out, as ordered by him, from others; what I was reading in documents and protocols, and what I saw around me – shattered me deeply. All that I learned I would have thought impossible; it felt as unreal as spooks in the night.

Now that controls had been introduced, I entered Sperrkreis (restricted zone) I to report to Adolf Hitler; I met him in front of his bunker talking to his adjutant. Actually, Adolf Hitler made a few steps toward me: "I expected you and I'm glad to see you." He shook my hand, guarding his right arm which was bent and held in a sling, and his right leg also, obviously hurting. The side of his face that was toward the explosion was slightly swollen; he had cotton in his ears. But I was surprised by his posture – I thought it would be worse.

At tea time, to which he invited me, he mentioned the assassination only briefly and spoke little about his injuries. Linge (his servant) showed me Hitler's coat and the torn trousers which were split lengthwise like the ones worn by medieval mercenary soldiers. "They did check you, Giesler – understand that. It is an order for the time being, caused by the assassination – in future it will not be done with you."

I didn't agree. After all that happened here, I thought the control was naturally necessary – it could have been that someone put something into my briefcase. "No," Hitler said, "you check for yourself before you cross the checkpoints." Apparently, he must have given the orders because any checking in the future didn't happen – as in late autumn, as well as January/February 1945 in the command bunker at the Reich Chancellery. I always, however, checked my briefcase and blueprints.

On the first evening we talked about city construction in Linz and Munich. For me, it was an unexpected and rare conversation during days of turbulent military and political events. At the beginning, Adolf Hitler looked deflated; in the course of our discussion he became visibly more energetic and open-minded.

The Kaltenbrunner Reports

The next morning Bormann asked me to see him, giving me this advice: "Please don't put any questions to the Führer about July 20th and all that was connected with it, unless he himself talks about it. Try, however, to distract him – talk with him primarily about Linz. That's what interests him most. On the other hand, I think it proper that you be informed correctly about all the happenings of July 20th. I will see to it that you will be informed about every detail of the deep web." After a short pause –

"One happening is under absolute secrecy – the Führer will decide if you are to have knowledge about it. But I urgently ask, don't approach Hitler on that matter!"

However, I could see all the supporting documents and interview protocols delivered by Kaltenbrunner to Bormann's office. By getting an overview of the total network of the clique of traitors and the larger circle of people involved, I would be more likely to refrain from asking Hitler about the affair during our discussions.

Only later was it clear to me what Bormann really meant by that. From then on, in the morning hours and during the "Lage2" meetings, I was primarily in Bormann's office. At those times, he pulled out of the vault the reports, the interview protocols, and lists of persons and investigations which are known today as the Kaltenbrunner Reports. But those documents were only a part – even though a very important one – of the entire web of high treason.

I sat down in the corner of his office and began reading the sober reports of conspiracy which already began pre-war and gradually increased in strength until it developed into a perfect form – betraying, above all, the struggling frontline and killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The often dissonant-sounding remarks of Adolf Hitler since 1939: "I have the feeling of being surrounded by treason" – his former hints, as on November 6, 1939; middle January 1940; then, during "Weseruebung" (Norway campaign) at the end of the French campaign; adding in the partly depressing, partly angry reactions as I experienced them at Winniza in 1942 and Wolfsschanze in 1943 – now, by these reports and protocols, his suspicion was confirmed. But far more than that: happenings up to now unexplainable became transparent and finally made sense, worse than ever imagined.

I began with the reading of the (prepared) appeals to the Armed Forces and the German people. Gördeler 3 to the Armed Forces: "... something additional threatens to deprive you of the success of your victories which you gained from a leadership of educated and experienced men: Hitler's 'strategic genius,' which he claimed in an irrational delusion, and was disgustingly idolized by his lackeys. 'Who wants to sole a boot has to learn it4.'"

Another appeal still better: "The Führer is dead! An immoral clique of battle-ignorant Party leaders, misusing the present situation, is trying to take over the government for selfish reasons, stabbing the fighting troops in their back ..." With that, (Field Marshal) von Witzleben wanted to address the German people and the Armed Forces, to introduce himself as the new Supreme Commander. I knew him – then still fresh from the glory of crossed marshal batons5. At the People's Court they took pictures when he denied having any knowledge of the assassination and the military conspiracy, which was immediately refuted. When questioned: Well, what were your thoughts then, what was going to happen if the assassination would have succeeded? – he answered: "I am a military, I don't know anything about political and civilian matters." In the second part of the sentence he sounded absolutely convincing.

The next documents were photocopies: kind of an operational plan of the putsch-government and a list of the ministers selected for the Reichskanzler (Federal Chancellor) Gördeler. On both documents 'Speer' was listed as minister – with a question mark, however. Surprised, I jumped up and went to Bormann, "What does that mean? – that's not possible!" Bormann looked up, "Comrade Giesler, on that matter everything is possible."

Slowly he stood up, went to the vault, took out a voluminous file, opened it and showed me the top sheet – there was the name 'Speer.' Only that. "For your personal information," he said, and returned the file to the vault. "You keep silent about all that," he said, sitting down at his desk. That was enough for that day; I could not continue reading!

Giesler reflects on the role of Albert Speer

My thoughts went back to a talk with (Karl) Hanke, Gauleiter of Silesia. A war construction site in lower Silesia caused me to meet him several times in March 1944. In my judgment, he was a man full of character, with wise, attentive eyes and a well-shaped head. Hanke proved himself during the political battles in Berlin, and later as a soldier at the front. His clear formulations corresponded with his long activities as an under-secretary of state at Dr. Goebbels' office.
One evening in Salzbrunn, Hanke asked me to advise him after the war with his plans for city rebuilding and solutions for traffic problems in Breslau, the capitol of Silesia. "Well," I said to him, "aren't you closely associated with Speer? If I agree to fulfill your request, apart from being overloaded with my own work, it would be an affront against him which I don't want to happen." Up till then, Speer could not even overlook the fact that I got the Munich assignment, and then in addition Linz. My job as an architect included, with the exception of Weimar, most of the Southwestern region of Germany.

"But, you also advise Mayor Freyberg in Leipzig."

"Yes," I answered, "but only because of the Führer's order when problems at the fair (Leipzig's annual International Trade Fair) arose in connection with the planned extension of the railway system."

That was one more reason for him to talk to the Führer. For various reasons, he wanted me and not Speer as an advisor for Breslau. He had a very clear opinion of Speer's goals, knowing what's going on in his office. That worried him and did not sit well – the Führer should know about it. His particular mistrust extended to two of Speer's closest co-workers. Hanke mentioned the names – I knew both of them, one highly-ranked in the SA, the other in the SS.
"Do you know that Speer is after succeeding Hitler?" Yes, I had heard about it, but I considered it gossip – as an incorrect and overbearing opinion of Speer's personality by his staff. Here, wish might be the father of the thought.

"No," contradicted Hanke, "there is more to it." He doesn't want to burden me with that stuff, but the Führer should know about it. He, however, cannot get an appointment; Bormann is completely shielding Hitler, isolates him from everything – that worries him also. I could ..."

"The protection by Bormann is Hitler's order," I interrupted him. "And Adolf Hitler considers me only as his architect and would strongly object if I would dare to get mixed up in matters which are none of my business. Please understand that."

"You're right – I have to try by myself to talk to the Führer."

Remembering that talk with Hanke, his critique of Speer and Speer's two co-workers, made me pensive. But how was Speer's attitude after the July 20th assassination to be explained, when he expressed to me his deep worry about Adolf Hitler, and when he asked me to take the Linz plans with me to the Führer headquarters? Other small events before the assassination, unimportant as they were then, seemed to me now rather strange.

At the end of June 1944, for instance, Speer called the leaders of the defense industry, the armament industry and the directors of the building industry to Linz and urged their utmost effort to increase the production of the armament industry. That "Linzer convention" ended with Adolf Hitler's speech at the Platterhof at the Obersalzberg.

Speer and I were Hitler's guests that evening at the Berghof. After dinner, Speer said with urgency, "Giesler, by all means, find a moment to tell Hitler about the Linz convention and let him know that I ended it with the performance of Bruckner's 4th Symphony at the aula of the St. Florian Abbey." Speer knew how much Hitler liked that symphony. Late that evening, he suggested, "My Führer, I propose that Giesler should tell some funny anecdotes."

With Speer, everything was practical and calculated – even as a 'friend' I considered him a stranger and full of riddles. Now his name appeared, though with a question mark, on the list of ministers of the traitors.

In the evening, Hitler talked to me about his successor. Was it a coincidence or was it a hint by Bormann, caused by my reaction in the morning? Adolf Hitler said, "After this terrible war, the only one who is privileged to appear in front of the nation is he who, as a soldier, risked his life, and justified it with his bravery and willingness to sacrifice. Naturally, he has to show the quality of a leader and charisma; he has to be wise and think logically – above all, however, he has to have character. Only a brave soldier of that war has the right to lead the Nation!"

Then he was silent for a long time. Next morning, I was sitting again in the corner of Bormann's office and reading more messages, reports, documents. No further mention of Speer

* * *
(See Giesler's long passage about Bormann that we cut out from here at the end of this article.)
* * *

The People's Court

The reports and interrogations got more and more complicated. One peculiar incident of the interrogation of Theodor Strünck 6, for instance, impressed me quite a bit. He called Admiral Canaris shameless because, at Strünck's interrogation, Canaris requested that he put everything on Oster and Dohnanyi 7.
During the evening hours, primarily around the time the "Lage" took place, the first film clips of the trial at the People's Court were shown. I did not want to miss anything and looked at the film for a while. Some of the accused I knew personally; of the others, I had formed impressions from reading the protocols, which the films now completed. Höpner, von Witzleben, Stieff – how much they differed from the young officers like Klausing and Bernardis! These admitted their deeds with military composure and yet still wanted to distance themselves. Well, if the younger ones would only have known what a miserable attitude dominated the plotter's heads.

  I saw the counter-position of Major Von Leonrod with his confessor-priest, Father Wehrle 8, and listened to their terrifying discussion – I felt my way to the door and avoided further films.

  On one evening, for one reason or another, Adolf Hitler talked about the 20th July. I told him I had seen some films of the trials at the People's Court and I was shattered. Adolf Hitler remarked: "I don't want to see anything of that; it is enough that I have to read the reports. The assassination revealed very clearly to me that not only high treason – but also the ugly "Landesverrat"9 lost it's disguise. For a long time I had already suspected treason; in Winniza I felt it directly – often I thought I felt physically furtive glances. But much more, far beyond what has been reported, I have now learned. After a sober consideration, I think it's proper to be silent – for the sake of the fighting troops and the unity of the nation.

"That reactionary clique plotted since 1938, if not earlier, for my fall by revolt or assassination. But it was not in accordance with their character to confront me openly with a weapon. How they must have hated me, and National Socialism, when they betrayed without scruple, and so miserably, even the fighting troops. The whole scope of that shameful plot one can now see – it is so revolting! Rattenhuber and Högl will tell you some of it; however, keep it confidant. I've bound everyone who knew about it to silence; that also includes you."

Endnotes:

1) Gau is a Party District. It usually covered the same territory as the state administration, but the Gauleiter was the NSDAP head of the Gau, while the Reichstatthalter was the chief administrator for the State.

2) Short for Lagebesprechung, a military situation meeting held twice a day with all the Führer's close advisors, and field commanders called in as needed.

3) Carl Friedrich Gördeler was mayor of Liepzig from 1930 until his resignation in 1937. He then became director of the overseas sales department at the firm of Robert Bosch GmbH and used the "cover" of his job to travel abroad promoting an anti-Nazi position. He was the leading instigator in several planned putsches against Hitler and was to be the new federal chancellor upon the success of the Valkyrie plot.

4) A popular saying of German shoemakers.

5) Under Hitler, Col. Generals received the new rank of Fieldmarshal, in a ceremony in which they were given ornate gold and ivory batons.

6) An insurance executive who also worked in Canaris' Abwehr; clandestinely active with the heads of the conspiracy.

7) Hans Oster was a general and deputy of Admiral Canaris at the Abwehr. Hans von Dohnanyi was a civil servant, a high-ranked lawyer recruited by Oster for the Abwehr.

Leonrod, a member of Bavaria's old nobility, was designated in the Valkyrie plans as liaison officer in military district VII (Munich). He said in his defense that he consulted his "father confessor" Chaplain Hermann Wehrle, who did not take him into the confessional, but advised him to stay away from treasonable enterprises. Thus Wehrle was implicated and both were executed.

9) Landesverrat is a kind of treason of passing domestic or military secrets to a foreign power.

[Amanda]

http://carolynyeager.net/ein-anderer-hi ... e-part-two

Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part two

Valkyrie! The Last Plot against Hitler

Part Two – The Story

Translation with commentary by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann
from Hermann Giesler's memoir, Ein Anderer Hitler, Druffel Verlag, Leoni am Starnberger, 6th edition, 1982.
Copyright 2009 Carolyn Yeager

Translators' Introduction

After a period of time reading the "Kaltenbrunner Reports" in Martin Bormann's office at Wolf's Lair, Hermann Giesler was personally briefed by Hitler's own SS briefers, a Brigadefuehrer and a security service captain (Rattenhuber and Hoegl).

The account they give to Giesler is surprising only in the revelation of the "double phone system" that was discovered at Headquarters, using parallel or bridge switching that allowed a third party to listen in. But this was a bombshell! The Chief of Communications at Headquarters was General Erich Fellgiebel, who was one of the conspirators. It was this that turned high treason (plotting against the regime) into the even worse Landesverrat (passing state secrets to a foreign power).

Giesler recounts what the investigators told him in his usual careful, detailed way.

For background and clarification of "the story"as given to Giesler by the SS investigators, we offer the following:

There is some disagreement or uncertainty whether Colonel Heinz Brandt, who was killed in the explosion, was a member of the conspiracy. He was a senior staff member of army operations, the right-hand man of General Adolf Heusinger, who was injured in the blast. Heusinger was likely aware that something was going on, and as his right-hand man, Brandt might have known also. At least, that is the opinion of Rattenhuber and Hoegl, who say that Stauffenberg blew up one of his co-plotters "without consideration." Peter Hoffman, however, in his supposedly exhaustive book on the subject (The History of the German Resistance) does not mention Brandt as a member of the conspiracy.

When Stauffenberg arrived for the Lage on July 20th, he first reported to Field Marshal Keitel, and also met General Fellgiebel. Stauffenberg was also presented to Hitler and they shook hands. Either before or after that, Stauffenberg pretended he wanted to change his shirt and went to the washroom, accompanied by his aide, Col. Werner von Haeften. There they packed one of the two bombs Haeften had been carrying into Stauffenberg's briefcase, in which he also had his papers for the Lage. Stauffenberg used a pair of specially twisted pliers and the three remaining fingers on his left hand to squeeze the acid capsule and activate the timer.

In the meantime, a sergeant named Vogel was sent to urge Stauffenberg back to the Lage, and also tell him there was a telephone call for him from Fellgiebel. Vogel remained standing outside the open door of the washroom. Nervous about arousing suspicion, Stauffenberg didn't put the second bomb into his briefcase, but left it with Haeften. Vogel later testified that he saw Stauffenberg and Haeften taking something out of brown paper wrapping.

When Stauffenberg returned to the Lage with his briefcase, he requested from General Rudolf Schmundt, one of Hitler's adjutants, a place closer to Hitler. Laying his briefcase on the end of the table, he leaned on the top to release the bomb trigger. He then received the fake phone call from Haeften, calling him out of the meeting.

Hoffman confirms that neither Stauffenberg nor anyone needed an excuse to leave the meeting. All participants were free to leave and come back at any time, as all were prone to receiving phone calls during the meeting. Such a level of trust and freedom prevailing at Headquarters could explain to some extent how this conspiracy was able to develop and grow over such a long period of time.

There are different versions of whether Stauffenberg placed his briefcase on the floor before he left to take his phone call (doubtful, but that's what Hoffman says) or whether it was General Schmundt who put it on the floor after Stauffenberg left. However, it was definitely moved there, and either the above-mentioned Col. Brandt or General Schmundt shoved it further under the table, against the table leg. This is the action that undoubtedly saved Hitler's life, as he was now somewhat protected from the force of the explosion. It's intriguing to consider that both of these men were killed by what that briefcase contained.

When Stauffenberg reached the phone, there was no longer anyone at the other end of the line. He left and went outside where he and Haeften watched the Lage building from a little ways away.

Now we let Hermann Giesler tell "The Story" from his book, Ein Anderer Hitler:

For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men.

The chief of the security detachment, SS Brigadeführer [Generalmajor] Rattenhuber and Kriminalrat Hoegl, SS Captain at SD [Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)] visited with me. Rattenhuber said Hitler sent them to inform me about matters connected with July 20th and the investigation after the assassination.

What they tell me is strictly confidential.

Hoegl meant that it might be better if we go outside. We walked up and down along the way between Bormann's wood hut and the casino barrack.
The two men were very different: Rattenhuber in uniform, tall and strong; Hoegl in civilian clothes, small, sturdy, serious, and with attentive eyes.
Rattenhuber narrates: "First the assassination – well, Stauffenberg waited for the explosion standing by the car within the Sperrkreis (security zone) II.
When the explosive detonated, Stauffenberg drove immediately to the airfield with his adjutant. On the way, they threw a packet of explosives off the forest road into the bushes – strangely enough, they didn't add it into the briefcase. The explosive and the igniter came from the English, and they surely knew of the planned assassination – the gentlemen had contact with each other for quite awhile. Stauffenberg was taken by surprise when the time for the map room meeting ('Lage') was moved forward and he did not find the time to stuff additional explosives into the briefcase – otherwise everybody would have had it!"
Rattenhuber meant they were disrupted with their preparations. "I am sure of that. They went all out without any concern – Stauffenberg blew his co-plotter Colonel [Heinz] Brandt1 into the air.

"Col. (Werner von) Haeften took Stauffenberg out of the meeting with a faked call – it was carefully planned. Stauffenberg laid the briefcase, with the igniter facing him, on top of the 'Lage' maps on the meeting table, then stood up, leaning on his briefcase and pressing down the igniter. A light bow towards the Fuehrer, excusing himself, indicating a telephone call, and then disappears.

"The meeting continues. A village is named as a battle location – exactly where the briefcase sits. General Schmundt puts the briefcase on the floor; then it is pushed to the table base."

"That's known to me," I said.

"Well, now it gets interesting. Both are now out of Sperrkreis towards their car. Beside the car stands Fellgiebel – you know him? – the General and Chief of Communications. They all look with suspense towards the meeting barrack."

"How do you know about it?" I interrupted.

"Lt Colonel Sander stood at their side – he was present. Now it happens, and Stauffenberg with Haeften drive to the airport. They were convinced that they blew the Führer and everyone at the 'Lage' into the air. One had to have that impression: they are all gone!

"You can imagine what was now going on here: security escort detachment, physicians, medics, officers, adjutants, OT workers from bunker construction sites, all confused. Seeing that, Fellgiebel enters Sperrkreis I and observes all the emergency activities.

"When he then noticed that Hitler was alive and only lightly injured, helped by Field Marshal Keitel to exit the destroyed Lage barrack, he indeed steps toward the Führer and congratulates him for his escape. He – God knows – said, 'That happens when you set up headquarters so close behind the front line.' He stood to attention – Hosen in denselben (a military expression meaning trousers in his high boots) – pistol on his belt," Rattenhuber said.

Hoegl continued: "The investigations revealed that, within the clique, it was specifically Fellgiebel who pleaded that the so-called "initial ignition" for the revolt could only be trigged by Hitler's assassination – successful, naturally. Once that no longer functioned, Fellgiebel must have known that his participation in the whole affair could not be hidden, without doubt he was done. Why did he not draw his pistol and shoot? Nobody could have hindered him because none of us could have that figured out. But for a real deed, they were cowards, and ready only for treachery."

"Yes," I interrupted, "all that is already known to me from reading the interrogation reports. The Führer, however, gave me hints that there was much more beside the Fellgiebel affair and communication system, not only knowledge of and participation in the assassination and the Valkyrie putsch. He told me it was too disgusting for him to talk about it. You should tell me."

"We'll do it, only wait. Well, still a little dazed from the explosion, the Führer asked, 'What is Fellgiebel doing here?' On this, he based his first suspicion. But, initially, it is pretty hard to believe that such a contemptible infamy is at all possible – for us they were 'sacred cows'."

"Not for me anymore," Rattenhuber responded, "since Seydlitz2 with his committee works for the Russians against the German front."

"Well, well," Hoegl said. "Anyway, at first, suspicion flew around in all directions until it was definite that a military clique planned the assassination which Stauffenberg then carried out. As part of this clique, Fellgiebel had the task to paralyze the whole communication system. He was successful with the major wire lines, but for one reason or another, or because of ignorance, some lines were not disconnected. That's how Dr. Goebbels and Major Remer could telephone the Führer, and the Berlin putsch collapsed. Strange it is, however, that Fellgiebel never tried to warn the clique in the Bendlerstrasse that as far as Hitler was concerned the plot failed. They tried to continue the putsch, which ended in 'blue air.'" (For a more detailed account of these events, see "At the Bendlerblock on July 20th, 1944" following this article.)

"Yeah," said Rattenhuber, "maybe Fellgiebel tried to camouflage himself by staying in the background, like the 'Herr' General (Friedrich) Thiele, his deputy and successor, did during the following days. All in all, the plot from 'above' was doomed to fail because they didn't count the decent officers and soldiers who did not take part, kept their oath and stood by their oath-bearer ( their Commandant). They did not have even one company at their disposal, and not one of the entire clique had the courage to draw his pistol against the Führer. At first, we only knew that Fellgiebel belonged to the inner circle of the conspirators and that he insisted at the clique's meetings on getting rid of the Führer as a requirement for success with the Valkyrie putsch. We arrested him.

"But then something very strange happened. A sergeant with the communication unit at the Führer headquarters reported an unusual double switchboard: parallel or bridge switching. Messages, reports, operative directives and strategic details by 'officers-only telephone' could be listened in by a third party by turning on that switching!

"This sergeant was an expert and knew the communication stuff. He became attentive, but strongly suspicious only after Fellgiebel was arrested. It emerged that by some kind of coupling, a direct connection from the Führer headquarters to Switzerland was established; through a switchboard in or around Berlin, messages and reports could be listened in on!

"Those treacherous reports went to Switzerland via wire," Hoegl added, "and not wireless – that's absolutely certain now. We believe that the Swiss secret service stood at the other end of the wire – some of them must have had connections with Soviet spy groups – and they radioed-in codes to the enemy. That went on for years!

"We knew all the time of Soviet wireless centers in the 'neutral' Switzerland which were fed by various spy groups – they were exactly located by directing sound waves. They could only operate there with the knowledge and tolerance of a certain group of responsible members of the Swiss secret service who, knowingly or not, were in the service of the Soviets. Schellenberg already negotiated and tried to disrupt that spy business in Switzerland.

Walter Schellenberg was an SS officer in the SD who, as a Master Spy, was able to travel freely. Schellenberg moved up in the SS ranks under Heinrich Himmler and eventually replaced Abwehr Chief Admiral Wm. Canaris as head of the new combined Secret Service in 1944. He was arrested by the British in Denmark in June 1945, while attempting to surrender to the Allies.

"And what did you do now?" I asked.

"At first, nothing," Rattenhuber said. "We did not upset the whole thing right away. The Führer said that Fellgiebel was not alone – he might have known about it. Hitler gave orders for secrecy and constant control of the switchboard; that paid off quite a bit, and a lot of things happened afterwards.

"Well, now we will start with case number two. Fellgiebel was arrested at the time only for his participation in the plot and knowledge of the assassination.We still didn't have any information about how the communication system worked to constantly betray the fighting front, even though we suspected it for a long time. On the suggestion of Field Marshal Keitel, General (Fritz) Thiele, Fellgiebel's deputy, succeeds him. As the new chief entrusted with communications, he was sworn in with the oath of allegiance and reported to the Fuehrer.

"In the meantime, the report of the sergeant from the communication unit came in. Secretly, the observation begins and it did not take long before it is certain: the Herr General 'played the flute' with that macabre chapel. He knows of the secret switchboard – the technicians call it parallel switching.

By macabre chapel, Giesler is referring to The Red Chapel (Rote Kapelle), the German cryptonym for a European-wide Soviet espionage network that transmitted information via radio directly to the Soviets. It was headed by a Polish communist Jew, Léopold Trepper, and was first discovered in Brussels in 1941. In Germany, the leaders were Harro Schulze-Boysen, a desk officer at the Reich ministry of aviation, Dr. Arvid Hanack of the ministry of economics, and Rudolf von Scheiliha, head of the foreign office information department. All three of these men had access to sensitive and/or secret information. Abwehr Chief Admiral Canaris and others estimated that the Rote Kapelle in Germany cost the lives of 200,000 German men. By the end of 1942, the leaders had been apprehended and the network shut down, or so it was thought.

"Because one (Fellgiebel) is drawing in the other (Thiele), his membership in the conspirator clique is now obvious. And now it comes apart further at Communications: Fellgiebel's Chief of Staff, a Colonel Hahn, and the chief of the communication department for (Gen. Erich) Fromm's Reserve Army, a Colonel Hassel – they are all being arrested. With Thiele we did it, Hoegl and I, with all the politeness and respect to which a general is entitled."

Something awkward happened then to the general. Rattenhuber mentioned it, but it does not belong in my script.

"Now, professor, you wonder why that is so revolting to the Führer and why he did not want to talk to you about it. That treason against the fighting front took more out of him than the assassination. Recently, he told us that for some time he expected to be shot by one of that reactionary gang, but he never could believe that an officer would commit such a devious act, betraying the fighting soldiers who daily put their life at risk for Germany!

"How could they play their game for so long?" I asked. "Why didn't someone get wise to their deceit? Since 1939, the Chief hinted about treason in talks with me. After the capitulation of France, he told me that he now knows for sure that treason was rooted at a high military level, some details of which he already knew about in Winniza. I still remember his exact words: 'Should I extend my distrust to the members of the 'Lage' or are the traitors located at the seams?' Certainly he was at that time already considering the communication center."

Rattenhuber answered, "That's exactly what depresses us so much because we felt we were responsible for not only the Führer's security.

But even so, limits were set for us. Up to July the 20th, everybody could approach the Führer with a weapon, well, even with bulky explosives like Stauffenberg did with his briefcase – one only needed to be known or carrying a pass for the Sperrkreis I. Just the thought that an officer, or even a general, could commit treason or assassinate the Führer was, until now– how do you call it – a sacrilege! For all of us, that's the big shock."

"What's going to happen now?"

"For the time being, big silence. One cannot imagine what would happen if the front and the homeland knew about it. Only the Führer will decide who will have knowledge of that treason-mess.

The report from the investigators over, Giesler continues with interesting observations about post-assassination changes at the sensitive Communications center, and his own reflections on the legacy of the enormous treason.

A lot of moving took place at Communications now. Before the assassination, Fellgiebel started to replace officers – the ones he did not trust, good soldiers who kept their oath and would not have participated in the infamy the clique wanted to start, exactly like many at the Bendlerstrasse, and also Communications, who stopped it in time. Otherwise, the Valkyrie confusion would have extended further.

Naturally, caution was now demanded. Guderian proposed a new communication chief; he reported today to the Fuehrer. Towards evening, after the talk with Rattenhuber and Hoegl, I met Colonel General [Heinz] Guderian at the teahouse as I did several times already during the week, and to my surprise, General [Albert] Praun. Guderian – I liked him very much for his lively manner and soldier-like aura – was obviously under great tension. We carried on with a short, polite talk; I sensed that his thoughts were with far-away military problems.

I had a longer discussion afterwards with General Praun, who was the brother of my co-worker, Dr.Theo Praun. I thought a lot of Theo; he was the head of the law department at my office "General Building Counselor, Munich"; then a leader within the OT group Russia North and Balticum, a job which Dr. Todt entrusted to me at the end of 1942. In January 1944, Dr. Praun, together with the front leader Baerkessel, was murdered by partisans when they visited an OT unit in the 16th Army region. The murder has been "gloriously" reported on the Russian radio. At the funeral service of my co-workers, I met General Praun. At that time, he was the commander of a division and before that he became, because of his technical expertise, Guderian's communication officer during the French campaign.

Now, on Guderian's suggestion, the Führer installed him as the new Chief of Communications. During our conversation I asked General Praun about his impressions. He answered hesitantly and acted rather withdrawn. Cautiously, I addressed my questions to find out how much the Führer had informed him about the treason affair. General Praun said the talk was a short one; the Fuehrer pointed very briefly to the serious disruption at Communications and asked him to put it back in order again.

I had the impression that the first veil had already fallen over the macabre treason affair. General Praun tried hard to trace the rumors about the treason whenever they trickled through. I know he talked with Kriminalrat Hoegl, who referred him to Kaltenbrunner's investigating group. He might have asked around some more, but any additional information about Fellgiebel, Thiele, Hahn and Hassel has been withheld.

Strange – but for me very understandable – was the behavior of Kriminalrat Hoegl who referred Praun to Kaltenbrunner, who gave him the reasonable advice to have Fellgiebel questioned by staff officers, and finally of Gestapo Müller, who refused Praun any information on Fellgiebel, Thiele, Hahn and Hassel. I was not surprised that the raid-like checking of the parallel connection showed no results; it was removed long before.

But the treason was there, it was permanent and of an unbelievable scope. When German soldiers overran Russian battle stations, they found there their own operation and attacking plans! Most of the responsible and carefully planned strategic and tactical German operations, advancing with fighting and sacrificing spirit, were beaten back by the enemy's counter actions made possible by that treason. The all-important moment for a successful attack–surprise – was never gained.

Judged by this big treason affair at headquarters, the Red Chapel plot appears trivial, even though Admiral Canaris from the German Abwehr testified at the state war court (Reichskriegsgericht) – at that time still a confidant – that the treason of the Red Chapel cost at least a quarter million victims!
But what did that alarming, yet wretched treason mean compared to the incomprehensible plot at a high military level and right at headquarters, only in part revealed by the assassination?! It fluctuates between high treason and Landesverrat. Hate, craving for admiration, lack of character and a stick-in-the-mud reactionary attitude were the reasons for an unbelievable conspiracy with the enemy, an enemy whose goal it was to destroy Germany. Naturally, the traitors interpreted their action as necessary and in the interest of a higher humanity. They didn't offer themselves as a sacrificing gift, but instead the German soldier who paid for it with his life.

Therefore, it could not be a revolution from the top; there was no necessity for it, there was nothing there, no substance, no program that could claim to be taken seriously, no sparkling thought or serious plans of how to proceed if the putsch succeeded. There was just no personality there. Civil war and hate would have followed the successful assassination and putsch – for generations. Nothing would have changed the relentless enemy.

Terrible things happened; much might simmer away; a lot can be buried. A lot, however, one will not forget – the treason, above all. One can try to belittle it as unimportant, to cover it up, or even to glorify it – it won't help, because treason cries throughout the centuries.

Endnotes:

1) Not to be confused with Dr. Karl Brandt, Hitler's personal physician/surgeon and loyal party member, who was hanged by the Allies at Nuremberg.

2) Walther von Seydlitz was one of the German Stalingrad generals to turn against his country while in Soviet captivity.
 

[Amanda]

http://carolynyeager.net/ein-anderer-hi ... part-three  (photos at link)

Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part three

Valkyrie! The Last Plot against Hitler

Part Three – The Last Circle

Translation and commentary by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann
from Hermann Giesler's memoir, Ein Anderer Hitler, Druffel Verlag, Leoni am Starnberger,6th edition, 1982.

 Copyright 2009 Carolyn Yeager


Translators' Introduction:

"They asked for the death sentence and it cannot be anything else. It is just. I erred and did wrong. It was not right to arrogantly interfere as a little human being with God's doing."

Those were the last lines written by General Helmuth Stieff to his wife immediately after being sentenced to death by the People's Court on the afternoon of August 8, 1944 – going to the gallows the same day.1 As Chief of Operations at Army High Command (OKH), Stieff was in a prime position to help the conspiracy – he had regular access to Hitler; he hid the bombs in his office at the OKH headquarters in Mauerwald, East Prussia, not far from Wolfsschanze.
 
Stieff's first contact was with Army Group Center Chief Henning von Tresckow; together they met with Generals Friedrich Olbricht and Ludwig Beck in Berlin in August 1943. They approached General Guderian and General Kluge, but neither one would commit. In October, Stauffenberg asked Stieff outright to kill Hitler and Stieff refused. But Stieff put the bombs into the uniforms to be displayed to Hitler at Klessheim Castle, as described by Giesler in this chapter. Stieff was in charge of the event at Klessheim, and after this failure, it was decided that Stauffenberg was the only one who could complete the job.

General Stieff was on the plane with Stauffenberg and his aide Lt. Haeften on their flight to Wolf's Lair July 20th. He was arrested that night at the OKH headquarters, interrogated by SS investigator Hans Rattenhuber, and held from then on.

In this third segment of our Valkyrie series from Herman Giesler, the final reaches of the multiple conspiracies and related treasons and betrayals are probed. You will feel, in their anger and arguments against these men and their methods, the sharp pain and deep sadness felt by Hitler and Giesler at the inestimable damage done to the war effort.

Giesler and Bormann review past assassination attempts

The hard and sober Kaltenbrunner reports about the interrogations and confessions of the conspirators continued to come in. I had a backlog of reading. For quite a while in my off hours I was busy with design sketches – partly as supporting material for new discussions, partly due to the ideas and suggestions Adolf Hitler brought to our nightly talks. Moreover, I needed time in order to absorb and gain some distance from what Rattenhuber and Hoegl had told me.

One morning as I visited Bormann again, he handed me the reports about the interrogation of Major General [Helmuth] Stieff. One could get the impression that instead of working for the tasks they were supposed to perform, the plotters spent most of their time brooding about set-ups and ways to kill their supreme commander – by means of the least danger for themselves. They must stay alive.

According to Stieff, Stauffenberg, at least for awhile, thought to let his adjutant, Lt. [Werner von] Haeften, attempt to shoot the Führer; that would be possible at the "Führer-Lage" or at a weapons demonstration. Then, however, they thought that might not be secure enough.

After that much hesitation, Stieff himself – so he said – wanted to take over the assassination on the occasion of a weapons demonstration at the Klessheim Castle near Salzburg, built by Fischer von Erlach2. I had participated in redesigning it into a guesthouse of the Reich. After the heavy weapons demonstration, the Führer was to be shown the new assault uniform for the attack units: backpack, assault rifle, hand grenades. Three sergeants and non-commissioned officers, highly decorated with the Gold Ranger Bar (Nahkampf-spange)3, were selected. Major General Stieff intended to have the packs loaded with English explosives and a time igniter – to be sure to keep his self at a proper distance from the explosion. But because of a time lapse and a predetermined appointment, the Führer cancelled the presentation of the new assault equipment after the weapons demonstration and we returned to the Berghof.

During the demonstration, a little general kept my attention: nervously busy, he stood out amongst the rest of the military staff. "Who is that little one here?" I had asked the SS adjutant. "That is Major General Stieff." I recalled that particular moment as I continued to read the Rattenhuber report: "....true horror among the population, especially amidst soldiers and low ranked leaders, caused by the fact that the traitors planned to lay the bomb into the knapsacks of three battle-proven soldiers who would demonstrate the new uniforms for the Fuehrer...."

I looked at Bormann and said, "If what Stieff admitted is correct, then he is really a special jewel of this conspiracy clique! Do you judge Stauffenberg, who carries out the assassination without consideration for his co-conspirator Brandt, whom he blows into the air, as the better one? For me, the over-all picture is very clear: when Stauffenberg landed at Berlin-Rangsdorf and reported the – what he thought successful – assassination to those waiting at Bendlerstrasse, didn't he say then: 'General Stauffenberg speaking here!' Look at that, he had promoted himself to a general. By the way, do you remember the report of the ordnance officer about the strange behavior of Stauffenberg at the Berghof on July 11?"

"The 'Lage' held in the large living room at the Berghof was not yet over. Stauffenberg was no longer needed and asked for permission to be absent – it happened not so long ago. We were both chatting at the back of the hall towards the small living room when the orderly appeared and reported: 'I just looked over the dining room to make sure that everything is ready for lunch, and there in the middle, behind the Führer's chair, stands the Colonel with the one arm. I told him: The room is private, may I ask you ....? He interrupted me: Pardon, I only wanted to have a look at it!'"

"Yes," I said to Bormann, "I remember that the Colonel with the one arm also said to the orderly: Very neat here, beautiful, especially with the bay window – before the orderly asked him to leave the dining room."

Bormann said, "I then questioned the orderly further – I found out he (Stauffenberg) had a briefcase with him. What do you think was in it?"

"Turnip salad and pudding – in order to contribute something for lunch?" was my joking remark.

Bormann grimaced. "Today we know that nobody could have noticed the briefcase under the broad, long table with the low-hanging tablecloth. At that time, you were the honored guest, sitting across from the Führer – sometime you might thank that Corporal!"

I replied, "Those repeated assassination tries which ended in vain seem to be fateful. I think about the plot at the Buergerbraeu4 – and with a bomb on the airplane5 they have tried it once before. Now I'm reading about the infamy at Klessheim, and the memory of the affair at the Berghof. Then the 20th July – miraculously the Führer survives with only light injuries. Are there still some more attempts I don't know about?"

"That 'attempt' with the slight injury is only one side of the coin," Bormann said. "The other one sits much deeper, believe me! To your question: Yes, there were more assassination attempts which only now we are aware of. Talk about it with both of them6 – I don't have time."

For awhile I continued reading the interrogation protocols of Admiral Canaris and his protégé Oster – very opaque, strangely blurred. Dark and depressing as those reports were, an amusing moment occurred: the copy of a letter to Major General [Hans von] Oster from his son Achim, IA at an army corps in Upper Silesia. Its content stayed strongly engraved in my mind. It read like:

The conditions are very pleasant here. The commanding general is a horseman and grand seigneur of the ancient regime, a real general, not one of those 'people' soldiers.

I would have liked to have a look at that General.

Treason Centered in The Abwehr and Army Group Center

Translators' commentary:

General Major Hans von Oster was an early opponent of what he feared would be inopportune military solutions for the Czechoslovak and Polish questions. He was a religious man (as were Stieff and Stauffenberg) who was forced to resign from the Army in 1932 because of an indiscretion involving the wife of another officer. After a job in connection with the Prussian Police, he was able to transfer to the Abwehr, the state intelligence agency, the following year, where he met Hans Berne Gisevius and Arthur Nebe, working in the Gestapo, and became a confidante of Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the spy agency.

By 1935, Oster was allowed to re-inlist in the Army, but never on the General Staff. When Canaris reorganized the Abwehr in 1938, he made Oster head of the Central Division (Zentralamt), in charge of personnel and finances. As such, Oster was able to build up a dense network of contacts to Western countries. He was in the thick of secret efforts to prevent a Czech invasion in '38; through his office, he arranged for emissaries to Great Britain to urge the British to stand firm over the Czech/Sudenten crisis – clear treason. Hitler's diplomatic triumph with Chamberlain in Munich left the conspirators disheartened. Some lost interest, at least temporarily, but Oster did not give up. He took upon himself the central planning of all future plot plans.

To understand the contempt that Hermann Giesler expresses for Hans Oster, the following incident should suffice: Oster informed the Netherlands' military attaché, his friend Bert Sas in Berlin, more than twenty times of the exact date of the many times weather-delayed invasion of the Netherlands. Sas passed the information to his government, but was not believed! Oster himself said he calculated that his treason could cost the lives of 40,000 German soldiers, but concluded that it was necessary to prevent even more deaths during a protracted war should Germany achieve an early victory.

Oster worked closely with Henning von Tresckow, Chief of Army Group Center, and with General Friedrich Olbricht, head of the General Army Office at the Bendlerblock in Berlin. It was Oster's Abwehr group that supplied the English-made bombs that Tresckow used in the assassination attempts of 1943. One of this group was Hans von Dohnanyi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's part Hungarian-Jewish brother-in-law.

 But trouble came in April 1943 when the Gestapo entered the Abwehr to arrest Dohnanyi for violations of foreign exchange regulations (illegal money transfers, to be exact), including cash transactions with Jauch & Huebener, Germany's largest insurance company. (Today it is American firm Aon. Walter Jauch was related by marriage to Hans Oster.) Present at the time, Oster was caught trying to hide incriminating notes. That was the end of his Abwehr intrigues; he was dismissed and closely watched by the Gestapo from then on. Dohnanyi was eventually sent to the Sachensausen detention camp for political prisoners, where he was put to death on April 8, 1945 as a July 20th conspirator. Oster was arrested on July 21, 1944, the day after the assassination; on April 4, 1945, the diaries of Wilhelm Canaris were discovered. That sealed the fate of both men. Thus on April 9th, Oster and Canaris, along with Bonhoeffer and four other men, were hanged at Flossenbuerg as traitors to their country.

Wilhelm Canaris had been playing a double game for a long time. Enough evidence had finally come to light that Hitler had already dismissed him from the Abwehr in Feburary 1944, replacing him with Walter Schellenberg and merging much of the Abwehr with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the SS Security Office headed by Heinrich Himmler. Canaris was put under house arrest, preventing him from taking part in the July 20th plot.

An interesting detail: Under Canaris (and Oster and Dohnanyi), hundreds of Jews were given token Abwehr training and issued papers to leave Germany. One of those is said to have been the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Warsaw, Rabbi Yosef Schneersohn.7 If true, we can thank Canaris for the strong presence of the Lubavitcher tribe in the U.S.

Years later as a "war criminal" at Landsberg, I would hear at our round walks in the jail yard the rather dreamy opinion held by Oster: by betraying the German operation plans, causing the death of countless German soldiers – no, that was by no means treason! Oster just wanted to avoid an extension of the war goals to the North and West. He only wanted to counteract the attack on Denmark and Norway, Belgium and Holland – all neutral states. The governments of those states had only been warned by Oster so they could protest in time, before God and the world, about Hitler's intention to attack. That might stop Hitler and force him to a peaceful settlement of all conflicts. (These were) unlikely explanations and justifications for high treason and Landesverrat8.

Another of these prophets – who thought they could define treason as a cavalier offence and considered it proper to sacrifice German soldiers and endanger the nation's existence for the higher cause of humanity – was the diplomat and former Undersecretary at the Foreign Office, [Ernst] von Weizsaecker. I am sure he expressed that opinion in order to justify his own behavior. I met him at the Landsberg WCP (war criminal camp) with open contempt.

 To the ones who were influenced by that prattle, I said, "A peaceful settlement of all conflicts had just been successfully prevented by those new propagandists, because Adolf Hitler did not want war and the war in the East was forced upon him by the East as well as by the West." I said to them, "Combined with a reasonable land reform9, Adolf Hitler would have preferred to build, perform social work and do an outstanding job of renewing cities. Many of those imbeciles really believed the Autobahn was nothing else but a road-megalomania!"

All that mental confusion I met with a quotation which was attributed to Napoleon, but was really by Josef Goerres from the Rheinische Merkur newspaper, 1814: "No people are more gullible than the Germans ... among them they strangled each other and believed, by doing it, they have done their duty. No other nation on this earth is dumber. No sillier lie can be dreamed – the Germans believe it. A slogan handed to them will cause persecution of their own people more severe than against their real enemies."

 The weeks I spent at the Fuehrer Headquarters Wolfsschanze in August 1944 were the most turbulent ones I ever experienced in my life. What I saw troubled me deeply; I felt the downfall, I thought the Reich would now collapse. The fronts were shaking; threat closed in from all sides. Add to that the depression of being more and more aware of the scope of the treason done.

The assassination of July 20th was like a stone thrown into calm water, causing first a bubbling stir, then, by the interrogations and confessions, forming circle after circle until finally Goerdeler's grandiose, mad obsession of confessing, traitor now of the traitors. But now – when in the center the bubbles are still rising and bursting – a last circle is formed before the water's viscosity holds to its own. But just that circle, for many not visible anymore, caused Adolf Hitler a big shock: the Front itself.

For years he asked himself: why all those failures? The enemy knew about our military operations at the same time as our commanding officers received them!
Already in 1942 in Winniza, he told me something wrong is going on, he suspects treason at the highest level. After the catastrophe of Stalingrad, communist emigrants worked openly together with part of the officers captured by the Russians.10 The collapse of Army Group Center from the Russian attack of July 1944 caused the loss of twenty-five German divisions and hit Adolf Hitler hard. He suspected treason here also, as he did at the failure of the Citadel offensive11 the previous year.

The investigations following the assassination revealed, and then confirmed, Adolf Hitler's suspicion of high treason. General (Henning) von Tresckow, general staff officer of Army Group Center, shot himself; general staff officer Major (Joachim) Kuhn deserted to the Russians. The statement of (Wilhelm) Leuschner, former Hessian Secretary of the Interior and future Vice Chancellor under Goerdeler, clarified the situation further. Leuschner's statement didn't get much attention at first at Wolfsschanze, but he made his statement after his conviction and, faced with death, there is hardly any doubt that he spoke the truth.
By that statement the scope of the treason causing the destruction of Army Group Center became clearer. At the same time, Ludwig Beck, the former Chief of the General Staff, glimmered in an enigmatic light. Knowing that the assassination failed and the revolt fell apart, he took his life already on that evening of July 20th, at the Bendlerstrasse.

Treason in the West

Translators' commentary:

Giesler says little about how Valkyrie played out on the Western front. To fill in: conspirator Lt.Col Caesar von  Hofacker, officer on the staff of General Karl-Heinrich von Stuelpnagel, military chief of France, received the call from Stauffenberg at 4 o'clock in the afternoon telling him Hitler was dead. Based on that, Stuelpnagel issued the order to arrest members of the SS command post in Paris according to the Valkyrie plan. Field Marshall Guenther von Kluge's chief of staff, General Speidel, got the call from Stuelpnagel's chief of staff, General Blumentritt, but decided to wait for Kluge to return from the front. The arrest of around 120 members of the SS took place before two Waffen SS Generals were informed and a navy attachment was alarmed enough to warn of armed intervention unless the SS prisoners were released. By then, radio and telephone were revealing that Hitler was alive.

Kluge returned to headquarters at 6 p.m. and summoned Stuelpnagel and Generals Sperrle, Blumentritt and Speidel to report to him. During the following two hours they shared a tense, but civil dinner until a call from General Stieff at OKH gave the definite word that Hitler was alive and any action on Stauffenberg's Valkyrie "ist Wahnsinn"(madness).

After Stuelpnagel returned to Paris, von Kluge relieved him of his command, replaced him with Blumentritt whom he ordered to "tidy up and get back to normal." But this was not possible; it became another inglorious end of suicide and suicide attempts for the conspirators.

To complete the score of treason and infidelity, sometime during the 15th and 18th of August, Adolf Hitler learned of a conspiracy-attempt between the German military leadership in the West and the Allies.

The breach of loyalty and suicide attempt by General [Karl-Heinrich] von Stuelpnagel, military commander of France, was alarming. Field Marshal [Guenther] von Kluge, Supreme Commander West, was relieved of his service and called back to headquarters for report. On the way to the airfield, he took poison. A contradiction in itself was, on one side, the at-that-time known efforts of the Field Marshal to enter into negotiations with the Allies for an armistice without the Führer's knowledge – even though he must have known that would cause the collapse of all fronts – and, on the other side, the fact that shortly before his death he sent the Führer a letter assuring him of his loyalty.

At one of those evenings at the Wolf's Lair, Adolf Hitler talked to me about those treasonous affairs and said: "Those were the worst days of my life! How easy and simple it would be for me to terminate my life. What is my life? Added to all those disappointments – only struggle and worry and grinding responsibility.

"Fate and providence assigned those tasks and burdens to me – and doesn't the last assassination just demand more steadfastness than ever, to continue the struggle with trust and confidence? And if that struggle is to make sense, we must succeed in exterminating the bearers of that treason – because all the effort, all the bravery are in vain against treason within your own people.

"How malicious and wretched is that treason! I could sense it through all the years, but struggled with myself to believe that German officers, generals, could be connected with it. Beyond any imagination is treason during a war, treason against the nation and treason against the fighting soldiers.

"I believed I could win them over since the existence of Germany was at risk ... even Europe! I stood up to overcome Marxism and introduce instead a socialism of a unified nation (Volksgemeinschaft). I did win the workman, but I misjudged the reactionary – they were here, in the Reichswehr, within industry, the powerful economic and money circles. They were here, too, as failed politicians and diplomats.

"I misjudged their vain ambition, their need for admiration and their intellectual shortcomings – all that I misjudged! I forgot to get rid of those fossils of a long past era. In a time of urgency, reconstruction, reformation, war requirements and burdening pressure, I forgot that I am a revolutionary.

"That someone from that reactionary group might at some time shoot at me – I thought about that and had to live with it. But I never believed it possible that a General Staff officer was able to commit such a characterless crime – even though, due to my experiences since 1938, I had to expect all that. They didn't have the courage to openly resist me or shoot me.

"We have to create a new aristocracy, a value and rank order based on character, courage and steadiness. One sentence of Nietzsche's I identify with: What today can prove if one be of value or not? – that he is steadfast!"

The evening closed with discussions about city rebuilding and reconstruction. Was it denial and relaxation? Was it confidence? I don't know. That night, Adolf Hitler was dealing with traffic structures of cities.

End notes

1. Vierteljahreshefte fuer Zeitgeschichte, 2.Jahrgang 1954-3.Heft Juli, Ausgewaehlte Briefe des Gen Maj Helmuth Stieff, Seite 295.

 2. An Austrian Baroque architect

 3. A special decoration for soldiers involved in close battle.

 4. Refers to Buergerbrauekeller in Munich where the reunion of the 1923 Putsch is held every year on Nov. 8th. In 1939 a bomb exploded behind the speaker's desk, killing 6 and injuring many. Hitler said an inner voice urged him, Get out, get out; after some hesitation, he followed the urge.

5. The March 1943 assassination attempt by General von Treskow, who had a bomb placed on Hitler's plane. The bomb failed to go off.

6. Rattenhuber and Hoegl

7. Altein, R, Zaklikofsky, E, Jacobson, I: "Out of the Inferno: The Efforts That Led to the Rescue of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch from War Torn Europe in 1939-40", page 160. Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, 2002

8. Landesverrat is considered worse than high treason. It is "country treason" – the passing of state secrets by a citizen to a foreign power through written message, verbal report or otherwise.

9. "Raumordnung," expansion to the East, according to the party ideology of "Volk ohne Raum", people without space.

10. Ullbricht, Markus Wolf, Pieck, von Einsiedeld and consortium (all communist émigrés from Germany) were meeting with POW General Walther von Seydlitz and his Stalingrad clique, working on actions, radio propaganda, and Front voice messages. Seydlitz formed the Committee for a Free Germany.

11. Operation Citadel was the military code name for one of the largest military operations in WWII, a pincer offensive to cut off the Soviets from the bulge between Orel and Kursk in July 1943. It was postponed several times, then at first successful, but strong Russian counterattacks caused eventual collapse of the operation, with great losses on both sides.

[pas]

Thanks for posting, Amanda.

These are the Christian Identity guys, but I honestly didn't notice much talk about religion. Audios seemed focused on the history.

Yeah, I have to admit the CI people do have some very good historical research and as long if they stick to that I really don't have a problem with them and I'm actually gratefull for their work.But don't tell them, though since I'm of the ''wrong seed''. :lol:

[Amanda]

http://carolynyeager.net/ein-anderer-hi ... -part-four

Ein Anderer Hitler by Hermann Giesler: Valkyrie! part four

Valkyrie! The Last Plot against Hitler

Part Four – Methods & Morals of the Traitors

Translated by Carolyn Yeager and Wilhelm Mann

Ein Anderer Hitler, Druffel Verlag, Leoni am Starnberger, 6th edition, 1982

 Copyright 2009 Carolyn Yeager

Fuehrer Headquarter Wolfsschanze – Autumn 1944

"Valkyrie" was the code name for the alarm-ready troop response to emergency situations in the Reich – troops in their barracks and boot camps, soldiers on leave and in training classrooms. They should prevent revolts of prisoners of war and foreign workers. "Valkyrie" also meant military actions against enemy landings on the coastal shores and via airborne operations – in short all actions necessary to protect the Reich. By their nature, the Armed Forces were in command.

The investigations of the July 20th assassination were now finished in principle. Isolated at his sleeping cell during an illness in September 1944, Adolf Hitler had time to reflect. He told me:

Valkyrie was planned for the protection of the Reich – the plotters used Valkyrie as a deceiving tool for a cunning coup d'etat. But they could not turn their powerful positions and the potential they had to their advantage, in that they had neither the ability nor the strength to make decisions. The assassination – the "ignition" as they called it – failed. The conspirators did not have a Brutus.

An aristocrat – a colonel, with the knowledge and approval of the general's clique – tried to take me from this world by deceit. I have to admit that the hypocrisy, cowardice and maliciousness – the breach of oath, treason and Landesverrat – hurt me more than the explosion of the hellish machine with English explosives that that aristocrat had put under the work table.

From a safe distance he watched the explosion – the co-conspirator and general of communications (Fellgiebel) at his side; then he flew back to Berlin full of energy to trigger Valkyrie.

It must have been a shock for that general to see that his victim was only lightly injured – yet he was still shameless enough to congratulate him. He considered it too dangerous to warn his fellow conspirators in Berlin. Well, they were ready to command soldiers, to give them orders that could cost them their lives, but they themselves were not ready for that. They would have thought themselves too important.

Not one had the courage to face him openly with a weapon. Instead of entering history by a manly deed, they tried to fell their supreme commander by treachery. Only self-sacrifice would have given them a chance to distinguish their act from that of a cowardly criminal.

How did they justify breaking their oath? Who would give them the right to assassination and revolt at a time of highest pressure and distress, at a time when fierce battles are fought on all fronts? They tried to justify their deed by pretending they were acting in the interest of higher human goals! They saw Churchill and Roosevelt, even Stalin, as their guarantors. They said that for the sake of humanity's higher objectives the blood sacrifice of German soldiers and their comrades is justified.

After the 'assassination' Adolf Hitler insisted on being fully informed, and without glossing, of all the results of the interrogations: the statements and testimony of the conspirators. He asked for exact information of the circle of persons involved, and their reasoning; he was also interested in the operational plan for the revolt after Valkyrie. He soon found there was nothing planned!

The first proclamations of the bearers of an illusionary power were lies – with lies they confronted the nation and the Armed Forces. After what they thought was a successful assassination, they didn't have the courage to confess to it.

Mr. Fellgiebel could not turn off all telephone lines. I was able to talk to Dr. Goebbels and the major1 of the Berlin Guard Battalion "Gross Deutschland"— who then cleared up the confusion. The putsch collapsed, the conspirators had not one company on their side.

Who would give them the authority for the assassination and the coup? With one voice, the front expressed its anger; the front line soldier could not understand how officers were able to do such a deed. The front could see the consequences and results, its judgment was also quite clear: it would burden us; only the enemy would benefit.

The reaction of a troubled community was the unanimous rejection of the assassination and coup. Worry and mistrust arose. Neither the nation nor the Armed Forces gave the conspirators the authority for the assassination or the coup d'etat – above all, not for rebellion and contemptible treason.

From the investigation and testimony one could learn that the conspirators didn't think very far ahead – an egocentric attitude led to a euphoric opinion of the political situation, as in: First we get rid of the dictator, then, via Valkyrie, his party – the Allies will then help us! And once again those vague phrases of higher human ideals for which one had to sacrifice – that's what their conscience demanded.

Also his writings gave them a legitimate reason for their deeds. Better than many of his party comrades who were reading Mein Kampf, they rummaged through the book and found sentences they thought they could translate to fit their shabby thinking. Since he "drags the nation" into destruction, he justifies in Mein Kampf their right to stop him through resistance, rebellion and the coup d'etat. It is, therefore, not only their right but their obligation to get rid of him, the tyrant – that's how they read Mein Kampf.

He is ready to face the people's criticism at any time. Not "he" dragged the nation into distress, but the openly declared will of Churchill, Roosevelt and their big ally, the international Jews – to destroy us. The reactionaries and the plotter's clique encouraged that intention, and theirs was the best way to push the nation, via the putsch and assassination, beyond the present trouble, into the abyss. No—he denies those men the right of high treason, rebellion and the right to assassinate! Where indeed could they ever have shown the power to build a new state regime made necessary by the last war and the new century?
Again and again he asks himself: Where really are their ideas? What can they offer the nation? Only their names and an honor only they believed in? Both are tattered by their deeds!

One can lift a revolution to a big wave, releasing enthusiasm, national strength and willingness to sacrifice. One can not keep that wave permanently, one can not conserve it. But the start of a revolution also depends on the person who carries it and his authority – on the thoughts and ideas, if they are understood, if they have roots and find confirmation in the spirit of the time and the sense of the nation.

His way to the leadership of the nation is proof of his harmony with the national spirit.

The bearers of the assassination imagined a past they themselves did not understand. For him, it had been inconceivable up to now that a German officer – above all a general – could commit treason. Treason at wartime – damaging the German people, burdening the fighting German soldier – impossible!
The day will come when he can announce clearly and without misunderstanding just who instigated that war. Who? As long the fighting goes on, he cannot talk. That shock would be too much for the German people and the front.

For a commander, the most important quality is his character, his attitude. Intelligence does not stand higher. The character and the strength of his will alone are decisive when he has to withstand severe blows of fate. Courage, bravery and willingness to sacrifice are the prerequisites of a leader. He always requests that from his soldiers. So he shall and must be a role model – even more, he must be able to give strength and convince!

When he had to accept the capitulation of [Field Marshal Friedrich] Paulus and the behavior his generals, Hitler had said:

Now they will take their way down into the lowlands of wretchedness, the oath being only a fiction. A steady character is not their strength, intellectual self-esteem more so. They may try to work with the Russians and will lose face at the same time. It won't take long and we are going to hear them on the Russian propaganda radio. Step by step, they will show a lack of character and, in the end, slander their military tradition. They may forget they carry a name of a dutiful obligation.

There were some co-workers here, generals too, who could not believe that something like that was possible. Hitler had said, "Yes it is, sooner or later, and all the way up a Field Marshal!"

That he still promoted Paulus to that rank, he never would forgive himself.

So one leads an army, the army fights and dies, and he who was entrusted to lead that army and the soldiers – does he die heroically with his soldiers? The meaning of that battle, the heroism and sacrifice of many ten thousands of brave soldiers, officers and generals will lose its value, will be trampled down by the one who should have been their example.

He will take the road to Moscow; we will live to see him at the radio station!

Hitler said that and he had it right, but that it would lead to such a disgusting mess as the so-called "National Committee for a Free Germany" by that Seydlitz-Kurzbach – I myself could never have imagined!

Well, Seydlitz might feel like York at Tauroggen!2 Seydlitz and his creatures did not grasp that it was Bolsheviks they signed up with; they didn't get it because with their thinking they were still entrenched in the 19th century. They hadn't learned anything at all. They hadn't recognized that this is a war of life or death, not restricted to soldiers, folk or the nation. They could not imagine that we are involved in a fateful struggle, in a revolutionary fight for the existence of Europe—in a battle for a new idea of life (Lebensbasis), against destruction and the powers who want to destroy us.

If we still had such schizophrenic twits who thought: We do that with the Russians – we drop our weapons honorably, we hand over our epee3, which Marshal Stalin honorably hands back to us again – yes, in such a world they still lived! Then we sign a peace agreement with them – that's how those idiots thought, and the ones oriented towards the West thought similarly.

Is it surprising that optimism dwindles? That our allies and the Neutrals might lose their confidence? And are we surprised about the demand for "Unconditional Surrender?"

What shall the front think, the soldier, when asked by those shameful tracts of cowardice to surrender, to sabotage, to commit treason and to refuse to obey orders – pamphlets signed by former commandants? We have to overcome that moral crisis!

They wanted to end the war and submit the nation to the 'Unconditional Surrender'; they would have surrendered the soldiers of the Eastern front to the Russians – they did not care!

He would have been relieved of worries, sorrows, pressing responsibility and sleepless nights if the infamy of Stauffenberg had succeeded. But what would have been the consequence? Chaos and destruction at the fronts! Hate and civil war and despair.

They wouldn't have understood – it is not about him, but Germany! Churchill declared it frankly and cynically: It is about Germany's destruction! Where can you find in this a political foundation for a conspiracy that makes history?

From a rare kind, they found each other: reactionaries, liberals, marxists, representatives of the church – the "Bekennende Kirche" specifically – they even prayed for Germany to lose the war. And let's not forget the diplomats! And the Herren Generals! He can not expect to be understood by his generals, but he can request that they obey his orders.

They just could not see that we lived in a changing era and had to endure a fateful war. Instead of fighting for the nation as their oath required, they committed destruction, sabotage and subversion. The conspirators had no right, however, for the coup destroyed any trust by the mere try.

From the first war year on I suspected treason, often I felt it physically; I am sure that treason started much earlier. Now, after the assassination, proof of the permanent treason is clear. Still, not all traitors are recognized. What damage they caused!

Endnotes:
1. Referring to Major Otto Ernst Remer, later awarded the rank of Major General.
2. York was a Prussian general during the Napoleonic war. In Tauroggen in East Prussia, he sided with the Russians against King Friedrich Wilhelm's order.
3. An epee is a blunted fencing sword developed in the 19th Century for practice and competition.  

[Amanda]

Pas-

I honestly don't know what the whole seedline thing is about--I'm 1/2 Czech, 1/4 German, 1/8 Polish, and 1/8 Scottish, so not sure what that makes me...mutt seedline?? LOL!

I'm actually really impressed w/these guys and their history audios--I've actually learned a lot from them.  I like that they primarily read a lot of revisionist articles/books, etc and add their commentary. I only have so much time for reading, so it's kind of nice to have audios where they read this info to you.  And these guys are definitely good at connecting dots--I've learned stuff from them that I haven't picked up elsewhere.

[pas]

Amanda wrote:

I honestly don't know what the whole seedline thing is about--I'm 1/2 Czech, 1/4 German, 1/8 Polish, and 1/8 Scottish, so not sure what that makes me...mutt seedline?? LOL!

 :lol: Yeah, sounds pretty mixed to me but I think they'd believe you to be a ''pure Adamite'' and ''Israelite''(I could be wrong here).As long if you're from the White race with the exceptions of a couple (I'm not sure though), you're part of the team.

I'm actually really impressed w/these guys and their history audios--I've actually learned a lot from them. I like that they primarily read a lot of revisionist articles/books, etc and add their commentary. I only have so much time for reading, so it's kind of nice to have audios where they read this info to you. And these guys are definitely good at connecting dots--I've learned stuff from them that I haven't picked up elsewhere

I agree and I also don't have a lot of time to read so good audio's are important to me and if they read exellent stuff like Yeager's I can get over the ''Praise Yahweh's'' cause like you say, these guys really do some good work on this subject.