Chapters
References
Failure and Fallout (Continued)
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As
soon as the coup attempt had been contained the Nazis began a
relentless manhunt to locate anyone who had even a remote
connection with the conspiracy as well as those with which they
wished to settle old scores. “Hitler was in dead earnest when
he declared in his radio address immediately after the
suppression of the uprising that the resisters would be
‘mercilessly exterminated.'"[31] Their deaths, which would have
no outcome in the direction of the war, were to be meted out
purely for the psychological and symbolic values. Estimates of
the total butcher’s bill for July 20th have varied
from less than five hundred to over four thousand executions.
“All in all, the number of those executed in connection with the
uprising was probably less than two hundred, while the total of
those arrested in all likelihood never reached a thousand."[32]
Kangaroo courts led by Hitler’s "hanging judge”, Roland Freisler,
were quick to hand out death sentences to all those even
remotely connected with the coup. “In any event, most of them
did not even plead or regret or apologize. They remained
stubbornly unrepentant. They defied the regime, convinced to
the end that the attempt to overthrow Hitler had been
justified."[33]
In Stauffenberg’s immediate household, his wife
and children were arrested and continued to live under the
threat of execution until the end of the war. Stauffenberg’s
older brother Berthold was a victim of Freisler and his show
trials. In fact some who had never even lent their support to
coup became victims. General Fromm met his end shortly after
dispatching Stauffenberg in the Bendler-Block courtyard even
though he did not actively participate in the coup and had shot
the ringleaders when the uprising was quashed. His luck of
always coming down on the right side of matters had finally run
out. Even more saddening was the loss of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Even though Rommel saw that Hitler was leading Germany
towards ruin he refrained from participating in the coup. When
his name was dropped during one of the many barbaric
interrogations by the Gestapo, the Nazis gave him a choice:
Commit suicide or face a trial in front of Freisler which would
more than likely lead to execution. Rommel chose the former to
avoid the humiliation and thus, arguably one of Germany’s
greatest military commanders of the Second World War was
eliminated, and he didn’t even lift a finger to help the
resistance movement.
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Public History at the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte
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 Roland Freisler - Hitler's "hanging Judge" who sentenced hundreds to die as the Nazis settled old scores in the last days of World War Two  Stauffenberg's brother, Berthold (Center) waiting to be tired and convicted in Freisler's kangaroo court.  Plotzensee Prison - in this room Berthold Stauffenberg as well as hundreds of others met their fate as they were slowly strangled with piano wire. |
