Claus von Stauffenberg conflict World War II
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (German: [ˈklaʊ̯s ˈfɔn ˈʃtaʊ̯fn̩bɛʁk] (listen); 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer and resistance leader who is best known for orchestrating the 20 July plot, which was the failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. 
Despite initial support for the Nazi Party's nationalist aspects, and a tentative opposition to democracy, Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within the Wehrmacht as the war continued, opposing the criminal character of the dictatorship. Alongside Major General Henning von Tresckow and General Hans Oster, Stauffenberg was a central figure in the conspiracy against Hitler within the Wehrmacht. Shortly following the foiled Operation Valkyrie plot, he was executed by firing squad.
As a military officer from a noble background, Stauffenberg took part in the Invasion of Poland, the 1941-42 invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa and the Tunisian campaign during the Second World War.Second World War
Activities in 1939–40
Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the Invasion of Poland. During this time, he was a strong supporter of Poland's occupation, and the Nazi Party's colonization, exploitation and use of Pole slave workers to bring about German prosperity. This support was partially rooted in the belief common in the German aristocracy that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles but taken from the German Empire after World War I, should be colonized as the Teutonic Knights had done in the Middle Ages. Stauffenberg himself noted, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonization in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur". After the Invasion, Stauffenberg's unit was reorganised into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its General Staff in the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, together with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, had approached Stauffenberg to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg began to consider the offer. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld had urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army, to facilitate a coup against Hitler. Though, Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German Reich, but to the person of Adolf Hitler, due to the Führereid introduced in 1934.Operation Barbarossa, 1941–42
During the quieter months of 1940 to 1941, Stauffenberg was transferred to the organisational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres ("Army High Command"; OKH), which was directing  the German invasion of the Soviet Union and operations on the Eastern Front. Though Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plotting at this time, his brothers Berthold and Claus  maintained contact with anti-regime figures such as the Kreisau Circle and former commanders such as Hoepner.Hoffman, in citing Brigadier Oskar Alfred-Berger's letters, noted Stauffenberg had commented openly on the ill-treatment of the Jews when he "expressed outrage and shock on this subject to fellow officers in the General Staff Headquarters in Vinnitsa, Ukraine during the summer of 1942." When Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn, was captured by the Red Army, during interrogation on 2 September 1944, Kuhn claimed that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue."20 July plot
As early as September 1942, Stauffenberg was considering Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt, author of Unser Weg zum Meer, as a replacement for Hitler.
From the beginning of September 1943 until 20 July 1944, Stauffenberg was the driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany. His resolve, organisational abilities, and radical approach put an end to inactivity caused by doubts and long discussions on whether military virtues had been made obsolete by Hitler's behaviour. With the help of his friend Henning von Tresckow, he united the conspirators and drove them into action.Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing high treason. He openly told young conspirator Axel von dem Bussche in late 1943, "ich betreibe mit allen mir zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln den Hochverrat..." ("I am committing high treason with all means at my disposal...."). He justified himself to Bussche by referring to the right under natural law (Naturrecht) to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler.Only after the conspirator General Helmuth Stieff on 7 July 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, Stauffenberg decided to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin. By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about the possibility of success. Tresckow convinced him to go on with it even if it had no chance of success at all, "The assassination must be attempted. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin", as this was the only way to prove to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany were not one and the same and that not all Germans supported the regime.Stauffenberg's part in the original plan required him to stay at the Bendlerstraße offices in Berlin, so he could phone regular army units all over Europe in an attempt to convince them to arrest leaders of Nazi political organisations such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Gestapo. When General Helmuth Stieff, Chief of Operation at Army High Command, who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg was forced to take on two critical roles: kill Hitler far from Berlin and trigger the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the very same day. Beside Stieff, he was the only conspirator who had regular access to Hitler (during his briefings) by mid-1944, as well as being the only officer among the conspirators thought to have the resolve and persuasiveness to convince German military leaders to throw in with the coup once Hitler was dead. This requirement greatly reduced the chance of a successful coup.
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