The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-07-20
AlI-PowerfuI Clique Would
Have Been Perpetuoted


opposed to Hitler. Prominent
among these were Count Won
Helldorf, police chief of Berlin
and DR.. Goerdeler, former may
or of Leipzig.
MEET IN CLUB
The exclusive union club in
Berlin became rendezvous,
and these conspirators met fire.
quently to shape plans and
draw up lists of Nazis and SIS
officers earmarked for death.
In Paris. Berlin and else
where, key Wehrmacht COM
manders were to be ready TO
make wholesale arrests of SIS
garrisons once the signal of Hit
ler's death was flashed.
1T was a perfect plan, SEEM
ingly foolproof," said 1t. Ernest
Miller of Astoria, l.. l., N. Y.
1T failed because of three triv-
ial little incidents that could
not be foreseen."
On the morning of July 20.
Hitler arrived on schedule at
his headquarters at Rastenburg,
East Prussia. Photographs taken
cf his arrival show him sur
rounded by high-ranking Off
GERS shaking hands with his doc
tor.
After the usual pleasantries
they entered buildings and head.
ed for the war room, where
routine briefing on the military
situation was to be held. But at
the last moment, for some uneX-
planned reason, the regular
briefing room was abandoned
for larger one upstairs. This
was the first definite break
against the plotters.
PLANTED BOMB
A few minutes later Col. Won
Stauffenberg of the general
staff came in. He carried a time
bomb in his briefcase. The fact
that he was permitted to ap-
proach Hitler with briefcase in
hand distinguished him as an Off
Ger with wide privileges.
Stauffenberg casually placed
his briefcase on the floor next
to the desk, spoke a few words
to an acquaintance and drifted
out into the hall. When briefing
began a few moments later he
had not returned.
One of those unforseeable lit
tie incidents that sometimes al
ter history now took place. The
briefing officer mentioned a
place name that was unfamiliar
10 Hitler, and Hitler got up anC
walked across the room to have
d closer look at the maps. This
move, quite by chance, placed d
massive oak desk between Hitler
and Won Stauffenberg's brief
case.
AS Hitler stood squirting al
the map terrific explosion
blazed through the room, Kill
ling six officers and manning
the others. Hitler himself was
thrown against the wall and par
TALLY stunned. but the lucky
combination of the heavy oak
desk, his curiosity about place
names and the roomier briefing
hoof saved his life.
PREMATURE JOY
The conspiraters, believing
they had won, quickly flashed
word that Hitler was dead.
In Paris, Gen Stuelpnagel
struck swiftly, sitting the entire
SIS garrison and making whole
sale arrests of Wehrmacht Off
GERS of whose sympathies he was
not sure.
Won Stauffenberg flewto Ber-
lin. He went directly to his Of
flee, summoned his secretary
and was debating a new list
of Nazi officials to be shot when
Himmler's SIS closed in on him
and told him the plot had failed.
"They took Stauffenberg to
11-13 Bendlestrasse, right in the
heart of Berlin, court-martialled
him with three other officers,
and all four were sentenced to
be shot," said T/3 Walter Hasen-
clever, Andover, Mass. They
were executed a few minutes
after midnight by firing squad
composed of five non-commis-
stoned officers. Two hours later
their bodies were buried in St.
Matthew's cemetery"
Gen. Won Rundstedt, who
knew of the plot but took no
part in it, telephoned Won Stu
elpnagel from Sedan and blunt
ly told him the plot had mis-