Carl - Heinrich von Stülpnagel Carl - Heinrich von Stülpnagel ( 2 January 1886 – 30 August 1944 ) was a German general and a member of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler . Early life . Born in Berlin , Stülpnagel joined the German military straight from school in 1904 , and in the First World War , he was a general staff officer . After the war he served in the Reichswehr . He was promoted to Hauptmann in 1924 and Major in 1925 . He then commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Infantry Regiment based at Neuruppin . In 1933 as an Oberst he was appointed head of the ' Foreign Armies ' branch of the General Staff of the Army . In 1935 he published a memorandum in which he combined anti - Bolshevism with anti - semitism By 1936 he was a Generalmajor and commanded the 30th Infantry Division in Lübeck . On 27 August 1937 as a Generalleutnant he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army . In 1938 , the Blomberg - Fritsch Affair and the Sudeten Crisis led to a weakening of Stülpnagel ' s enthusiasm for the National Socialist régime in Germany . It was at that time that he established contact with the Schwarze Kapelle , notably revealing the secret plan for the invasion of Czechoslovakia . World War II . From 20 December 1940 to 4 October 1941 , Stülpnagel was a General of Infantry and commanded the 17th Army . On 22 June 1941 , after the launch of Operation Barbarossa , he successfully led this army across southern Russia on the Eastern Front . Under Stülpnagel ' s command , the 17th Army achieved victory during the Battle of Uman and the Battle of Kiev . Stülpnagel also took part in the military opposition ' s first revolutionary plans , aimed at ousting Hitler and the Nazis , but these plans were largely abandoned after the Munich Agreement . Despite his involvement in the military opposition ' s plot to assassinate Hitler , substantial archival evidence indicates that during his tenure as commander of the 17th Army and military governor of France , Stülpnagel was involved in war crimes . In Russia , Stülpnagel signed many orders authorizing reprisals against civilians for partisan attacks and closely collaborated with the Einsatzgruppen in their mass executions of Jews . He admonished his soldiers not for the murder of civilian population but for chaotic means in which it was undertaken , particularly early premature taking hostages and random measures . He ordered his troops to focus on Jews and communist civilians , remarking that communists were Jews that needed capture anyway ; in order to improve relations with Ukrainian relations , even in cases of Ukrainian sabotage , local Jews were pointed out for punishment In February 1942 , Stülpnagel was made German - occupied France ' s military commander , and in this position , he , along with his personal advisor Lieutenant - Colonel Caesar von Hofacker , went forth with their plans to further the cause of ridding Germany of Hitler . Hofacker served as Stülpnagel ' s liaison with Claus von Stauffenberg , who eventually carried out the assassination attempt at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia . On the day in question , 20 July 1944 , Stülpnagel put his part of the plot into operation . This mainly involved having Hans Otfried von Linstow , who was only informed of the plot on that same day , round up all SS and Gestapo officers in Paris and imprison them . However , when it became apparent that the assassination attempt in East Prussia had failed , Stülpnagel was unable to convince Field Marshal Günther von Kluge to support the uprising and was forced to release his prisoners . When Stülpnagel was recalled from Paris , he stopped at Verdun and tried to by shooting himself in the head with a pistol on the banks of the Meuse River . He only succeeded in blinding himself . While he was in captivity , he reportedly screamed the name " Rommel " in a delirium . As a result , Erwin Rommel was soon put under surveillance by the SS . General Stülpnagel and his adviser were both arrested by the Gestapo , and Stülpnagel was brought before the " People ' s Court " ( " Volksgerichtshof " ) on 30 August 1944 . He was found guilty of high treason and hanged the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin .