Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff Rudolf Christoph Freiherr ( Baron ) von Gersdorff ( 27 March 1905 – 27 January 1980 ) was an officer in the German Army . He attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing in March 1943 ; the plan failed but he was undetected . In April 1943 he discovered the mass graves of the Soviet - perpetrated Katyn massacre . In 1979 he was awarded West Germany ' s Bundesverdienstkreuz ( Federal Cross of Merit ) . Early years . Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff was born in the garrison city of Lüben ( now Lubin , Poland ) in the German province of Silesia . He was the second son of Captain ( later Major General ) Baron Ernst von Gersdorff and his spouse Christine ( née Countess von Dohna - Schlodien ) . He attended schools in Lüben and joined the Reichswehr as an officer cadet in 1923 . He received his initial military education in Breslau at the Kleinburg Barracks , where his forefathers had for generations served in the 1 . Schlesisches Leibkürassier Regiment “ Großer Kurfürst ” ( First Silesian Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment “ The Great Elector ” ) , later ( post - 1918 ) renamed the Reiterregiment 7 ( Seventh Cavalry Regiment ) . In 1934 von Gersdorff married Renata Kracker von Schwartzenfeldt ( 1913 – 1942 ) , co - heiress to the rich Silesian industrialist family of Von Kramsta , with whom he had one daughter . Military career . In 1926 von Gersdorff was promoted to second lieutenant , and in 1938 to Rittmeister ( cavalry captain ) . The following year he graduated from the Prussian Military Academy in Berlin . In 1939 von Gersdorff ’ s unit was deployed in the German invasion of Poland , and he was subsequently in action as a general staff officer in the Battle of France . In 1941 , for Operation Barbarossa , he was transferred to Army Group Center , where he served as intelligence liaison with the Abwehr ( German military intelligence ) . His cousin Fabian von Schlabrendorff had arranged this as a means to bring von Gersdorff into the resistance group active under Colonel Henning von Tresckow . In April 1943 , while he was an Army Group Center intelligence staff officer , von Gersdorff by coincidence discovered the mass graves of the Katyn massacre , which contained the remains of over 4 , 000 Polish officers shot by the NKVD in 1940 . In 1944 von Gersdorff was transferred to the Atlantic Wall . Later that year he was decorated with the Knight ’ s Cross of the Iron Cross for his planning of the escape of the main German force from the Falaise pocket . In 1945 he was promoted to Major General , and was later captured by the Americans ; he was released in 1947 . During the war , von Gersdorff was decorated with some of the highest awards bestowed on German soldiers , including the Iron Cross First Class , for his performance of duty under fire and extraordinary bravery . Conspiracy to assassinate Hitler . After becoming close friends with leading Army Group Center conspirator Colonel ( later Major - General ) Henning von Tresckow , von Gersdorff agreed to join the conspiracy to kill Hitler . After von Tresckow ’ s elaborate plan to assassinate Hitler on 13 March 1943 failed , von Gersdorff declared himself ready to give his life for Germany ’ s sake in an assassination attempt that would entail his own death . On 21 March 1943 , Hitler visited the Zeughaus Berlin , the old armory on Unter den Linden , to inspect captured Soviet weapons . A group of top Nazi and leading military officials — among them Hermann Göring , Heinrich Himmler , Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel , and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz — were present as well . As an expert , von Gersdorff was to guide Hitler on a tour of the exhibition . Moments after Hitler entered the museum , von Gersdorff set off two ten - minute delayed fuses on explosive devices hidden in his coat pockets . His plan was to throw himself around Hitler in a death embrace that would blow them both up . A detailed plan for a coup d ' état had been worked out and was ready to go ; but , contrary to expectations , Hitler raced through the museum in less than ten minutes . After he had left the building , von Gersdorff was able to defuse the devices in a public bathroom “ at the last second . ” After the attempt , von Gersdorff was immediately transferred back to the Eastern Front where he managed to evade suspicion . Prior to the 20 July plot , von Gersdorff also had hidden the explosives and fuses that another conspirator , Wessel von Freytag - Loringhoven , managed to procure from the Abwehr ’ s cache of captured British weapons and which Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was to use in his attempt to kill Hitler . Miraculously , and thanks to the silence of his imprisoned and tortured co - conspirators , von Gersdorff was able to escape arrest and certain execution . As a result , he was one of the few German military anti - Hitler plotters to survive the war ( others included Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche - Streithorst and Eberhard von Breitenbuch ) . Later years . After the war , Von Gersdorff tried to join the Bundeswehr , the armed forces of postwar West Germany . Despite his distinguished record and decorations , his attempts were opposed by Hans Globke , the powerful head of the German Chancellery and confidant of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , and by various former Wehrmacht officers in the Bundeswehr who did not want a “ betrayer ” in their midst . He thus was prevented from resuming his military career . Von Gersdorff later dedicated his life to charity in the Order of St . John . He was a founding president of the Johanniter - Unfall - Hilfe , which he chaired from 1952 to 1963 . In 1979 he was awarded the Großes Verdienstkreuz ( Grand Cross of Merit ) , one of the eight classes of West Germany ’ s only state decoration , in recognition of his accomplishments . A riding accident in 1967 left Von Gersdorff paraplegic for the last twelve years of his life , during which he wrote and published his military memoirs . He died in Munich , Bavaria , in 1980 , at the age of 74 .