SLIDESHOW

20 July Plot

1944: I must assassinate Hitler and take control over Germany. Henning von Tresckow, a very close friend of mine, helped me unite the conspirators and my plans were set in action. I am aware, under German law, I am committing a high case of treason. I stated to Axel von dem Bussche, “ich betreibe mit allen mir zur Verfugung stehenden Mitteln den Hochverrat...” (“I am committing high treason with all my might and means...”) I must though, under the natural law, to defend the millions of people’s lives that have to face the criminal aggressions of Hitler. I made a decision to personally kill Hitler myself when Klessheim was unable to exterminate Hitler, and to run the plot in Berlin. I had a doubt, however, if success is even possible. Tresckow, a close friend, has convinced me to continue with my plans to kill Hitler, even if there is no possibility or hope of success. My friend told me that this is the only possible way for proof to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany was not at all the same and definitely not “one” with the people. Unluckily, General Helmuth Stieff traced my earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler and I now am forced to take two critical roles: to kill hitler far from Berlin and unleash the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the same day. 

UPDATE: Even after my privilege of having regular access to Hitler, I had many unsuccessful tries to actually meet him. And so, I have made the decision to enter the briefing room with a briefcase that has two small bombs. I am in rush however, and am only able to set up one bomb and I left the other bomb to Werner von Haeften. I made a return to the briefing room and set the briefcase under the conference table, as close to Hitler as possible.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/18/xin_180701181214665744813.jpg

UPDATE: No one could have possible survived. I motivated my friends to initiate the second phase which is the military coup against the Nazi leaders. I hear on the radio, however, that Hitler is still alive. The coup has failed.

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Resistance

1943: I am sent to Schloss Lautlingen, my home, for rehabilitation.

My Home:

http://www.phoenix.de/fm/8/Spur.jpg

I was frustrated that I am not able to be in a position to state a coup myself. But as of now, September, I am slowly recovering from my horrible wounds and injuries and I am introduced to a man by the name of Henning von Tresckow, a staff officer to the headquarters of the Ersatzheer. My superior, General Friedrich Olbricht, is a commited member of the resistance movement. The Ersatazheer has an oppurtunity to launch a coup, as one if its functions is to have Operation Valkyrie in place. Operation Valkyrie is a contingency measure which will let it assume control of the Reich in the event hat internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. I asked von dem Bussche to transmit the written orders personally to Major Khun once he has arrived to Wolfsschanze. Unfortunately, von dem Bussche left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler is cancelled, and his attempt is not successful. Major Khun told me that he has hidden the documents under a watch tower of the OKW, which is not far from Wolfsschanze. These documents evince the idealistic motivation of the resistance group.

UPDATE:

JUNE 1994: The Allies have landed in France. Today is D-Day. 

http://opinion-forum.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/d-day3.jpg

The war is lost. I wrote out demands with which the Allies have to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace: Germany retaining its eastern borders back in 1914, to keep territory such as Austria and Sudetenland within the Reich, to give autonomy to Alsace-Lorraine, expansion of the wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol, to refuse of any occupation of German by the Allies, to refuse to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of nations to deal with its own criminals.

Operation Barabrossa and Tunisia

1941: Operation Barabossa, the German invasion of the Soveit Union, is launched. 

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A mass execution of Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and many others has really made me realize the horror of Hitler and his doings. I am finally convinced that to join the resistance groups that are within the Wehrmacht, which is the only force that has a chance to overcome Hitler’s Gestap, SD, and SS. As of now in the stage of the Phoney War, preceding the Battle of France, which my unit was reorganized into the 6th Panzer Division and I served as an officer in its general staff, I have been transferred to the organizational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German army high command, which directed the operations on the Eastern Front. I oppose the Commissar Order. I am now trying to soften the German occupation policy in the conquered areas of the Soviet Union by trying to point out the benefits of obtaining volunteers for the Ostlegionen which are commanded by my department. An offer was made for a reciprocal adherence to the Hague Conventions by the Soviet Union. This however, is left unanswered by the Third Reich officials. My brother and I are maintaining contact with former commanders like Hoepner and with the Kreisau Circle.

UPDATE:

1942: The Allies land in French North Africa and the 10th Panzer Division is occupying Vichy France.

UPDATE:

1943: I have been promoted to Oberstleutnant and I am sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff. Rommel has launched his counter-offensive against British, American, and French forces in Tunisia. The assualt of Sbiba is halted, so that Rommel is concentrated on Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italians has defeated the American defenders. During the fight, I drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division. The Division is taking up defensive positions near Mezzouna. While I was driving up and directing the units, my vehicle has been strafed by British fighter-bombers and I am now severely wounded. I was, for three months, in the hospital located in Munich and treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch. I lost my eye, right hand, and two fingers on my left hand. I am still strong.

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/virtualhistory/_pages/images/static/
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Conquest of Poland and My Way Towards Resistance

1939: It is the outbreak of war. I and my regiment decided to take part in the attack of Poland.

Troops on their way to Poland:

http://www.bwbs.de/UserFiles/Image/1936-1940/Polen_1939.jpg

I put my support in the occupation of Poland and its handling by the Nazi regime and the use of Poles and slave workers to achieve German prosperity as well as German colonization and the exploitation of Poland. A common belief throughout the German aristocracy was that the Eastern territories, which is populated predominantly by Poles and party absorbed by Prussia in partitions of Poland, but taken from the German Empire after World War 1, should be colonized as the Teutonic Knights had once done in the Middle Ages. I have stated, “It is essential that we begin systemic colonization in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur.” I held the usual aristocratic beliefs that was typical of late imperial times.

UPDATE:

1939: My uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Uxkull-Gyllenband, has once approached me to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime. 

My Uncle:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Nikolaus_von_Üxküll.jpg

At first, I took no thought of it but after the Polish campaign, I have been considering about the idea greatly. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Shwerin von Schwanenfeld is urging me to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army so I am able to participate in a coup against Hitler. I declined due to the reasoning that all German soldiers has pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German Reich, but to the person of Adolf Hitler.

A Start of Life

Guten Tag! I go by the name of Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffen berg or better known as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. 

http://www.andrewcusack.com/staufc.jpg

As anyone can see, I do claim a noble title. I was born on November 15, 1907, in the Stauffenberg Castle of Jettingen, which is located between Ulm and Augsburg and in the Kingdom of Bavaria, which is part of the German Empire. I am the third of four sons; my twin brothers: Berthold, who I am the most closest to, and Alexander and my twin brother, Konrad Maria who has died right after his birth. I consider myself the lucky one and I am in morose not being able to grow up with my twin brother. My father is Alfred Klemens Philipp Friedrich Justinian who is the last Oberhofmarschall of the Kingdom of Wurttemberg and came from a well-known aristocratic Swabian family and my mother goes by the name of Caroline Schenk Grafin von Stauffenberg, nee Grafin von Uxkull-Gyllenband who although was born and raised in Austria, has Eastern Prussian and Swedish roots. Our family is considered to be the most oldest and distinguished aristocratic Catholic families of southern Germany of our time. However, on November 11, 1919 a new Constitutional law, as it was part of the Weimar Republic, abolished the privileges of nobility. I have a strong passion for literature. I belonged to Stefan George’s circle since I was a child and I still now remain a disciple of this great poet and forever will he remain my idol. His poem, The Anti-Christ, have an unusual sense to lure people.

The poem:

“He comes from the mountain, he stands in the grove!
Our own eyes have seen it: the wine that he wove
From water, the corpses he wakens.”

O could you but hear it, at midnight my laugh:
My hour is striking; come step in my trap;
Now into my net stream the fishes.

The masses mass madder, both numbskull and sage;
They root up the arbours, they trample the grain;
Make way for the new Resurrected.

I’ll do for you everything heaven can do.
A hair-breadth is lacking – your gape too confused
To sense that your senses are stricken.

I make it all facile, the rare and the earned;
Here’s something like gold (I create it from dirt)
And something like scent, sap, and spices –

And what the great prophet himself never dared:
The art without sowing to reap out of air
The powers still lying fallow.

The Lord of the Flies is expanding his Reich;
All treasures, all blessings are swelling his might . . .
Down, down with the handful who doubt him!

Cheer louder, you dupes of the ambush of hell;
What’s left of life-essence, you squander its spells
And only on doomsday feel paupered.

You’ll hang out your tongues, but the trough has been drained;
You’ll panic like cattle whose farm is ablaze . . .
And dreadful the blast of the trumpet.

 I have other interests in music, arts, and horseback riding, which I often do. 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/07/20/article-1200919-014282F60000044D-396_468x347.jpg

As a child, my poor health caused me to have a huge lack of ambition and therefore, I became a rank as the lowest and unsupportive child of my family as I got decent grades and my brothers received excellent grades of A’s. I once considered becoming a musician due to the fact that I excelled in singing and playing both the piano and violoncello. However, my passion for studying architecture crossed out that consideration. Shortly after, my plans had changed and I decided to take on a more challenging role by joining the army. Training was posted to the 17th Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg and I was then transferred to Dresden’s cavalry school for extra training. Many in the army knew me for my bold rule-breaking. Although, I only smoked in my superior’s presence and always fought for the last word. I was then transferred to Hanover for my inappropriate behavior. I was introduced to my wife, Nina, by her mother, who I met at a dancing lesson. We were married on September 26, 1933 and had four children by the names of, Berthold Maria, Hermeran, Franz Ludwig and Valerie. I have many sleeping disorders and I consider myself quite the workaholic but it all pays off since I do not suffer from health problems even with these conditions. I also have a fancy for coffee and wine.