Just forty-four days after D-Day, a group of German military officers made their move to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the German government from the Nazi Party.
One of the conspirators, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb in a briefcase in a conference room where Hitler was reviewing war plans. The briefcase got underfoot, and someone moved it to the other side of one of the sturdy wooden supports that held up the conference table. The bomb exploded on schedule, but Hitler survived, shielded from the full brunt of the blast by the table support.
Most of the conspirators were rounded up, paraded through abysmal show trials, and executed in a variety of sadistic ways. The executions were filmed for Hitler’s private amusement.
Hitler took his escape as a good omen. A little more than nine months later, with Germany in ruins, Hitler killed himself.
Today, on the 60th anniversary of the bomb plot, the German Goverment is honoring the men who conspired to assassinate Hitler.
History sits in judgment of us all.
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