KRUG: How can GUDERIAN become HIMMLER’S Chief of Staff – HIMMLER who has killed so many Generals!
KÖHN: He happens to be a vain man!
HENNECKE: GUDERIAN, the man who has been treated so badly himself!
KRUG: Undoubtedly!
KÖHN: Ambition, you see, is man’s greatest driving force – it’s terrible, terrible!
HENNECKE: The dreadful thing is that these gentlemen are gloating over the news and aren’t considering the tragedy of it all; that’s the most terrible thing about it. They think things will be all right now. On the contrary: it’s the Russians that have got the advantage and only the Russians, not the others. They won’t get there in time and will also be out of EUROPE again as quickly as possible, because they want to avoid their own Bolshevisation.
KRUG: It was because I’m so depressed I came here and not to… anti-National Socialist—
HENNECKE: Oh, Heaven forbid.
KRUG: Well, I wouldn’t like to appear as though I were suddenly a turncoat. I am not. I deny that most definitely.
KÖHN: There’s no doubt whatever that in its ideals National Socialism was the only salvation.
KRUG: Yes, that’s perfectly true.
KÖHN: Only unfortunately human shortcomings made it work out differently. It was too idealistic in its conception. There’s no doubt in my mind, either, that HITLER was the great man, who simply foundered on his own idealism.
KRUG: And also on the people who grovelled around him. I said to THOMA: ‘I quite agree, as things are at present, but the chief blame does not lie with HITLER; 90 per cent of the blame attaches to those around him, from HITLER down to our German Generals.’
HENNECKE: Just the same as with the KAISER.
KRUG: It’s those people who’ve driven him crazy. Why does he behave crazily? Because they’ve encouraged him; because they’ve led him to it.
HENNECKE: It’s easy enough to say: ‘There will never be another 1918!’ You bet!
REIMANN: It says in the paper that HITLER made a long speech – ‘Providence has once more saved him’ – so thanks to providence, we’re going even deeper into the mire.
BROICH: At any rate it’s started!
REIMANN: Yes, it’s the beginning of the end.
BROICH: The people might have breathed again. Everyone in GERMANY says: ‘Only the Army can save us!’
REIMANN: It’s the beginning of the end. Are the people – the officers – simply going to allow themselves to be taken into custody and killed?
KRUG: The radio said: ‘It’s presumed’ – they presume in GERMANY – ‘that Generals von BRAUCHITSCH, BECK and HALDER were also involved.’[367]
REIMANN: Things will reach the stage when the Russians, Americans and English will be hailed as liberators.
BROICH: I’m convinced of it. But STAUFFENBERG, always had the idea—
REIMANN: A fine, decent fellow, that man.
BROICH: An upright man.
REIMANN: The pattern of a decent, clever General Staff Officer and a man who cared for his troops.
BROICH: You couldn’t think of a cleverer and better General Staff Officer than he was.
REIMANN: It really used to be a pleasure to work with a man like that.
BROICH: …had at least come off!
REIMANN: Yes, if only it had come off! The massacre will go on now. They’ll overrun everyone now!
BROICH: Incidentally, I believe that even if it had come off HIMMLER would still have taken over.
REIMANN: Yes, undoubtedly. He’ll do so next time, too.
BROICH: It will probably be HIMMLER’s turn next.
KRUG: …revolution in GERMANY.
REIMANN: Yes, poor GERMANY, poor GERMANY!
BORCHERDT: We always believed that STALIN would be assassinated but in the meantime they assassinate (sic) HITLER.
REIMANN (after hearing recording of HITLER’s speech the last words of it being ‘That we shall and must carry on our work’[368]): Yes, right into Hell itself!
REIMANN: I have felt this coming, ever since the beginning of that damned revolution on 30 June 1933 (sic). The virus blisters which then spread throughout our body politic – have now burst. I have had so much to do with the Party, with the SA, I have had countless numbers in the yearly intakes of recruits.[369] Those people have always hated us, although they have disguised it more or less, they have all, including the FÜHRER, felt distrust for and aversion to an officer. That is coming out now. You could hear it today in his speech – he spoke about the Home Army and then about the declaration of loyalty by the GAF and the Navy, but not a word about the Army.[370]
KRUG: Well, we haven’t got any head – he is that himself.
REIMANN: Yes, but I assure you that in the next few days, according to the sinister law of sequence, another murderous attempt will come; that is the notorious duplication of events. One misfortune follows immediately upon another; you wait and see, in the next few days they will fire again either at him once more or at… HIMMLER or GOERING. Those people are just as damned stupid, with their silly complex about loyalty, as the German people is good and decent.
KRUG: It was stupidly done.
REIMANN: I don’t believe in anything any more, not in anything. No ‘-ism’ can ever stir me again.
BASSENGE (after being told of ‘Calais’-Sender report that a special plane was held ready to take HITLER to JAPAN): If only he’d already gone!
Document 146
CSDIC (UK), SR Report, SRGG 962 [TNA, WO 208/4168][371]
The following conversation took place between:
General der Panzertruppe von THOMA – Captured 4 Nov. 42 in North Africa.
General der von SPONECK (GOC 90th Lt Division) – Captured 12 May 43 in Tunisia.
General der von BROICH (GOC 10th Panzer Division) – Captured 12 May 43 in Tunisia.
another German Senior Officer PW, and a British Army Officer.
Information received: 21 Jul 44
BAO: Who is this STAUFFENBERG?
BROICH: What happened?
BAO: He threw the bomb. A Count STAUFFENBERG, a Colonel.[372]
BROICH: That is my GSO I (Ops).
BAO: He has been shot.
BROICH: Good Heavens! It can’t be true! An excellent man like that! He was my GSO I (Ops) and four weeks before he lost an eye and two of his fingers whilst flying at low level in TUNISIA. He was sent home severely wounded. We often chatted together and even in 1942 we used to go around to all the field marshals and try – he told them that if the conduct of the war wasn’t changed, there was bound to be a catastrophe, just as actually happened. Good God![373]
SPONECK: STAUFFENBERG did the deed and was, of course, shot; some of the Generals took the other side, HIMMLER took over the Army and GUDERIAN is said to have become Chief of Staff to HIMMLER![374]
BROICH: Has HIMMLER taken over the Army?
BAO: Yes.
SPONECK: And STUMPFF the GAF. STUMPFF is a fool, the stupidest man they could have chosen.[375] What luck! (Laughter) They have no one left anyhow.
BAO: STAUFFENBERG has been shot. Wasn’t he married to an Englishwoman?
367
These names were not mentioned in the radio bulletins. The first report broadcast by German radio was an official announcement of the attempted assassination and stated only that Hitler had survived a bomb attempt unscathed and had received Mussolini for a long conference. The text is reproduced in Domarus, ‘Hitler’, Vol. 2, p. 2127. See also Peter Hoffmann, ‘Staatsstreich’, p. 540.
368
Hitler’s radio address towards midnight on 20.7.1944 appears at Domarus, ‘Hitler’. According to this transcript Hitler’s concluding words were, ‘In this I see a finger of Providence indicating that I must continue my work, and therefore I shall!’
370
On 21.7.1944 a communiqué was issued regarding the introduction of the ‘Hitler salute’ throughout the Wehrmacht as advocated by Dönitz, Goering and Keitel. The Army was not mentioned in the text. In his address on the evening of 20.7.1944 Hitler did speak about the obedience to orders of the German Army. Domarus, ‘Hitler’, Vol. 2, pp. 2129–31.
371
For the reactions of Thoma and Bassenge to the assassination attempt see SRGG 961, 21.7.1944, TNA WO 208/4168. Both believed initially in the possibility of a simulated attempt as a pretext for a purge. Thoma’s first reaction was, ‘Now it has begun internally. I always told you… I know Stauffenberg very well. I was with him, Graf Stauffenberg, at HQ and he was always quite frank with his opinion, which was also mine’.
372
Oberst Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15.11.1907–20.7.1944), 1938 – May 1940 Staff Officer Ib, 1.Light-Div.; May 1940 – February 1943 OKH Organisations-Abt.; February – April 1943 Staff Officer Ia, 10.Pz.Div.; 7.4.1943 seriously wounded, low-level air attack. Lost an eye, his right hand and two fingers of left hand; 1.10.1943 Chief of Staff, General Army office; 1.7.1944 Chief of Staff, C-in-C, Ersatzheer (Replacement Army). Peter Hoffmann, ‘Stauffenberg’.
373
This protocol confirms the details that Broich made in 1962 about his conversations and attitude towards Stauffenberg. See ibid., p. 273f. For his visits to commanders at the front see note 387 below.
374
Heinrich Himmler became C-in-C, Ersatzheer and Heinz Guderian Chief of Army General Staff. Presumably Sponeck had listened to Hitler’s radio broadcast on the night of 20.7.1944 and misheard. In his speech Hitler stated that he had appointed Himmler C-in-C of the Heimat (i.e. Homeland) Army. See note 367 above for the speech.
375
Generaloberst Hans Jürgen Stumpff (15.6.1888–9.3.1968). At this time Stumpff was C-in-C, Luftflotte Reich. His jurisdiction was not affected by 20 July, nor was he mentioned in Hitler’s speech. Since it is unlikely that Sponeck and Stumpff met in the war, having regard to their respective military duties, Sponeck had probably been influenced by Bassenge. The latter was Stumpff’s Chief of General Staff at Luftflotte 5 between 1.8.1940 and 4.10.1940, and had said of his superior on 21.7.1944, ‘Stumpff is the biggest twit you can imagine. I was his Chief of Staff. So, I was glad, I mean really glad, when I got away from him. Appalling.’ SRGG 961, 21.7.1944, TNA WO 208/4168.