On July 20, 1944, a group of Wehrmacht officers organized an attack on Adolf Hitler. It almost worked! How did German society react to the attempt to overthrow the dictator who dragged the country into a bloody war? Totally different than you might expect.
In mid-1944 it was already clear that the Third Reich was in a losing position. Even so, ordinary Germans still blindly believed in Hitler. Even the people involved in the plot knew that they could not count on massive support and that they would go down in history as traitors.
First of all, private Germans could not believe what had happened. As Ian Kershaw, author of the book “Führer. Fight to the last drop of blood ", was dominated by a feeling of deep shock and consternation at the news of an unsuccessful murder attempt (p. 54) . People indignantly complained at a small clique of criminal officers who dared to raise their hand over the head of state.
Many documents prove that the regime only strengthened its position after the attack, and the society openly expressed its support for the leader. Of course, the sources created by the apparatus of power contain many distortions, but the scale of the phenomenon leaves no doubt. The German people still loved Hitler!
There is little left of the conference room (and the big boom) on July 20 ...
Agents of the SD (Reichsführer SS Security Service) wrote: All reports indicate that reports of this incident caused extremely strong feelings of shock, terror, outrage and rage (p. 55) .
On the streets of Królewiec and Berlin, women reportedly burst into joyful tears , hearing that the chief came out of the coup unscathed. People kept saying with relief: "Thank God, F ührer is alive! ” "What would we do without the Führer?"
Many Germans openly expected that henceforth disobedient commanders would be shot, not dismissed. There were huge "rallies of loyalty" organized all over the country, and people often came to it quite spontaneously and with tears in their eyes. Society wanted Hitler to finally stop staring at the opposition in its own ranks!
Of course, the reports prepared by the Nazis themselves were to some extent colored. However, very similar words were mentioned in private journals, letters and diaries. One Munich resident wrote to her husband at the front: I can't imagine how things would have turned out without F ührera (p. 57).
A major wrote in his journal: Bad news. The attack on F ührera (p. 57). A prisoner of war in Texas noted with relief that Hitler survived. Otherwise the country would plunge into chaos like nothing else! A general compared the attack to the heinous assassination of Julius Caesar. Another openly thanked God.
Censors reported a large number of expressions of gratitude in letters sent to the front and from the front. Even the allies noted universal support for the leader of the Third Reich. . According to the polls carried out in POW camps, more than two-thirds of the captured Wehrmacht soldiers believed in Hitler, and more strongly than before!
The trial of the participants in the attack of July 20, 1944. One thing is certain, few Germans sympathized with them (source:Bundesarchiv; lic. CC BY-SA 3.0).
Interestingly, the regime even made a small fortune in the attack. People began to make massive donations to the party in an act of solidarity with the wounded Hitler. Ian Kershaw draws a picture of true paranoia:
They sent money in thanks for saving Hitler. Significant amounts were raised (...) A corporal explained to his wife that he could not send any money home (...) because he had donated it in a Wehrmacht fundraiser to show solidarity with F ührer and gratitude to him (p. 56) .
Conclusions? On the eve of the fall of the Third Reich, the Germans did not regret Hitler's admission to power. On the contrary. They saw him as the nation's savior!
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Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Ian Kershaw, Führer. Fight to the last drop of blood , Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak, 2012, pp. 53-59.