With the premiere of the film «Operation Valkyrie » by Tom Cruise has returned to cinematic news, if he ever left, the Second World War and the assassination attempt on Hitler.
This attempt was the closest to achieving its goal, but there were many others. Let's detail some of them:
- Â The sixth sense of the Führer :In 1936 Hitler traveled by train to attend a funeral for the death of several sailors killed in the Spanish Civil War. The train was traveling at 125 km/h in order to meet the planned schedules, but Hitler reduced the speed to 80 km/h. Reluctantly the driver did so and after a few minutes the train stopped dead. The train collided with a bus that had jumped a level crossing. There were deaths and injuries among the occupants of the bus, the passengers of the train did not suffer any damage. If the train had continued at that speed it would have derailed. On another occasion, he was driving with his chauffeur from Berlin to Munich. In the middle of a strong storm, an individual was found on the road. The driver stopped the vehicle to help him but Hitler ordered him to start up and get the hell out. 3 shots were heard, when they reached their destination they found that they had hit the window.
- A Swiss student :Maurice Bavaud he was a swiss theology student who feared for the independence of switzerland – and of humanity – and decided to save his people by killing hitler. On vacation he went to Germany to visit a relative, Leopold Gutterer, who worked at the Ministry of Propaganda. He earned his uncle's respect by claiming to be a fervent follower of the Nazi leader. After a few days he got hold of a gun and the calendar of Hitler's public events. In November 1938, after obtaining a press pass at an event in Munich, he had everything ready to approach and shoot, but the crowd prevented him from reaching him and being able to shoot with a minimum of certainty of hitting a target. After another failed attempt he decided to go back to Switzerland to get more money and come back. Here he made his big mistake, in a routine control they discovered him without a valid pass. After questioning him, he confessed to the attempted murder of him and was tried and sentenced to death. After the war his family managed to rehabilitate his name and today he is revered in Switzerland.
- The Lonely Woodpecker :the carpenter Georg Elser he was very close to getting it. He was a man who went unnoticed, his only foray into politics was that he had belonged to the communist union of carpenters. But the limitation of freedoms and the deterioration of the standard of living of the working class made him rethink his position. He chose November 8, 1939, since the Führer and the top brass of the Nazi party would meet in Munich. Since Elder had worked in a watchmaking workshop, he had some knowledge that would help him prepare a bomb. For a while he was drilling a part of the stage where Hitler would give his speech, once the hole was finished he placed the bomb and prepared it to explode at 9:20 p.m. (Hitler's speech would take him to the stage from 8:30 p.m. .00). Once again, Hitler's luck was present, he began the speech before and when the bomb exploded, Hitler had already left. After connecting the dots, several witness interviews and a routine border control, they found Elder. Not even Hitler himself believed that a simple carpenter, unaided, could carry out that attack, so the carpenter was tortured to make him confess the names of his accomplices. He was treated as a "special" prisoner, but in 1945 (shortly before the end of the war) he was executed.
These were not the only attempts to kill Hitler, but they were three of the most significant. Although none were as close as Colonel Van Stauffenber .
Source:Operation Valkyrie – Jesús Hernández. Photos:Wikipedia
