Germany honors officers who tried to kill Hitler Frank Jordans Associated Press Posted: 07/20/2014 06:20:34 AM MDTAdd a Comment | Updated: 3 months ago BERLIN (AP) — Germany on Sunday honored a group of Nazi-era officers who tried to kill Adolf Hitler 70 years ago. The plot — portrayed in films such as the 2008 Hollywood movie Valkyrie — helped establish a principle under which German soldiers today are encouraged to defy orders if they would result in a crime or violate human dignity. In a somber ceremony, President Joachim Gauck called the July 20, 1944, bombing of Hitlers Wolfs Lair headquarters in Eastern Prussia a significant day in German history for showing the world that there were Germans who opposed the Nazi regime. It was from this legacy that the newly founded Federal Republic, once it belatedly recognized the significance of the military resistance, was able to draw legitimacy, Gauck said. Hitler survived the bombing and was able to continue his military campaign to conquer Europe and eradicate the continents Jewish population for another year. Four officers including Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg were executed without trial within hours of the failed assassination. Some 200 supporters were killed later or driven to suicide. While the July 20 conspirators were among the most prominent examples of German resistance against the Nazis, historians have sought in recent years to highlight other, lesser-known men and women who opposed the regime. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg has become a symbol of the resistance. The broader public hardly knows the names of the many others, said Linda von Keyserlingk, a historian at Germanys Military History Museum in Dresden, which recently opened a new exhibition about the July 20 plot. Earlier this month Germanys Foreign Ministry honored Ilse Stoebe, who worked at the ministry during the war and tried to warn the Soviet Union of Hitlers plans to attack it. She was executed in 1942.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:43:27 +0000