20 Jul 67th Anniversary

The 67th Anniversary of the plot by Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler.

Today, July 20th, is the 67th anniversary of the plot conceived by German Army Officer Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The plan, as depicted in the film Valkyrie, did not succeed. In retribution, Von Stauffenberg along with thousands of others were executed by order of the enraged Hitler.

This story, along with others of Nazi resistance, was related earlier today at the site of the Museum of Camaraderie located in Sandy Springs, GA.  Speaker Greg McClelland, a researcher of the German resistance in the Third Reich, reminded us that today is a day of remembrance. If the plan 67 years ago had succeeded, Greg offered, the war could have ended nine months earlier with half as many casualties.

We were shown several slides, including the Plötzensee Prison execution room complete with the meat-hooks from which the condemned were hung by piano wire around their necks.

Greg’s personal hero, Arnold Hencke, was sent by the Gestapo to the  concentration camp Fuhlsbüttel and then to the hard labor camp Hahnöfersand.

When Greg mentioned the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located near Berlin, the man next to me whispered that it was where his father died in January of 1945.  Dr. Mathew Sikorski was a 15-year-old in Poland when he was sent into forced labor. His family wasn’t Jewish, he explained, but Hitler was determined to kill the Jews in Poland and then work the rest of the country to death.

I also learned about the Edelweiss Pirates, young Germans who refused to join the Hitler Youth and set about with their resistance activities. One of their members, Jean Jülich, played the guitar and in secret, sang songs about becoming free of Hitler. In November 1944, thirteen people were executed without trial in Cologne. Six were teenagers from the Edelweiss Pirates. I read that Jülich has written his memoirs and has  been working hard to have his friends’ brave exploits recognized in Germany as heroes.

So yes, a day of remembrance.

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