Since before 1938 there were resistance groups plotting to overthrow Hitler, including some within the General Army-the Wehrmacht and their version of the CIA-the Abwehr.  For some reason or another no one had gone through with their plans.  By 1944 (or earlier for rational Germans) it was obvious that Hitler was mad and the war would be lost.  Still he refused to discuss capitulation.  His was total war and scorched earth philisophy.  If Germany lost it was because the people didn’t try hard enough; not his fault.  Classic sociopath.  The people deserved to perish in flames; and they did.

July 20, 1944 at Hitler’s command post in East Prussia, the Wolf’s Lair, an assination attempt came close to succeeding. Just not close enough.  A decorated Colonel by the name of Claus von Staffenburg and a group of other resitance high officers had primed a bomb in a briefcase and nonshallantly placed it under the conference table near Hitler.  Von Stauffenberg received a preplanned phone call and left the meeting right before the bomb was to go off.  It did go off but apparently someone had kicked it away from Hitler and all he recieved were some minor injuries.  The stenograher died in the blast and a few more were injured. Tom Crusie played Von Stauffenberg in the movie.

Von Stauffenburg had left via car right before the blast but had heard it and thought he succeeded in killing Hitler.  He thought this all the way back to Berlin where he found out that the Fuehrer had lived.  The overthrow imploded and over 7,000 were arrested.  There were shams of investigatins and 4,980 were executed.  Von Stauffenberg and some others were immediatley executed in the courtyard of the Wehrmacht headquarters.  We happen to be staying across from that same courtyard and building.  This is one of the few memorials to any Nazi in Germany.

Being the sick, twisted being that Hitler was, he had the executions filmed so he could watch them over and over again.

Another casualy of the July 20 plot was Erwin Rommell, the legendary Desert Fox of the fierce panzer fighting in North Africa. He was a celebrated national hero but had fallen out of favor with Hitler after the D Day landings. The Gestapo suspected him of being in on this plot. They went to his house, handed him a pistol and told him to either commit suicide or his whole family would be shot. He of course shot himself in the head. There was a huge showy state funeral for him as Hitler did not want the public to know Rommell had turned on him.

We drove onto the Reichstag building (their Parliament building).  It had been torched shortly after Hitler came to power in January 1933.  Communists were blamed but most likely it was an inside Nazi job because Hitler took this attack and emergency as an opportunity to declare himself Chanceller and Fuehrer; sole dictator.  Of course it has been rebuilt but the original shell remains.  It still has bullet holes from the Soviet siege of Berlin.

Onto the Brandenburg Gates where Reagan gave his famous “tear down this wall” speech back in the 80’s. There is a plaque where he stood.

The Recently built abstract Holocaust Memorial.

Hitler’s bunker location was close by. It is a parkling lot now and the bunker has been filled in. Again, the Berliners do not want it to be a neonazi shrine so there is nothing there. Seems appropriate.

The Berlin wall section that is still standing has become an artists gallery.
Imagine the heartbreak this wall caused.

We toured some massive memorials the Russians had built to themselves. They had lost 27 million people in the war and did most of the fighting so they deserved the recognition.

Last stop of the day was the building where the Germans signed the unconditional surrender to the Allies on May 8, 1945.

Tomorrow is our final day and we visit Check Point Charlie, the Museum of Terror and the Resistance Museum. There was alot to absorb all at once this past week and my head is full of awful facts and pictures. Final thoughts on all this tomorrow.