The Plots Against Hitler

by Danny Orbach

Overview

“[A] gripping look at a historical counternarrative that remains relevant and disturbing.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Superb.” — Publishers Weekly


The first definitive account of the anti-Nazi underground in Germany
 
“A riveting narrative of the organization, conspiracy, and sacrifices made by those who led the resistance against Hitler. Orbach deftly analyzes the mixed motives, moral ambiguities and organizational vulnerability that marked their work, while reminding us forcefully of their essential bravery and rightness. And he challenges us to ask whether we would have summoned the same courage.” — Charles S. Maier, professor of history, Harvard University, and author of Among Empires
 
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. A year later, all political parties but the Nazis had been outlawed, freedom of the press was but a memory, and Hitler’s dominance seemed complete. Yet over the next few years, an unlikely cadre of conspirators emerged—schoolteachers, politicians, theologians, even a carpenter—who would try repeatedly to end the Führer’s genocidal reign. This dramatic account is history at its most suspenseful, revealing the full story of those noble, ingenious, and doomed efforts.
     Orbach’s fresh research offers profound new insight into the conspirators’ methods, motivations, fears, and hopes. We’ve had no idea until now how close they came—several times—to succeeding. The Plots Against Hitler fundamentally alters our view of World War II and sheds bright—even redemptive—light on its darkest days.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544715226
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Sold by:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	27,347
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

A veteran of Israeli intelligence, Dr. DANNY ORBACH earned a B.A. in history and East Asian studies from Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. He is a senior lecturer for history and East Asian studies in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a historian, commentator, and political blogger, he has published extensively on German, Japanese, Chinese, Israeli, and Middle Eastern history, with a special focus on military resistance, disobedience, rebellions, and political assassinations.

Read an Excerpt

1
Opposition in Flames
 
By January 30, 1933, the eve of the Nazi takeover, it was still unclear whether Hitler and the National Socialists would rule Germany without a fight. The two anti-Nazi opposition parties, the Communists and the Social Democrats, still held far-reaching networks of activists, many of them armed. They boasted millions of loyal supporters, clubs, and labor unions, and more than enough young men willing to fight. Within a year, all of these seemingly formidable networks of opposition would disappear, consumed by fire.
    In the evening of February 27, 1933, two pedestrians and a policeman were walking by the Reichstag, the impressive home of the German parliament in Berlin, when something unusual suddenly caught their eyes. A light, some strange flicker, was dancing behind the windows, followed by a swiftly moving shadow. The policeman knew immediately he was looking at arson, and called for reinforcements. Police entered the Reichstag together, moving through a screen of thick, black smoke. Quickly, they noticed the mysterious trespasser sneaking from the chamber, half-naked, covered in sweat, with a beet-red face and unkempt hair. A passport found on him indicated that his name was Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch citizen. He had used his shirt and a can of gasoline to start a fire. When asked for his reasons, he answered, “Protest! Protest!”1
    Few of the many Berliners who witnessed the flames in horror imagined that the new Reich chancellor, Adolf Hitler, would use the fire as an excuse to uproot all opposition networks, organizations, and parties in Germany. The chancellor, appointed only one month earlier, on January 30, destroyed in less than one year political parties of all persuasions, the autonomy of the German states, and the powerful trade unions. Dramatic changes also swept the civil service, the judicial system, schools and universities, and most importantly, the army. By late 1934, Hitler and his Nazi Party were the sole masters of Germany, unobstructed by any effective form of active or potential opposition.
    The politicians of the new regime were quick to arrive at the burning building. First among them was Hermann Göring, one of Hitler’s paladins and speaker of the Reichstag. The commander of the firefighters gave him a report on the attempts to extinguish the fire, but Göring was more interested in extinguishing something else. “The guilty are the Communist revolutionaries,” he said. “This act is the beginning of the Communist uprising, which must be promptly crushed with an iron fist.” Hitler and his propaganda master, Josef Goebbels, were not far behind. “From this day on,” declared the new chancellor, “anyone standing in our way will be done for. Softness will not be understood by the German people. The Communist deputies have to be hanged tonight.”2
    The Reichstag, one of the last relics of the dying Weimar Republic, was reduced to a blackened shell. Alarm swept the country, fed by sensationalist headlines in the morning papers. “Against murderers, arsonists and poisoners there can only be rigorous defense,” read one of them. “Against terror, reckoning through the death penalty.” Alarm soon became hysteria. “They wanted to send armed gangs to the villages to murder and start fires,” noted Luise Solmitz, a conservative schoolteacher, in her diary.3 “So the Communists had burned down the Reichstag,” wrote Sebastian Haffner, a young jurist and one of the few remaining skeptics.
That could well be so, it was even to be expected. Funny, though, why they should choose the Reichstag, an empty building, where no one would profit from a fire. Well, perhaps it really had been intended as the “signal” for the uprising, which had been prevented by the “decisive measures” taken by the government. That was what the papers said, and it sounded plausible. Funny also that the Nazis got so worked up about the Reichstag. Up till then they had contemptuously called it a “hot air factory.” Now it was suddenly the holy of holies that had been burned down . . . The main thing is: the danger of a Communist uprising has been averted and we can sleep easy.4
    Neither the government nor the Communists were sleeping easy. On the eve of the Reichstag fire, Hitler had yet to win support from the majority of Germans. The National Socialist Party was still far from a Reichstag majority. The opposition parties from the left, the Social Democrats and the Communists, were still major political powers.5 Now, the Nazis used the red scare to rally large parts of the German public to their cause. Many people, even if cold to Hitler and his radical ideas, began to consider him the lesser evil. Others, especially adherents of the National Conservative right, turned to the Nazi leader as a redeemer. The teacher Luise Solmitz, though married to a converted Jew, was one of them. “The feelings of most Germans are dominated by Hitler,” she confided in her journal. “His fame rises to the stars. He is the savior of a wicked, sad world.”6 The fears of the public were exploited to kick off a half-planned, half-improvised campaign for total political, cultural, and ideological subjugation of Germany. Needless to say, the charged atmosphere made it easier to neutralize all centers of power from which prospective opposition might arise.
    Who really burned the Reichstag? Was it a National Socialist sham, or an act of solitary lunacy committed by van der Lubbe? Scholars have debated this question ever since.7 In any case, the Nazis were the only winners. When they formed the government, they demanded only two portfolios apart from the chancellorship: the ministry of internal affairs of the Reich and the corresponding ministry in Prussia, the largest and most important German state. They knew what they were doing. These two ministries gave them total control over the police, the secret police, and internal security apparatus all over the Reich. Using their newly won power, they set out to destroy the opposition root and branch by way of propaganda, temptation of Germans who were not yet convinced Nazis, and terror against remaining members of the opposition.
    Resistance became ever more dangerous. One of the founding fathers of the German resistance movement, Hans Bernd Gisevius, wrote bitterly later, “Was it the Reichstag alone? Was not all Berlin on fire?”8 The campaign to eliminate the opposition and its institutions was a part of a larger process, which was later called Gleichschaltung (bringing into line). Its intention was to take full control of German society by injecting National Socialist ideology into all aspects of life, accompanied by lucrative carrots for collaborators and sharp sticks for anyone who dared to resist.
    On February 28, one day after the Reichstag fire, the constitutional barriers were broken. The new government passed emergency decrees “for the protection of people and state,” allowing it to monitor letters, telegrams, and phone calls, and to restrict the freedom of speech and the press. More importantly, the right of habeas corpus was suspended, so enemies of the regime could not even expect proper redress by law.
    The first victims were the Communists. The Nazis blamed them for the fire and ordered the arrest of their Reichstag section leader. In just a few weeks, the party disintegrated: its newspapers closed, organizations were banned, and all leaders were placed under arrest. The Communist force, deemed a mortal threat by so many Germans, was paralyzed. Its ranks in disarray, it offered almost no resistance. Its swift disappearance surprised its supporters and many ordinary Germans alike; they had once thought of it as an armed and violent revolutionary force.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

1 Opposition in Flames 1

2 "That Damned Mare!": The Army Top-Brass Scandal 14

3 The Officer, the Mayor, and the Spy 19

4 "In the Darkest Colors": The Decision of General Beck 32

5 The Bird and Its Cage: First Attempt at Coup d'État, September 1938 37

6 Without a Network: The Lone Assassin 62

7 The Point of No Return: Pogrom and War 75

8 The Spirit of Zossen: When Networks Fail 86

9 Signs in the Darkness: Rebuilding the Conspiracy 96

10 On the Wings of Thought: Networks of Imagination 100

11 Brokers on the Front Line: The New Strategy 114

12 War of Extermination: The Conspirators and the Holocaust 121

13 "Flash" and Liqueur Bottles: Assassination Attempts in the East 127

14 Code Name U-7: Rescue and Abyss 143

15 Count Stauffenberg: The Charismatic Turn 160

16 Thou Shalt Kill: The Problem of Tyrannicide 181

17 A Wheel Conspiracy: The Stauffenberg Era 188

18 The Final Showdown: July 20, 1944 210

19 The Shirt of Nessus 241

20 Motives in the Twilight 267

21 Networks of Resistance 281

Epilogue 291

Acknowledgments 297

Notes 300

Select Bibliography 368

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

08/15/2016
In this comprehensive history, Israeli historian Orbach scrupulously analyzes the resistance movements that opposed the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. His superb research includes interviews with resistance survivors, family members, and relevant records from archives around the world. It is a balanced history of the resistance that covers the famous Operation Valkyrie plot, but gives equal treatment to the other serious attempts to resist the Nazis and assassinate Hitler. For many readers the extent of the resistance efforts of Admiral Canaris (head of German Military Intelligence), among others, will be surprising. This book is unique in that Orbach attempts to determine the motivation of the resisters in moral and ethical terms. He explains that most historians have either idolized the resisters as heroes or condemned them as self-serving criminals. Orbach sets the record straight when he concludes that the resisters to Hitler’s Nazi government were imperfect but in most cases exceptional human beings who reacted with action to the criminal deeds of the Nazis. Likely to become the definitive general history of the subject and the starting place for all future research, Orbach’s work is a fascinating story of courage and an excellent study of the struggle of individuals to act morally and honorably. B&w insert. Agent: Andrew Lownie, Andrew Lownie Literary (U.K.). (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Danny Orbach’s The Plots Against Hitler provides a definitive history of the anti-Nazi underground’s efforts to overthrow the Nazi dictator...a riveting read well worth picking up."—Jewish Book Council

"In this comprehensive history, Israeli historian Orbach scrupulously analyzes the resistance movements that opposed the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. His superb research includes interviews with resistance survivors, family members, and relevant records from archives around the world. It is a balanced history of the resistance that covers the famous Operation Valkyrie plot, but gives equal treatment to the other serious attempts to resist the Nazis and assassinate Hitler. For many readers the extent of the resistance efforts of Admiral Canaris (head of German Military Intelligence), among others, will be surprising. This book is unique in that Orbach attempts to determine the motivation of the resisters in moral and ethical terms. He explains that most historians have either idolized the resisters as heroes or condemned them as self-serving criminals. Orbach sets the record straight when he concludes that the resisters to Hitler’s Nazi government were imperfect but in most cases exceptional human beings who reacted with action to the criminal deeds of the Nazis. Likely to become the definitive general history of the subject and the starting place for all future research, Orbach’s work is a fascinating story of courage and an excellent study of the struggle of individuals to act morally and honorably."—Publishers Weekly

"This fresh look at the German Resistance will be appreciated by students of World War II history."—Library Journal

"A robust history of the German conspiracy against Nazism... gripping look at a historical counternarrative that remains relevant and disturbing."—Kirkus 

From the Publisher

06/15/2016
In this account, historian Orbach (fellow, Weatherhead Ctr. for International Affairs) explores the psychological, social, and military dynamics of the network of groups who tried to assassinate German politician and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler between 1938 and 1943. The author uses newly discovered diaries and documents to characterize the attempted murder plots, notably the Oster Conspiracy in 1938, led by Gen. Hans Oster; and Operation Valkyrie in 1944, headed by Officer Claus von Stauffenberg in 1943. Owing to chance or miscalculations, Hitler managed to avoid death at the hands of these high-ranking officials. Another recent work addressing this topic is Philip Freiherr Von Boeselager et al.'s Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot To Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member. VERDICT This fresh look at the German Resistance will be appreciated by students of World War II history.—Harry Willems, Great Bend P.L., KS

Library Journal

2016-08-03
A robust history of the German conspiracy against Nazism.Orbach (History and East Asian Studies/Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) combines intellectual inquiry with thriller dynamics, explaining that “resistance to Hitler…is a field in which historical arguments are not purely academic but wrought through with passions.” The author acknowledges both the admirable aims and ultimate shortcomings of the conspirators, arguing that their story, culminating in Operation Valkyrie in 1944, is deceptively complex, while the plotters’ moral standings remain subject to competing interpretations. Today, he notes, many doubt “not only the moral integrity of the conspirators and their motives but their military skill as well.” Orbach counterbalances this by examining the connections between principal figures as the Nazis took hold of German society. Initially, defiance developed among conservative iconoclasts from the military and the nobility. The author uses organizational theory to explore how resistance to totalitarianism moved from such secretive “cliques” to broader networks, potent but more vulnerable. Of these early groups, “most…were never involved in opposition to the Nazi regime, but a tiny portion went through a process of revolutionary mutation in the opening months of 1938.” A planned coup nearly occurred that year, during Hitler’s aggression against Czechoslovakia, but it fizzled out following appeasement. As one plotter noted, “never, since 1933, was there such a good chance to free Germany and the world.” Amazingly, a disgruntled lone wolf nearly killed Hitler the following year, an event that stands in ironic contrast to the increasingly labyrinthine networks. Orbach tracks the conspiracy’s rise and fall over several years; some participants were motivated by spiraling defeats on the eastern front, others through witnessing genocidal acts. The charismatic Claus von Stauffenberg linked the military, bureaucratic, and civilian cliques into a “wheel conspiracy”; unfortunately, its efficiency permitted the Nazis to punish most plotters following his failed bombing of Hitler’s hideaway. Orbach is thoughtful and careful in portraying a rebellion against evil that ended “honorably, perhaps, but in utter failure.” A dense but gripping look at a historical counternarrative that remains relevant and disturbing.

Kirkus Review