-Caveat Lector- an excerpt from: Secret Germany - Stauffenberg and the Mystical Crusade Against Hitler Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh,(C) 1994 PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd. 27 Wrights Lane London W8 3TZ, England Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, Now York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Lid, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Cana& Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, 192-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England First published by Jonathan Cape 1994 Published in Penguin Books 1995 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 AD rights reserved The moral right of the author has been asserted Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be Lent re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser --[4b]-- Notes and References When not cited here, the full bibliographical details are to be found in the Bibliography 3 In the Wolfs Lair l Spiegelbild einer Verschworung, p.399 2 Zeller, The Flame of Freedom, p.304. 3 Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945, p.409. 4 Ibid., p.419 for the first sentence, which was crossed out- perhaps to protect the signals staff who would have been hard-pressed to explain why they dispatched it in the original form. The remainder of the message is in Zimmermann and Jacobsen, Germans against Hitler, pp. 131-2. For a discussion regarding the alterations see Hoffmann, ibid., p.681, n.39. 5 Hoffmann, ibid., p.422. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid., p.422.. 8 Interview with Dr Otto John, Berlin, 8 October 1992. 9 Schlabrendorff, The Secret War against Hitler; p. 287. 10 Zeller, op.cit., pp.307-8. 11 Schlabrendorff, op.cit., p.288. 12 Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945, p.424. 13 Gisevius, To the Bitter End, p. 544. 14 Ibid., p.545. 15 Hoffmann, German Resistance to Hitler, p. 128. 16 John, Twice through the Lines, p 151. 17 The Times, 21 July 1944, p. 4. 18 Interview with Ludwig von Hammerstein, Bonn, 7 December 1992, and further clarification 8 March 1993. Hammerstein said that the shooting was between Captain Klausing and Lt-Colonel Herber who was in the office of Olbricht's secretary. Herber also shot and wounded Stauffenberg. Hammerstein served in the 9th Infantry Regiment of Potsdam. His father had been the Commander in Chief of the German army until 1933 and had known and despised Hitler since the late 1920s. The Hammerstein family lived in a private apartment in the Army Headquarters in the Bendlerstrasse. On 20 July Hammerstein and other young officers were given duties in Stauffenberg's section at the Army Headquarters. Hammerstein had not made any preparations in case the coup should fail. However, a fellow officer told him to remember the Swedish diplomats, saying that they could perhaps get him out. Late in the evening, when it was known that Hitler had survived and when the dispute broke out between Stauffenberg and other Staff officers that led to a brief exchange of gunfire, Hammerstein saw that it was over. As a soldier he knew that, if the battle was lost, it was better to flee rather than to give up. He knew the huge and complicated Headquarters building well because he had lived there as a child, and so was able to escape and go to his home. He told his mother that it was finished and that he had to go underground. Unfortunately he left his pistol and his maps in the Bendlerstrasse. In the neighborhood lived an elderly couple and their daughter whose officer husband had died in Russia. Hammerstein knew that they opposed Nazism and had, at considerable risk to their lives, given refuge to fugitive Jews. He went to them and asked if they would hide him. They agreed and so he stayed, together with a Jewish woman who was already in the house. Hammerstein remained there until April 1945. He recalled that during this time he was visited by a man who had been living for two years in the underground and had become very organised. He arrived with a box containing all the requisite tools to make a forged photo pass, food coupons and other vital documents. By this stage of the war, there were many people living underground in Berlin. Hammerstein was present when the city fell to the Russians: as they entered, all the residents simply stood in their doorways quietly watching the army advance up the street. The Russian soldiers approached the civilians in a very friendly manner and took all their watches: in return they gave cigarettes and cigars. At one time, when Hammerstein was arrested, he was taken to the local Russian commander. Hammerstein explained that he was an officer who had taken part in the 20 July plot. The Russian officer clearly knew about this and proceeded to mark it in Russian on Hammerstein's driving licence - the only document he had. From this time on, he had no trouble passing through any of the check-points. 19 Hoffmann, The History of the Cerman Resistance 1933-1945, p. 507 . 20 Ibid. 21 Wolf, 'Political and Moral Motives behind the Resistance', The German Resistance to Hitler, p. 195. 22 Zimmerman and Jacobsen, op. cit., p. 297 23 The Times, 24 October 1992, p. 10. 24 For extracts from Himmler's speech at Posen on 3 August 1944, where this doctrine of Sippenhaft is explained, see Zimmermann and Jacobsen, op.cit., p. 195. The doctrine of Sippenhaft was applied to all the families. We spoke to Gottliebe von Lehndorff during 17-18 September 1992. Her husband, Lt Heinrich von Lehndorff, owned a huge estate, Steinort, in East Prussia which had been m his family for 600 years. He had a substantial country house, one wing of which had been taken over by Ribbentrop and his SS guards as their field headquarters. The estate contained the OKH headquarters, Mauerwald, and was close to the OKW headquarters at the Wolfsschanze. Lehndorff was serving with Tresckow in the Central Army Group on the eastern front and had been part of the conspiracy ever since he had seen an SS man kill a baby by beating it against a wall. This took place at the beginning of the invasion of Russia, 1941. On his next leave home he told his wife about the shocking murder he had witnessed and said that he was fully involved in opposition to Hitler. He asked if she was with him in this. The duty assigned to him by the conspirators was to find more members, to talk to people and draw them m. Stauffenberg twice visited Lehndorffat his estate: in order to speak freely the two of them would cave about the estate m a horse-drawn coach, reasoning that the noise would make eavesdropping impossible. Lehmdorffs task in the coup was to act as OKH liaison officer in Konigsberg - to make sure that the orders from Berlin Army headquarters were carried out and to report back on events. On 20 July he had gone to Konigsberg but, after the failure of the coup, had resumed home. He was very depressed and talked of killing himself. The next day, at 9 a.m., two open Mercedes cars arrived bearing eight SS men. They asked for him at the door. Lehndorff, hearing this, jumped out of a first-floor window and ran away, bare-footed, into the forests on his estate, running through water when the SS started tracking him with German shepherd dogs. Two days later Gottliebe von Lehndorff received a telephone call from him saying where he was and that she should come and collect him m a car. Suddenly black cars, bristling with guns and SS, swept up: they had been tapping her phone. They drove offend captured her husband, taking him to prison in Konigsberg. He decided not to escape for fear of what might happen to his wife and children. They had three daughters, and Gottliebe von Lehndorff was pregnant with her fourth. She had known that something was planned: Major-General Tresckow had told her on 10 July that 'it had to be done'. She had frequent contact with many of the conspirators and noticed on 18 and 19 July that everyone had become very nervous. In fact, she thought them too nervous to carry it through. On 20 July, General Heusinger's aide had come to visit Steinort and take coffee with Gottliebe von Lehndorff. At 2 p.m. the telephone rang; it was OKH headquarters; he was to report immediately to the Wolfsschanze. He resumed to Steinort at 4 p.m. saying, 'I saw Hitler and nothing happened to him. Everyone is completely crazy there.' Shortly before this, Ribbentrop's adjutant had come and informed her of the bomb and Hitler's survival. Heinrich von Lehndorff was brought before the people's court: he stood his ground, saying, 'I have done this because I consider Hitler to be a murderer.' Gottliebe von Lehndorff and her children were all arrested. The children, the eldest of whom was seven, were told to say goodbye to their mother: 'You will have to change your names and Hitler will educate you and you will never see your mother again.' The children were taken to a concentration camp where they were separated from each other. The eldest managed to find only her youngest sister, aged one. Heavily pregnant, Gottliebe von Lehndorff was imprisoned in Torgau until the birth of her daughter. Four days later she was taken by two Gestapo women to another camp. After a train journey she was made to walk, carrying her child, from the station to the camp. She was very weak and was bleeding. The Gestapo women beat her each time she fell. When she arrived at the camp, she collapsed, unconscious. Later she received her husband's last letter: he wrote that 'It was more important to do this, more important than our family.' He begged that she would understand this. 25 Zeller, op.cit., p.370 26 Kramarz, op.cit., p.9. 27 Zeller, op.cit., p.370. 28 Leber, Conscience in Revolt, p.262. 29 On 15 October 1992, 2nd-Lt Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, of the 9th Infantry Regiment of Potsdam, spoke to us of 20 July 1944 as a day in which 'history was balancing on the edge of a knife'. He explained that such an atmosphere forms people, guides people: even the air, in some way, feels heavier. Kleist was an aide in the Army Headquarters at the Bendlerstrasse. Late in the afternoon of 20 July he met, on the stairs, his friend Captain Friedrich Klausing, also of the 9th Infantry Regiment, who was acting as an aide to Stauffenberg. Kleist inquired where he was going. Klausing replied, 'To get a pistol.' 'Why?' asked Kleist. Klausing stopped and said, 'Now, you know we have been together in Russia. We have been in tight situations and I always said that we would get out of it. But this time it is over.' Nevertheless Klausing played his part and was executed for it. As there were no troops at the Army headquarters Kleist was sent to the local Berlin Headquarters to see the commander, Lt-General Paul von Hase - a member of the conspiracy - and obtain some troops. All was in great confusion there and he was unable to achieve anything. He resumed to the Bendlerstrasse, walking cautiously through the Tiergarten, pondering the events of the day. In the distance he heard shooting which he thought did not bode well. He sat down to think about what to do. He had an escape route prepared: in wartime, to use any type of transportation one needed documents; the best being a 'white' paper which would cover every type of transport. Kleist had a number of these, all correctly stamped for use. He had discovered a German battalion in Norway, very near to the Swedish border, and he intended going there and then escaping into Sweden. While he was considering all this, he could hear the trains going by very close to him. He could easily have escaped at that moment. But he did not wish to leave until he knew the situation at Headquarters. So he carried on to the Bendlerstrasse, where he was later arrested and taken to a Gestapo prison. On one occasion, between interrogations, he was pushed face first against a wall with his hands spread above his head. Another prisoner was brought in and also pushed against the wall. He glanced cautiously to the side and saw his father. They could not speak but his father's eyes said, 'I hope you behave' - that is, I hope you have refused to talk. Kleist never saw his father again. His trial was set for December 1944, but unexpectedly he was set free. He went home, had a good bath, a meal and a sleep, then, as he was curious about why he had been released, he returned to the Gestapo HQ the next day to find out. He was interrogated in a curious fashion, the Gestapo officer asking leading questions, hinting at how he should answer. For example: 'I said that on release you would go to the front line right away.' To this, Kleist quickly agreed, and although he realised that he was supposed to go to the east, he went instead to see a friend in the High Command of the army fighting in Italy and obtained papers to travel there. He was captured there by the Allies. Long after the war he met up with an SS general who told him the reason that he had been released was in order to try to find his friend Ludwig von Hammerstein, who was still at large. They thought that Hammerstein might break cover and try to contact Kleist. 30 Zimmermann and Jacobsen, op.cit., p.212. 31 Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p.395. 32 Zimmermann and Jacobsen, op.cit., p.201.. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Klemperer, German Resistance against Hitler, p.385. 37 Schlabrendorff, op. cit. , pp. 294-5 . 38 Leber, op.cit., p.259.. 39 Zimmermann and Jacobsen, op.cit. , p.254.. 40 Leber, op.cit., p.186. 41 Zeller, op.cit., p.132. 42 Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945, p. 526. 43 Leber, op.cit., p.250. 44 For a discussion of the various recollections of Stauffenberg's last words see Hoffmann, The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945, p.710., n. IZ; Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine Bruder, p.598., n.318; 'Claus Graf Stauffenberg und Stefan George: Der Weg zur Tat' in Jabbuch der deutschen Schillergesellschaft, Bd.12, p.540. <next> The Rise of Prussia ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
