Last surviving would-be Hitler assassin dies

[Ed Mahmoud]

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb, has died. He was 90.



Imagine, even at that late date, how many hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives that would have been saved if the plotters had been successful.

[Cyclenall]

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb, has died. He was 90.



Imagine, even at that late date, how many hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives that would have been saved if the plotters had been successful.

I don't think it would have made a difference, one of the lower ranks would have replaced him and done the same.

[streetsoldier]

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of plotters who attempted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb, has died. He was 90.



Imagine, even at that late date, how many hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives that would have been saved if the plotters had been successful.

I don't think it would have made a difference, one of the lower ranks would have replaced him and done the same.

Had the Army conspirators been successful, the phone call from the Wolfsschanze bunker complex would have set off a set of pre-planned strikes at the NSDAP leadership, arrests of SS and Gestapo functionaries in every German-controlled city, control of Berlin, etc.

Besides, the entire structure of Germany at the time was the Fuhrer-Prinzip ("Leadership Principle"),l which didn't allow for a smooth transition of power should Hitler be assassinated. Goering, Himmler and Doenitz (the main contenders) would all have been placed under arrest not long after the Army moved...a matter of days at best.

[Cyclenall]

Had the Army conspirators been successful, the phone call from the Wolfsschanze bunker complex would have set off a set of pre-planned strikes at the NSDAP leadership, arrests of SS and Gestapo functionaries in every German-controlled city, control of Berlin, etc.

Besides, the entire structure of Germany at the time was the Fuhrer-Prinzip ("Leadership Principle"),l which didn't allow for a smooth transition of power should Hitler be assassinated. Goering, Himmler and Doenitz (the main contenders) would all have been placed under arrest not long after the Army moved...a matter of days at best.

I'm not so sure it would have gone smoothly like that. Everything would have to go perfectly for that to happen, no room for error. I don't follow your first paragraph about a phone call setting off strikes.