Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Melitta von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

Melitta at an airfield, 1934.
Courtesy of Gerhard Bracke from his book, 


On May 21, 1944, Melitta wrote in her diary: "Early call, Claus, Berthold, Haeften, finally came to an agreement." Melitta, the two Stauffenberg brothers, and their close friend, Werner von Haeften, spent a long day together, swimming and sailing, activities that insured their conversations could not be overheard. On that day, most likely, Claus related to Melitta his plan to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government. He asked if she would be willing to fly him to Hitler's military headquarters in the forests of East Prussia in order to do the deed, then fly him directly back to Berlin to announce the fuhrer's death and complete the coup.

Melitta agreed immediately.

She was now involved in aerodynamic tests designed to intercept Allied bombers. Her work, she felt, would save the lives of German Luftwaffe pilots and the German civilians being killed in the Allied raids. She was in no way trying to support Hitler. Quite the opposite--she blamed him for all these deaths, telling her trusted friends that he "needed to disappear as soon as possible."

From Melitta von Stauffenberg: "The Plot to Kill Hitler" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue. 

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