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In February 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl, students calling themselves ‘The White Rose’, were arrested for distributing leaflets calling for peace. The Nazis tried them for treason – and they were executed.

In March 1943, in ‘Operation Flash’, conspirators made several attempts to assassinate Hitler. This culminated when they secreted an armed bomb onto his plane when he took off from Smolensk, in Russia. The failure of the bomb to explode remains a mystery. The following week they tried a suicide bombing in Berlin. It all came to nothing.

In April, the Gestapo raided the headquarters of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, and arrested several key leaders of the German resistance, leaving the opposition to Hitler leaderless.

Claus von Stauffenberg – having lost his right hand, his left eye, and two fingers of his left hand, recovered in hospital, and was eventually able to move home to recuperate, spending time with his family.

Many senior commanders sought him out to serve as their chief of staff, but Claus turned them down, until he eventually agreed to a position as chief of staff to General Friedrich Olbricht, a leading conspirator and head of the General Army Office.

Claus hoped the new position would give him ‘opportunities for decisive intervention’.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here

Resources and Links

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treasonby Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here

The hard copy can be bought here

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb -

There is also a Kindle version.

For a list of the music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

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By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler