The failed assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944 led to the execution of nearly 5,000 people and the purge of the Wehrmacht's resistance movement.
Key Facts
- Date of attempt
- 20 July 1944
- Principal mastermind
- Claus von Stauffenberg
- Arrested after failed coup
- 7,000+ people
- Executed after failed coup
- 4,980 people
- Conspirators executed
- ~200 people
- Hitler's injuries
- Perforated eardrum, conjunctivitis, minor burns
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
German military officers had plotted against Hitler since 1938. Urgency grew after Germany's defeat at Stalingrad in 1943 and the Soviet advance westward. With the Gestapo closing in on the conspirators and the war deteriorating, Stauffenberg and fellow Wehrmacht officers organized a final assassination attempt to overthrow the Nazi government and negotiate peace with the Western Allies.
On 20 July 1944, Stauffenberg brought a briefcase containing plastic explosive into a conference at Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters. The bomb detonated but was inadvertently shifted behind a table leg by Heinz Brandt, shielding Hitler from the full blast. Hitler survived with minor injuries. The plotters, unaware of their failure, launched Operation Valkyrie, using Wehrmacht units to seize control of Berlin and other cities before the Nazi regime reasserted control within hours.
Several conspirators, including Stauffenberg, were executed by firing squad the same night. In subsequent months the Gestapo arrested more than 7,000 people, of whom 4,980 were executed and roughly 200 conspirators were put to death. The Wehrmacht's internal resistance was effectively destroyed through a sweeping purge, and Hitler's grip on power was reinforced for the remainder of the war.