Tapping Hitler's Generals

BROICH: It will probably be HIMMLER’s turn next.

KRUG:… revolution in GERMANY.

REIMANN: Yes, poor GERMANY, poor GERMANY!

BORCHERDT: We always believed that STALIN would be assassinated but in the meantime they assassinate (sic) HITLER.

REIMANN (after hearing recording of HITLER’s speech the last words of it being ‘That we shall and must carry on our work’[368]): Yes, right into Hell itself!

REIMANN: I have felt this coming, ever since the beginning of that damned revolution on 30 June 1933 (sic). The virus blisters which then spread throughout our body politic–have now burst. I have had so much to do with the Party, with the SA, I have had countless numbers in the yearly intakes of recruits.[369] Those people have always hated us, although they have disguised it more or less, they have all, including the FÜHRER, felt distrust for and aversion to an officer. That is coming out now. You could hear it today in his speech–he spoke about the Home Army and then about the declaration of loyalty by the GAF and the Navy, but not a word about the Army.[370]

KRUG: Well, we haven’t got any head–he is that himself.

REIMANN: Yes, but I assure you that in the next few days, according to the sinister law of sequence, another murderous attempt will come; that is the notorious duplication of events. One misfortune follows immediately upon another; you wait and see, in the next few days they will fire again either at him once more or at… HIMMLER or GOERING. Those people are just as damned stupid, with their silly complex about loyalty, as the German people is good and decent.

KRUG: It was stupidly done.

REIMANN: I don’t believe in anything any more, not in anything. No ‘-ism’ can ever stir me again.

BASSENGE (after being told of ‘Calais’-Sender report that a special plane was held ready to take HITLER to JAPAN): If only he’d already gone!

Document 146

CSDIC (UK), SR Report, SRGG 962 [TNA, WO 208/4168][371]

The following conversation took place between:

General der Panzertruppe von THOMA–Captured 4 Nov. 42 in North Africa.

General der von SPONECK (GOC 90th Lt Division)–Captured 12 May 43 in Tunisia.

General der von BROICH (GOC 10th Panzer Division)–Captured 12 May 43 in Tunisia.

another German Senior Officer PW, and a British Army Officer.

Information received: 21 Jul 44

BAO: Who is this STAUFFENBERG?

BROICH: What happened?

BAO: He threw the bomb. A Count STAUFFENBERG, a Colonel.[372]

BROICH: That is my GSO I (Ops).

BAO: He has been shot.

BROICH: Good Heavens! It can’t be true! An excellent man like that! He was my GSO I (Ops) and four weeks before he lost an eye and two of his fingers whilst flying at low level in TUNISIA. He was sent home severely wounded. We often chatted together and even in 1942 we used to go around to all the field marshals and try–he told them that if the conduct of the war wasn’t changed, there was bound to be a catastrophe, just as actually happened. Good God![373]

SPONECK: STAUFFENBERG did the deed and was, of course, shot; some of the Generals took the other side, HIMMLER took over the Army and GUDERIAN is said to have become Chief of Staff to HIMMLER![374]

BROICH: Has HIMMLER taken over the Army?

BAO: Yes.

SPONECK: And STUMPFF the GAF. STUMPFF is a fool, the stupidest man they could have chosen.[375] What luck! (Laughter) They have no one left anyhow.

BAO: STAUFFENBERG has been shot. Wasn’t he married to an Englishwoman?

BROICH: No. He had a charming wife.[376] He was one of the cleverest, an exceedingly well-educated man, a brilliantly clever fellow!

BAO: How old was he?

BROICH: He must have been about thirty-eight.[377]

BAO: The whole thing seems very funny to me. How did those people get in?

BROICH: There must have been some conference or other.[378] He belonged to the General Staff. I believe he was serving again. Maybe he was present at the conference; he was in the organisation department up at GHQ for two years. He told me a lot of things; he said that I have no idea what things were like there.

BAO: So he threw that bomb.

BROICH: Yes, I can well believe that of him; he was a sincere fellow!

SPONECK: Now a massacre will start in GERMANY, the extent of which we can’t realise.

BROICH: Yes

BAO: It has already started.

BROICH: Nobody will die a natural death. I can’t understand that STAUFFENBERG, who usually is such a reliable person, only took such a small bomb![379]

BAO: I heard HITLER’s broadcast. He said that the bomb exploded two metres away from him. Even so, he wasn’t wounded.[380]

BROICH: That’s funny!

BAO: And that this ‘Putsch’ was instigated by dismissed Generals, who hadn’t done their duty, as, for instance, RUNDSTEDT[381] and all those people. That is probably the reason for all those peculiar accidents those Generals have had.