Tapping Hitler's Generals

HITLER said to me: ‘You needn’t be alarmed, it is not as though only the Army had taken part in this attempt by a few Generals to usurp power. The whole people, with its opposition, slight though it is, whether it comes from middle-class, social-democrat or communist circles, took part in it.’

?: What did he say? They did take part?

CHOLTITZ: ‘The whole people, in its opposition, slight though it was. Those usurpers wanted to surrender German soil. I will not yield a single yard of German soil.’

SCHLIEBEN: That foreigner!

BASSENGE: What does his entourage say; what is the talk there?

CHOLTITZ: All I can say is that I felt as though I were in a madhouse.[438]

BASSENGE: Isn’t there one sensible man there to say: ‘For God’s sake, where is this leading us?’

CHOLTITZ: I presented myself and said: ‘My FÜHRER, the LXXXIV ‘Korps’ has been practically wiped out in defensive battle.’ Suddenly, as though he had a mental black-out, he looked round and went on talking about something else.

SPONECK: Has there been any sort of rebellion against the FÜHRER on the part of the Party or SS, either during the ‘Putsch’, before it or after it; any sort of a split? There was a rumour here that HELLDORFF–

CHOLTITZ: HELLDORF has been hanged. Our Foreign Office was involved in it, too.

NEUFFER: Who among them…?

CHOLTITZ: I believe Secretary of Legation von HEFDEN(?).[439]

SPONECK: Aren’t the numbers known?

CHOLTITZ: Well, you know, it keeps changing; you can’t tell how many people are hanged each day.

SPONECK: Ten times the number of people who appear before the court are simply bumped off.

CHOLTITZ: I’d estimate about three or four hundred people, in connection with that assassination attempt. The best people we have, of course.[440]

SPONECK: Have radical changes taken place among the personnel of HQs at home, of ‘Wehrkreis’ and ‘Luftkreis’ personnel?

CHOLTITZ: I believe there have been a lot of changes.

[…]

Document 154

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 186

Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 4–9 Sept. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4363]

CHOLTITZ: The following happened: Generaloberst JAENECKE returning from the CRIMEA had a short, but very heated interview with HITLER. HITLER did this (demonstrating) and threw all the Generals out of the room field marshals KEITEL and JODL among them, and he became so angry with him that Generaloberst JAENECKE who is a decent sort of fellow–

BADINSKY: I know him.

CHOLTITZ: JAENECKE left the room and slammed the door.[441] He met the adjutant outside and said: ‘Tell the FÜHRER I have left.’ HITLER waited for him for some time, hoping he’d calm down. After that heated argument ZEITZLER on leaving, said: ‘That scoundrel HITLER.’