Georg Elser (1 Viewer)

[Combat]

I've recently been reading a book titled "Hitler's Personal Security" an account of the measures taken to protect Hitler from 1921-45. One story relates to the efforts of Georg Elser to assassinate Hitler in 1939. Elser was an ordinary fellow who spent over a year infiltrating the Brown House at night and planting a bomb to kill Hitler during one of his speeches. He came within 13 minutes of assassinating Hitler who ended the speech early to return to Berlin on his train just before the bomb exploded. He was arrested and then executed in 1945. Quite a semi-forgotten story of one man's heroism. It would be nice to see someone commemorate him as a toy soldier figure in 2009 - 70 years to the date of his attempt to kill Hitler. Der Spiegel did an article on this in 2005: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,383792,00.html

 

[Combat]

With all the talk about Valkyrie - also remember this guy who nearly killed Hitler in 1939. If you are not familiar with his story, it is worth reading about. Recent article from Der Spiegel:

Nearly 69 years after his almost successful assassination attempt, the city of Berlin has decided to erect a memorial in Georg Elser's honor. On Wednesday, the city held an Elser-symposium at Berlin's Academy of Art as a kickoff for what will be an open competition to design the heroic carpenter's memorial.

The inspiration and initiative for the memorial came from 77-year-old German novelist Rolf Hochhuth, who earlier this year wrote an open letter proposing the project to Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

Schmitz emphasized that a monument for Elser is overdue, calling the carpenter from Swabia, a southern German region, an "undervalued figure," and a "model of courage" -- even for our own times. "Not everyone is born a hero," Schmitz intoned, but "Georg Elser decided for himself what was right and what was wrong."

 

[Rob]

Just read his story and he surely does deserve a memorial.One can only imagine what 'Severely tortured by the Gestapo' included.A very brave man who came very close to changing history,he should be remembered.

Rob

 

[theBaron]

At the risk of drawing down ire, I have to post.

I'm curious to read more recent information on Elser, because the account of the bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (pp. 654-656) paints a less-than-heroic picture of Elser. According to the materials available to Shirer, Elser's desire to kill Hitler was genuine; as a Communist, he had already been imprisoned in Dachau before the war. But there was evidence that the plot was concocted by the Party itself, in similar fashion to the Reichstag fire, to provide an excuse to purge elements in the Party and Army who opposed Hitler. There is evidence that the Gestapo helped Elser with materials and by allowing him access to the beer hall. All of this was without Elser seeing through their tactics; by all accounts, he was not a bright man, though he was a skilled one.

One note about the bombing was that the bomb went off twelve minutes after Hitler finished his speech, and instead of lingering over their beers, as they had in prior years, all senior party members left immediately.

Elser was kept alive during the war, on Hitler's orders, according to Shirer, but was murdered in Sachsenhausen in April 1945 by the Gestapo.

But the recent events and articles indicate that there may be newer information that clarifies or refutes the earlier account.

 

[Combat]

Conspiracy theories always abound. I doubt the nazi party would have allowed Hitler to stand in front of a podium that contained a time bomb for over an hour. They also would have had no way to know exactly when Elser set the bomb to go off. It seems unlikely they would have risked sitting around in a room for hours with a ticking bomb built by a novice if they had some advanced knowledge of the event. And what would be the point? There was some speculation that Elser worked with the British secret service, but that was mostly the German security detail trying to cover itself.

If I recall, the Reichstag fire was also not the result of a conspiracy - although the nazis used the event for their own purposes. But that is probably another topic.

 

[L Flowers]

Elser almost made it...he was executed in spring of '45.