The Wilmington Morning Star (August 9, 1944)
Editorial: A fake bombing?
It has been suggested by the German journalist Curt Riess in his recent series of articles, “The Corporal vs. the Generals,” that the July 20 attempt on Hitler’s life was a frameup. The suggestion makes excellent sense, and to review accounts of the event only strengthens its logic.
Perhaps the best evidence of fakery is in the “scene of the crime,” as revealed by a Nazi photograph. The room where the bomb exploded is demolished. Beams hang from the blasted ceiling, furniture is blown to bits, windows are out, doors off their hinges. It is inconceivable, in this setting of utter destruction where others were killed and wounded, that Hitler should have suffered only minor bruises and bums, and maybe a compound multiple fracture of the seat of his pants.
And where was Hitler’s bodyguard? (There’s nothing phony about that, at least.) Did the alleged bomber, Col. Count Claus von Stauffenberg, sneak by the Gestapo, remove papers from his bomb-loaded briefcase, then casually put it in such an unlikely spot as under Hitler’s desk? Did he then leave with no fear that someone would come running and shouting, “Hey, Herr Graf, you forgot your briefcase”? Or did he remain, confident that Providence would protect him as well as Hitler from the bomb?
It doesn’t make sense. As Mr. Riess says:
German generals, no matter how brutal and ruthless they are, do not plant bombs… It would have been too simple for one of them… to shoot him.
How about the revolt that was to follow the assassination? The plotters moved too slowly and, as Mr. Riess points out, the Gestapo moved too fast. According to the Nazi account, the plotters made no first attempt to seize a radio station. Rather, they went after a fanatically Nazi battalion of guards in Berlin. And if the Gestapo was caught flat-footed as we are supposed to believe, how did they happen to head first for long-retired Gen. Beck, and kill him within 10 hours?
There comes a time when there is no one left to purge except those who will weaken yourself. That time has come for Hitler. His best generals are now gone – those who might have managed his last retreats with a semblance of order and a saving of lives.
Instead, Hitler and the Nazis will surely end the war in an orgy of blind bloody fury – costly to their enemies, surely, but costly also to them in men and in the growing, righteous vengeance of an infuriated Europe.
