Numerous attempts were made on the life of, Adolf Hitler. A few came close to success. The July Plot of 1944 (now widely acknowledged as Operataion Valkyrie) was as close as anyone came. It made a hero of Claus von Stauffenberg and his comrades. They were aristocrats, officers and gentlemen. Their place in history is secure. Johann Georg Elser, was an ordinary working man. He acted alone, and has been largely forgotten to history.

Image via Wikipedia

He was born in Hemaringen, Wurttemberg on 4 January, 1903, to respectable working class parents. Georg was a timid child, shy at school, and displayed little academic ability, but he was good with his hands. So it came as little surprise to anyone when in 1922, aged 19, he took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter. From the beggining of his working life he was an active trade unionist and had strongly held, if quietlly stated, left-wing views. For though not shy as an adult, he was a quiet and reserved man. There was nothing in the early life of this quiet man that would have marked him out for special attention. In 1930, his then girlfriend, Mathilde Niedermann, gave birth to a son, Manfred. But they separated soon after and Georg rarely, if ever, saw his son.

In 1928, Georg joined the Red Fighters Front, a militant organisation affiliated to the German Communist Party. Though he did vote Communist up until 1933, when the Party was proscribed and democratic elections abolished, he seems rarely to have involved himself in any political activity. His primary concern seemed to be about playing double-bass in the organisations band. Communism did after all, clash with his deeply held Christian convictions, for he was a regular attendee at local Protestant Churches. So it was that his left-wing views and Christian beliefs made him a natural opponent of the Nazi’s from the start. He rarely, if at all possible, listened to Hitler speak, and refused to give the Nazi salute. A dangerous endeavour that was to cost him more than one beating.

Elser later claimed under interrogation that it was in 1938, after seeing Hitler bring Europe to the brink of war over the Sudetenland and witnessing the anti-Jewish pogroms of Kristallnacht, that convinced him he must die.

On 8 November every year, Hitler returned to the Burgerbraukeller in Munich to commemorate the anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch of 1924, when Hitler had tried to seize power by force. This provided Elser with the opportunity to plan an assassination attempt. He was a carpenter by profession and for a hobby he collected and repaired timepieces. Both were to prove to be vital elements in the plan he devised. So he travelled to Munich and every night for a month he ate and drank in the Burgerbraukeller concealing himself within its confines after it had closed its doors. Then in the early hours when all had gone home he busied himself with his work, spending hours on his hands and knees carving out a hollow for his bomb behind the podium from which Hitler would be speaking.

On 1 September, 1939, war broke out, and Elser was concerned that Hitler would cancel his visit. As it turned out this wasn’t the case, Hitler would indeed attend but because of the emergency he would return to Berlin the same night. Normally he would fly but because a thick fog had descended upon the airport preventing any planes from taking off, even the Fuhrer’s, he would have to return by train. This, however, meant him having to leave the Burgerbraukeller earlier than was usual.

At 9.20 pm, precisely as Elser had intended, his bomb exploded. It had a devastating impact, 8 people were killed and 63 injured, many seriously. But Hitler was not one of them. He had left the Burgerbraukeller just 13 minutes earlier. Elser had been arrested 45 minutes before his bomb exploded trying to cross over the German border into Switzerland. Customs Officers had been suspicious of photographs of the layout of the Burgerbraukeller that they had found in his coat pockets. He was returned to Munich where he was interrogated by Gestapo Officers in connection with the assassination attempt. He denied any involvment or prior knowledge but his complicity soon became apparent. His hasty departure from Munich, the incriminating photos, and his grazed knees, soon made him the prime suspect. In time various witnesses came forward to testify that he was a regular at the Burgerbraukeller and would refuse to give the Nazi salute. Once formally charged with the crime he confessed. If he had not already been tortured it was almost certain that he would have been had his denials continued.

Imprisoned at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and later at Dachau, he was kept in isolation and made to eat and exercise alone. Yet he was kept alive for almost the duration of the war. On 9 April, 1945, Special Security Prisoner Eiler (his name was deliberately altered) was executed on the personal orders of Heinrich Himmler. The execution must be kept a secret. His death, if required, would be reported as having had occurred during an Allied bombing raid. The execution was carried out by the Camp Commandant himself.

Questions have been asked, and suspicions raised, as to the truth of Elser. Why was he given the designation Special Security Prisoner? Why was he provided with an alias? Why was he kept alive for so long? And why should his execution be covered up? Martin Niemoller, the noted theologian, who was a fellow inmate at Sachsenhausen claimed that Elser had been a member of the SS all along, and that the plot was devised to show the world that the Fuhrer was protected by Divine Providence. This seems a little fanciful. More likely is that Himmler believed Elser to be an Agent of British Intelligence who was more useful to the German’s alive than dead. He may also have been looking to use him as bargaining chip in his secret negotiations with the western Allies to seize power and surrender the German forces on the Western Front so as to continue the fight against the Russians. Hence, his desire to cover up the execution.