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20 July 1944Reputable sourceWell documented

A colonel's briefcase bomb goes off under Hitler's table, and a table leg saves his life

On the timeline · around 20 July 1944 · Allied VictoryAllied VictoryA colonel's briefcase bomb goes off under Hitler's table, and a table leg saves his life1945

What happened

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg carried a briefcase containing two bomb charges into a military briefing with Hitler at the Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia. He was only able to arm one of the two charges before the meeting began. After Stauffenberg left the room, someone moved the briefcase so it ended up behind the heavy support leg of the conference table, and when it detonated, that leg absorbed much of the blast, and Hitler survived with only minor injuries. In Berlin, conspirators had planned a simultaneous takeover using the Reserve Army, but delays and confused communication slowed it, and once word spread that Hitler was alive, the coup collapsed within hours. Stauffenberg, General Friedrich Olbricht, and two other conspirators were captured that same night at the Bendlerblock army headquarters and executed by firing squad in the courtyard. In the crackdown that followed, more than 7,000 people were arrested and roughly 4,980 were executed, in many cases on minimal evidence of actual involvement.

Why it matters

The scale of the retaliation, thousands of arrests and executions across German military and civilian ranks, went far beyond punishing the actual plotters. It was used to purge remaining pockets of independent-minded officers from the German military leadership at a point in the war when Hitler's strategic judgment was increasingly erratic, removing some of the last internal checks on his decision-making for the war's final ten months.

How we know

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia documents the bomb mechanics, the briefcase's accidental repositioning, the failed Berlin coup, the Bendlerblock executions that night, and the total arrest and execution figures from the aftermath.

Sources

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