Stauffenberg's grave found

[PlaceOfBayonets]

The grave of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the man who failed
to kill Adolf Hitler, may have been discovered in a wood in Germany.

Stauffenberg and other co-conspirators were summarily executed after
a bomb the army officer planted at Hitler's east Prussian HQ failed
to kill him on July 20 1944.

Stauffenberg and several others were shot dead in the courtyard of
the Bendlerblock, the army HQ in the centre of Berlin, in the hours
following the coup attempt. Their last resting place was never found
until now.
An historical society said it will apply to disinter the victims in
the coming months to ascertain whether they are those of Stauffenberg
and his helpers. If so, they will be reburied with full honours.

These conspirators were the first of thousands to be executed in the
aftermath of the plot. Most were hanged on piano wire in the Gestapo
prison of Ploetzensee in Berlin, their death throes filmed for Hitler
to view in private at his cinema at his Berchtesgaden mountain retreat....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...iscovered.html

[fldjr]

The newspaper website's photo of Stauffenberg is actually of Leon Degrelle, an SS officer...

[NZMark]

Yes...waving both arms was the first giveaway something was terribly wrong
Mark

[Jonathan M]

This man told him how he was woken from his sleep by a detachment of "excited" SS men who asked to be "guided to an area where they could dig a grave big enough to take 10 bodies." After the cemetery inspector showed them where to dig he was dispatched back to his quarters and warned to "say nothing" of the night's proceedings. He was convinced, following news of the failed plot in the following days, that Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators had been buried there.

Wasn/t Stauffenberg executed by Wehrmacht soldiers?

[crfraser]

No way....

Yes, Stauffenberg was shot by a firing party of the Gross Deutschland Guard battalion.

Virtually impossible -

- rather coincidental date for the release - July 20!
- why would this be in a man's will when the guy in the know would have been a national hero for spilling the beans earlier?
- why would the SS disinterr Stauffenberg, Beck, Olbricht, Quirnheim and Haeften after one night buried in a churchyard just to rebury them in another cemetary?
- ostensibly this was the night of July 20, when Stauffenberg was already buried;
- a pseudo-respectful burial makes no sense given the contempt the regime held the potters in;
- all other executed plotters were cremated - the Nazis had lots of access to crematoria in nearby KZs or even civilian facilities;
- why 10 graves needed for 5 men?
- while there were going to be more executons that night, they were stopped by the arrival of Skorzeny - but the SS would not have been looking for grave sites;
- why would the site remain secret given that it would be known to multiple people who would have buried them?

I sent the link to Prof. Peter Hoffmann and got back a terse "highly implausible" ....as expected...... although he pointed out the obvious availability of DNA testing to confirm.

Colin

[Jean-Loup]

Very illogical and improbabmle things can happen in times of war. The best solution is to try to exhume these bodies, and see who they are.
If some unidenfied bodies are buried, they should be exhumed, whoever they are.

[DonC]

My understanding was that the bodies were exhumed after a day, stripped of medals and decorations and then cremated. I'll be interested to see what comes of this.

Don

[tgn]

These conspirators were the first of thousands to be executed in the aftermath of the plot. Most were hanged on piano wire in the Gestapo prison of Ploetzensee in Berlin, their death throes filmed for Hitler to view in private at his cinema at his Berchtesgaden mountain retreat....

I have heard this story for years now. Anyone ever see these movies? I have always had doubts about this "piano wire" story and I don't think Hitler would have had much pleasure in viewing such a movie.

Lots of items were recovered at Berchtesgaden. Was this movie found?

Tom

[Johnny R]

Very illogical and improbabmle things can happen in times of war. The best solution is to try to exhume these bodies, and see who they are.
If some unidenfied bodies are buried, they should be exhumed, whoever they are.

I agree and they can easily do DNA testing with living relatives.

[DennyB]

Lots of items were recovered at Berchtesgaden. Was this movie found?

Tom

I have never heard that any of those movies ever being found, if they indeed ever existed.

[crfraser]

Apparently there is some evidence of the films being screened at Wolfschanze (Speer memoirs for what that is worth) by Waffen SS and shunned by Heer. The "piano wire" is almost certainly false (thin cord yes) and the executions and suicides totalled less than 200, not thousands.

Colin

[MauserKar98k]

The newspaper website's photo of Stauffenberg is actually of Leon Degrelle, an SS officer...

The wrong photo is still up. How did no one else spot this?
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[crfraser]

Makes the Telegraph look flatly stupid.....and I thought they were a good paper! No wonder they don't allow a readers' comment area if they make boners like this one! Even a non-historian friend of mine noted "too many eyes, hands and fingers!"