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tree_and_leaf) wrote2009-07-20 10:26 am
tree_and_leaf) wrote2009-07-20 10:26 am
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Today is July 20th; 65 years ago, Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler, as part of a coup which would have used the army contingency plan for a breakdown in civil order, Operation Valkyrie, in order to set up a non-partisan government and sue for peace.
It didn't work, of course (though it was a near thing; one of those moments where events hinge on something as seemingly banal as the design of a table). The conspirators were, in some ways, difficult heroes: most of them high-ranking and decorated men who, though most of them were never enthusiastic supporters of Hitler, had waited long enough before taking any action. But it's all to easy for us to judge; it seems plain to us where, in a conflict between loyalty to country or army or personal honour, and the need to take action against so clear and present an evil. I doubt, though, were we to find ourselves in a parallel situation, if we would really find it easy; I certainly do not believe I would, however much I would like to think so. They had made attempts before, albeit hamstrung by doubts and lack of leadership; they knew that even success would probably bring no political advantage, but that nevertheless, some attempt must be made.
Hennning von Treskow, who recruited Stauffenberg into the conspiracy, was on the Eastern Front, and thus was able to kill himself rather than be captured: he told a friend "The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler. God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope that for our sake God will not destroy Germany. None of us can bewail his own death; those who consented to join our circle put on the robe of Nessus. A human being's moral integrity begins when he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions."
They weren't saints (mostly; I have no doubt about Alfred Delp, SJ), and they certainly weren't great political philosophers - many of them had ideas about the reconstruction of Germany which were sheer reactionary fantasy (though still infinitely preferable the the Thousand Year Reich). But that hardly matters: they were people who, for all their faults, for all the fact that they were compromised by previous equivocations, were in a situation where all choices seemed evil, but still dared to try and do the right thing. And they paid for it, mostly with their lives. Treskow spoke in terms of their attempt saving Germany; but in fact they, and all those like them, most of whom are totally unknown, who in all times and places have made an effort to choose justice, truth and freedom over oppression, lies and slavery, remind us that humanity is not a dead loss, and that an instinct towards virtue (which I am tempted to call grace) can arise in the most unpromising places. In some very odd places indeed: one of the more obscure members of the plot was Arthur Nebbe, an SS man who had led an 'Einsatzgruppe', and therefore had been responsible for terrible things, but who, having been a policeman in civilian life, had been disgusted by the Gestapo "investigation" into the assassination of Heydrich, which was more concerned with reprisals than finding the killer, and had thus turned against the regime. Which just goes to show that professional integrity can be a strangely powerful moral force.
What was, I think, more to the point than Treskow's words, honourable though they are, were comments made by Delp†, a Jesuit and theologian (who took his final vows in prison):
It is the time of sowing, not of harvesting. God is sowing; one day He will harvest again. I will try to do one thing. I will try to at least be a healthy and fruitful seed, falling into the soil. And into the Lord God's hand.
Wikpedia has a list of people who were involved with, or linked to the plot; around 4980 people were eventually executed. This, of course, included many people who were not directly involved in the assassination attempt (such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was certainly 'guilty' of resistance to the regime, and who approved of attempts to kill Hitler, but had been in prison since 1943, or Elisabeth von Thadden, a former headmistress who had refused to expel her Jewish pupils, and who had been involved in collecting foodstamps for people in hiding and in helping smuggle refugees out of Germany, but appears to have had no involvement in the plot against Hitler's life), and family members of the conspirators.
Today I remember them before God; their efforts may have been largely futile; they may have had mixed motives, few if any of them may have qualified as morally unexceptional, shining heroes, if one insists on looking at them with the mindset of the devil's advocate. But they chose, however late, good, or as near to it as they could get, over evil, and for that I honour them (and pray to be delivered from such a choice).
† Delp's last words, incidentally, were directed to the prison chaplain who accompanied him to his execution: "In half an hour, I'll know more than you do." I do admire a man who can joke on the scaffold...
It didn't work, of course (though it was a near thing; one of those moments where events hinge on something as seemingly banal as the design of a table). The conspirators were, in some ways, difficult heroes: most of them high-ranking and decorated men who, though most of them were never enthusiastic supporters of Hitler, had waited long enough before taking any action. But it's all to easy for us to judge; it seems plain to us where, in a conflict between loyalty to country or army or personal honour, and the need to take action against so clear and present an evil. I doubt, though, were we to find ourselves in a parallel situation, if we would really find it easy; I certainly do not believe I would, however much I would like to think so. They had made attempts before, albeit hamstrung by doubts and lack of leadership; they knew that even success would probably bring no political advantage, but that nevertheless, some attempt must be made.
Hennning von Treskow, who recruited Stauffenberg into the conspiracy, was on the Eastern Front, and thus was able to kill himself rather than be captured: he told a friend "The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler. God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope that for our sake God will not destroy Germany. None of us can bewail his own death; those who consented to join our circle put on the robe of Nessus. A human being's moral integrity begins when he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions."
They weren't saints (mostly; I have no doubt about Alfred Delp, SJ), and they certainly weren't great political philosophers - many of them had ideas about the reconstruction of Germany which were sheer reactionary fantasy (though still infinitely preferable the the Thousand Year Reich). But that hardly matters: they were people who, for all their faults, for all the fact that they were compromised by previous equivocations, were in a situation where all choices seemed evil, but still dared to try and do the right thing. And they paid for it, mostly with their lives. Treskow spoke in terms of their attempt saving Germany; but in fact they, and all those like them, most of whom are totally unknown, who in all times and places have made an effort to choose justice, truth and freedom over oppression, lies and slavery, remind us that humanity is not a dead loss, and that an instinct towards virtue (which I am tempted to call grace) can arise in the most unpromising places. In some very odd places indeed: one of the more obscure members of the plot was Arthur Nebbe, an SS man who had led an 'Einsatzgruppe', and therefore had been responsible for terrible things, but who, having been a policeman in civilian life, had been disgusted by the Gestapo "investigation" into the assassination of Heydrich, which was more concerned with reprisals than finding the killer, and had thus turned against the regime. Which just goes to show that professional integrity can be a strangely powerful moral force.
What was, I think, more to the point than Treskow's words, honourable though they are, were comments made by Delp†, a Jesuit and theologian (who took his final vows in prison):
It is the time of sowing, not of harvesting. God is sowing; one day He will harvest again. I will try to do one thing. I will try to at least be a healthy and fruitful seed, falling into the soil. And into the Lord God's hand.
Wikpedia has a list of people who were involved with, or linked to the plot; around 4980 people were eventually executed. This, of course, included many people who were not directly involved in the assassination attempt (such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was certainly 'guilty' of resistance to the regime, and who approved of attempts to kill Hitler, but had been in prison since 1943, or Elisabeth von Thadden, a former headmistress who had refused to expel her Jewish pupils, and who had been involved in collecting foodstamps for people in hiding and in helping smuggle refugees out of Germany, but appears to have had no involvement in the plot against Hitler's life), and family members of the conspirators.
Today I remember them before God; their efforts may have been largely futile; they may have had mixed motives, few if any of them may have qualified as morally unexceptional, shining heroes, if one insists on looking at them with the mindset of the devil's advocate. But they chose, however late, good, or as near to it as they could get, over evil, and for that I honour them (and pray to be delivered from such a choice).
† Delp's last words, incidentally, were directed to the prison chaplain who accompanied him to his execution: "In half an hour, I'll know more than you do." I do admire a man who can joke on the scaffold...
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