Would-be Hitler assassin dies at 90

Would-be Hitler assassin dies at 90

Agencies

Posted online: Sunday, May 04, 2008 at 2335 hrs IST

BERLIN, MAY 3
A former German army officer involved in two failed plots to assassinate Hitler, including one in 1944 when the Nazi leader narrowly survived a bomb explosion, has died aged 90, his family said on Friday.

Philipp von Boeselager was one of eight officers including his own brother who planned to shoot Hitler and SS head Heinrich Himmler on March 13 1943 on a visit to the eastern front. But Himmler decided at the last minute not to attend and the conspirators called it off. The second plot, involving 200 conspirators convinced Germany was going to lose the war and sickened by the Holocaust, came closer. On July 20, 1944, a bomb was planted under a table in Hitler’s eastern headquarters in East Prussia, in modern day Poland. Von Boeselager supplied the explosives and was also to join in an attack with 1,200 men once Hitler was dead.

The device exploded but Hitler escaped with slight injuries because an officer had moved the briefcase containing the explosives behind a sturdy leg of the oak table.

“It was clear to me that I would be taking my cyanide pill the next morning,” he had said. But no one ever came to arrest him and he remained undetected — but always kept his cyanide pill just in case.

	Print Story
Would-be Hitler assassin dies at 90 Agencies Posted online: Sunday, May 04, 2008 at 2335 hrs IST BERLIN, MAY 3 A former German army officer involved in two failed plots to assassinate Hitler, including one in 1944 when the Nazi leader narrowly survived a bomb explosion, has died aged 90, his family said on Friday. Philipp von Boeselager was one of eight officers including his own brother who planned to shoot Hitler and SS head Heinrich Himmler on March 13 1943 on a visit to the eastern front. But Himmler decided at the last minute not to attend and the conspirators called it off. The second plot, involving 200 conspirators convinced Germany was going to lose the war and sickened by the Holocaust, came closer. On July 20, 1944, a bomb was planted under a table in Hitler’s eastern headquarters in East Prussia, in modern day Poland. Von Boeselager supplied the explosives and was also to join in an attack with 1,200 men once Hitler was dead. The device exploded but Hitler escaped with slight injuries because an officer had moved the briefcase containing the explosives behind a sturdy leg of the oak table. “It was clear to me that I would be taking my cyanide pill the next morning,” he had said. But no one ever came to arrest him and he remained undetected — but always kept his cyanide pill just in case.