John S Craig

The Dirge of the Black Orchestra -- Saving Germany from Nazism John S Craig

Adolf Hitler was the target of over forty assassination attempts during his political career, but none were more dramatic than the one executed by the German aristocrat and Nazi war hero, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. The ancestry, accomplishments, ambition, and final demise of Hitler and Stauffenberg are compared. The lives of Hitler and the failed assassin Col. Stauffenberg are examined, as well as their relationship with the courageous anti-Nazi groups of the Kreisau Circle, White Rose, and Black Orchestra. The two most important and powerful figures in Nazi Intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Reinhardt Heydrich, held secrets about each other that shaped the course of the war. While Canaris became part of the plot to end the Nazi regime, Heydrich was the ultimate Nazi iron man who was targeted for assassination by Czech resistance fighters, though the Allies knew there would be terrible reprisals.