A very clever, but also very unfortunate man. Finally executed 9 month before the surrender of Germany. Stefan Johann Georg Elser - Wikipedia
No problem, just thought you knew something about the end of WW2 that I didn't! No one's perfect, I make (more than says the wife) my share of errors
Elser was an interesting man of his time and almost succeeded in his endeavour. Quite a few attempted assassination plots but luck was never with the plotters. I remember a good documentary about this attempt. Regards Tom
Without doubt a courageous and brave individual who nearly succeeded in ridding Germany and Europe of Hitler.His initiative has only been recognised in the later years in Germany. He was correct in his vision of what a regime headed by Hitler would inflict on Germany.His long term imprisonment with Hitler's intention of conducting a show trial after a German victory reflected Hitler's conviction that British Intelligence along with Esler was behind the attempt on his life....connected as Hitler thought with the failed British attempt to achieve contact with what turned out to be a fictitious Wehrmacht general at Venlo. Hitler's other suspicion was that Otto Strasser's Black Front had some involvement with Esler's Burgerbrau assassination attempt.By this time Strasser had already fled Germany in February 1933,(his brother Gregor was to be murdered in the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934) then on to Czechoslovakia,Switzerland,France and ultimately Canada in 1940.The Black Front had already had planned to assassinate Hitler in 1936....plans which came to nought. An excellent reference regrding opposition to Hitler by the many individual groups is contained in the publication of Wolgang Benz and Walter H Peble entitled Encyclopedia of German Resistance to the Nazi Movement.
Harry Many thanks for reminding us about Elser: Johann Georg Elser - Wikipedia I'd forgotten that when my unit went for a month to Ulm, in Germany to run a transit camp we stopped for a moment at the Braukeller and I captured a pic which I was later to post into my Album: Best regards & do keep well ! Ron
Ironically, if Elser had succeeded in 1939 he would likely have been executed then, labeled as yet another fanatic and become a footnote in history. The world would never have known what tragedy he averted and Hitler might have gone down as a victim.
The film 13 Minutes, which follows Elser's story from the assassination to his execution in 1945, is on BBC Four tonight at 10 pm and presumably on BBC iPlayer tonight, for those of us in the UK
