Clique?

Clique?

20 July plot

Operation Valkyrie

Hitler admits, in radio address at 1am on 21st July, to German generals’ coup. Leaflet points to heightened tensions between army and party. Claims the latter wants to prolong the war for its own ends, whereas generals want peace, acting when their demands were turned down by Hitler. A ‘peace’ government is in place with the most experienced generals. Exhorts German workers to act together collectively in their workplaces to end war.

Challenges whether the generals were, as claimed by Göring, a small clique of unscrupulous men. Maintains they were experienced officers. Hitler and Himmler took military leadership away. Deposed generals listed as follows: Field Marshals Fedor von Bock, Walter von Brauchitsch, Ewald von Kleist, Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Wilhelm List, Fritz Erich von Manstein, Gert von Rundstedt, Erich von Witzleben; Colonel Generals Ludwig Beck, Alexander von Falkenhausen, Fritz Fromm, Franz Halder, Erich Höpner, Richard Ruoff, Adolf Strauss.

Germany facing defeat, and political leadership unwilling to address it.

Additionally there is a plastic envelope for the two leaflets.

1944

Two double sided printed sheets

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