Why Could Adolf Hitler Never be Assasinated Despite Numerous Attempts?

Even before Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany any potential assains had to overco SA and SS bodyguards to get within range to shoot him or close enough to detonate a bomb. Of course once Hitler had become Chancellor and subsequently Fuhrer his safety was ensured by enlarged SS bodyguard formations, the Gestapo secret police as well as German military intelligence , the Abwehr. In the absence of whole military units attempting to overthrow the Third Reich plotters had to evade the usually highly effective surveilance of their activities by the Gestapo and the Abwehr to even get close to Adolf Hitler in the first place.

The majority of the individuals and groups that aimed or actually attempted to assinate Adolf Hitler had in many instances limited scope to physically reach their intended victim. The majority of Germans both military and civilian remained loyal to their leader thus being unwilling to support his removal or death despite defeat in the Second World War drawing ever closer. Besides the German armed forces had all sworn oaths of alliegance to Adolf Hitler and therefore considered themselves bound to protect him by that promise rather than joining in plots to assainate him. When the Germans had been successful in the early part of the war few people had seriously comtemplated assainating Adolf Hitler yet by the time that members of the military had decided to take such action the Third Reich still had enough repressive capacity to suppress opposition to it.

The bulk of the attempts to assainate Adolf Hitler were destined to fail because the individuals and groups that were involved in them did not enough military expertise or support to get past his bodyguards, and failed to keep their plans undiscovered by the secret police. Adolf Hitler was also anxious to keep any individuals or groups suspected of disloyalty or even potential assasins at a safe distance away from him. Political dissidents that had not gone into exile were either imprisioned, sometimes executed, or kept under close scrutiny by the secret police. These strategies to a large extent allowed the Nazi regime to stop assasination plots against Adolf Hitler almost before they had begun.

The July Bomb Plot put into operation on the 22nd July 1944 was the one assasination upon Adolf Hitler, which came closest to success because its plotters had the strongest links to the military high command. Those people involved in the July bomb Plot were not the type of individuals that the Gestapo or the secret police would not have considered capable of murdring Adolf Hiter, yet due to the way the Third Reich was fighting the Second World War had decided to take drastitic action to end that conflict.

The man who carried out the almost successful bombing of Hitler’s bunker, Count von Stauffenburg was a veteran of the Eastern Front with connections to senior military officers such as Admiral Canaris and Field Marshall Rommel. The plotters hoped that the removal of Hitler would allow the Germans to surrender to the Allies on better terms. Stauffenberg had no problems in placing his small bomb next to Hitler prior to the daily military conference. In the end it was purely bad luck that prevented Adolf Hitler been assasinated by the July bomb plot. Another delegate attending the conference inadvertently moved Stauffenberg carefully placed bomb under the nearest table. If the bomb had remained unremoved Hitler would have died, his survival meant that thousands of German dissidents were summarily executed or forced to commit suicide.

Bibliography

Bullock, A. Hitler & Stalin, Parallel Lives (1991) Harper Collins, London

Comfort, N. Brewers Politics Brewer’s Politics A Phase and Fable Dictionary 1993

Hobsbawm, E. Age of Extremes the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, (1994) Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex