GERMAN HEROISM IN 20 JULY SAGA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100050081-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: February 5, 1956
• Content Type: NSPR

era 111 FEB 5 1956
T c ,Tyr-,r. itized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP70-00058ROO0100050001-6
S,-coed Look
German Heroism,
In 20 July Saga
By Herbert Elliston
ibution. It is surprising that anybody was
as merely the agent of this daring en-
erprise; his companions back in Berlin
ad prepared .a coup d'etat. With Hitler
till alive, and communications intact, the
own. The man who tried to assassinate
itler was Count Claus Schenk von Stauf-
enberg. Stauffenberg was an Apollo-like
olonel of 35 who penetrated Hitler's
'Wolf's Lair" in Fast Prussia and exploded
bomb virtually ;at the Fuehrer's feet with-
ut, alas, inflicting more than slight injury
n Hitler. A fluke diverted the lethal
'the most remarkable incident of our
eneration" in moral courage. If you can
quare your morality with your religion,
ou echo the epitaph when you lay his book
ave read a dozen or so books on the sub-
ect, but Fitzgibbon's is the fullest and the
ost enlightening of them all.
ife on July 20, 1944. It is by Constantine
Fitzgibbon and is called simply 20 July. I
f the rising, against Hitler cuiminatirik
ary. For, one of these, a real saga of the
eroic In the individual, a case. study is at
and In a current book giving the history
pisodes in our contemporary history I
They may be ' right. Perhaps it Js out
f a fear they may be right that of_ all the
pecies.
essimists go so far as
o say he is a vanishing
vidence we have merely
o..pondeir the fact that
he ideas back of even
he mechanical marvels
f the times sprang from
ome individual mind.
nd yet the individualist
mong us is dwindling-
articularly the elite
horn Aristotle called
he "great souled." The
MAIN s 41i einains tne measure
o, a
hinge In" a of automation and the
ubordination of self to the state and
stitutionalized business. For a piece of
eft to put Germany back in civilization.
The story of the plot that failed is a
riumph of the human spirit. There is a
restorative here for those who see man
I osing his individuality. If you think that
our life has lost purpose and meaning,
ead this book. (Also, if, perchance, you
hink th Mityi}en by 6h?
erman c aracter, en by means it
CPYRGHT
movement promotes its own heroism,
ut with exploits by individual men spurred
had to be organized, it is true, but the
oved, amateurish. And the men in it were
of the only resistors in Germany. There
ere anti-Hitler pockets of individuals
oosely gathered together throughout the.
erely ti}ought.
AND WHAT a roster of gallant martyrs
mong the men who came after them! If
ere their sacrifice -did not suffice to do pen-
nce for the defeated, nation, they fur-
an" for all time to come. Beck, Goerdeler,
on Moitke, Leber-generals, administra-
on denominator among them except in
germs of. human , personality embattled
In the main these men held to the
hristian faith. How did this square with
yrannicide? A delicate and a thorny ques-
o personal decision, but many theologians
since 1944 have come to the defense of
he genocide killers. ; The fact that the
God _ made for a modern interpretation
y the religious authorities. Luther,
among other church founders, was cited.
When the state is transformed into anti-
Christ, when a state becomes a chaos,
f fferson's as warrant for destroying the
government through which such a state
There are still those who belittle the
German underground. Perhaps it is be-
of it and gave-it little or no help and sue-
oor. Remember, too, we were committed
to the supreme folly of unconditional sur-
render. . But In this matter Fitzgibbon
Ing at this time in Soviet accents be-
lieving that any 'resistance short of a
to be spurious. It is easy to see now''.
that there would have been a Soviet Ger-
ibReleaee xaC1A:aR?-B 'G,O1Q05
CPYRGHT
R000100050081-6