A plot to kill Adolf Hitler failed on this day in 1944 through sheer coincidence. Several German officials had realized by then that his effort to conquer Europe was a fool’s errand and saw the need to intervene before the nation was forced to totally surrender. The plotters got close, literally, with a briefcase rigged to blow, sitting under a table just feet from the Führer. The bomb did go off — but Hitler’s life was saved by an act that, otherwise, would have been entirely unremarkable.
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, head of the Army Reserve, had slipped a briefcase packed with explosives under a table during a leadership conference of the Nazi regime. He quickly slipped away, traveling from the meeting in what is now western Poland to Berlin, and started issuing orders to seize various government ministries.
Back at the conference, the Nazi officials were huddled over a map. A colonel moved the briefcase to another spot in the room to get a better look. The blast went off. Hitler was badly wounded but was very much alive, if not a little irked; he even managed to meet with Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, later that same day.
Von Stauffenberg and the other conspirators ordered the arrest of his immediate supervisor, Friedrich Fromm, before releasing him under the assumption that he would join the attempted coup d'état. He did not, and instead immediately reported the plot. The rebellion was quickly crushed. The leaders were executed, followed by as many as 5,000 others who were implicated in the conspiracy. Fromm, despite his loyalty, was not spared. He was later executed for failing to prevent the assassination attempt before it began.
