The great people at Northern Books are organising a launch for Treason.

It will be at the Taproom, Shedshaker Brewing, at the Mill in Castlemaine, on Tuesday 10 January at 6 pm.

I will be in conversation with the wonderful Helen Symon KC.

You will need to book your attendance here.

Look forward to seeing you there!

The Boeselager brothers

Georg von Boeselager

Philipp von Boeselager

Georg and Philipp Boeselager were born into a Catholic and aristocratic family in 1914 and 1917 respectively.

Georg enlisted in the army in 1934. With the outbreak of war, he won rapid promotion and several decorations for gallantry. He was opposed to Hitler whom he saw as the antithesis of his religious upbringing.   

His younger brother Philipp was the aide to Field Marshal von Kluge, who commanded Army Group Centre on the Russian front. In June 1942 Philipp received a message from the SS which included the note ‘special treatment for five gypsies’ which he did not understand. He was present when Kluge asked the SS officer the meaning of the phrase. Kluge was told that all the Jews and Gypsies the SS picked up were shot.

Philipp became a firm opponent of the regime.

In late 1942 and early 1943 Georg, by then a cavalry captain, was also based with Army Group Centre.

On 13 March 1943 Hitler visited Army Group Centre headquarters in Smolensk – largely to discuss with Kluge ‘Operation Citadel’ – the proposed attack on the Red Army’s salient around Kursk.

Georg Boeselager deployed a unit of heavily-armed cavalry officers and NCOs willing to assassinate Hitler as he drove through forest from the airfield to headquarters.

There was also a plan for nine officers, including both Boeselager brothers, to shoot Hitler at lunch in the mess. However, on the morning of the proposed assassination (or possibly the previous day) Kluge forbade it. The attempt did not go ahead.

Georg also proposed an attack with his troops on the Wolf’s Lair to assassinate Hitler, but his superiors considered that the loss of life could not be justified.

Philipp helped construct the ‘Cointreau’ bomb which Fabian von Schlabrendorff gave to Heinz Brandt to take onto Hitler’s aircraft that day. It failed to detonate.

Shortly before Claus von Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt and coup in July 1944, Georg visited Field Marshal von Kluge on the western front and tried to persuade him to take the initiative by opening the front to the west. Georg also helped obtain the plastic explosive used in the attempt on Hitler’s life on 20 July 1944.

On 19 July 1944, in anticipation of the coup, Philipp disengaged 1,200 cavalry troops from the front line near Rybno in Belarus and they began the long ride west to take transport for Berlin. Their role would be to surround and neutralize SS units as well as Gestapo headquarters.

They rode all night without rest and did not slow to a walk over cobbled streets, but maintained a steady trot – normally strictly forbidden where there was any risk of a fall.

At about 3 pm the troops arrived at the small village of Lachovka, just east of Warsaw. They had ridden some 250 kilometres without stopping, bypassing Brest-Litovsk on the way. They had almost reached their transport, and now rested for a few moments. Here Philipp was passed a message from his brother Georg ‘Everyone to the old foxholes!’

This was code to indicate the assassination had not been carried out. Philipp immediately ordered his troops back into the saddle to reverse the arduous journey. The conspirators would not have these troops in Berlin.

Philipp and his 1200 cavalrymen continued the march back to the front lines in the east – already considerably closer than when they left. A friend and fellow officer, Captain Hidding, rode his mount over a mine and was killed. Boesalager had to extract the bloodied maps of Berlin – with all their objectives marked out in pencil – from Hidding’s saddlebags before anyone else could find them. Major Boeselager expected to be closely questioned on his return, but the chaos at the front did not permit time for any questioning.

The Boeselagers escaped initial suspicion. However, when the Gestapo investigators sent a message to his old unit in France requesting that ‘First Lieutenant von Boeselager’ be detained for questioning, they replied they knew of no such officer (he had long since been promoted).

On 29 August 1944, Georg was killed in action on the eastern front. Philipp survived the war. His full role was not disclosed until many years later.

He wrote an account of his experiences: Valkyrie: the Plot to Kill Hitler. He died on 1 May 2008 – one of the last surviving conspirators against Hitler.

This is an edited extract from TREASON: Claus von Stauffenbergand the Plot to Kill Hitler

Trials of courage

Lawyer Josef Wirmer faces his judges

On 20th July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the Wolf's Lair which narrowly failed to assassinate Hitler, and although the subsequent coup hung in the balance for hours, it eventually unravelled.

Hitler ordered show trials to humiliate the surviving conspirators. The defendants were tortured, and when they came before the court, all knew they faced certain execution within hours.

Despite this, their clear courage is still inspiring.

Judge Roland Freisler, specially chosen by Hitler, opened the proceedings with a statement which cast aside any pretence at judicial impartiality:

Today it is the task of the People’s Court of the German Reich to pass judgment on the most horrific charges ever brought in the history of the German people. Traitors have come amongst us. Led by the murderous scoundrel, Colonel Stauffenberg, a rabble of criminals, with the character of pigs, has, in the very hour of Germany’s need, tried to murder one of the greatest leaders in the history of the world.

To ensure humiliation, the Defendants were not permitted ties, belts, braces, or false teeth. The great Field Marshal von Witzleben, without his dentures, mumbled as he held up his trousers in court.

The prisoners were provided with legal representation, but they were not permitted to approach their lawyers. The worth of the assistance can be gauged from the following statement by Witzleben’s court-appointed counsel, Dr Weissmann, in his final address:

The court’s decision has, in effect, already been rendered when, in a miraculous act of deliverance, it protected the Führer for the sake of the German people. The deed of the accused stands, his guilt is manifest, and the perpetrator will go down with it.

Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg gave a particularly stirring account of himself, despite Freisler’s almost apoplectic attempts to stop him: When asked whether he was ashamed of his actions, he answered: “I am proud that we sought to rid the world of one of the greatest murderers in history.”

Later he said: “We resolved to take this deed upon ourselves in order to save Germany from indescribable misery. I realise that I shall be hanged for this, but I do not regret what I did and only hope that someone else will succeed in luckier circumstances.”

Berlin lawyer, Dr Joseph Wirmer, had been banned from practice for years, but defended himself with great dexterity, always calmly accepting that he was about to hang. At one point he said: “When I hang, I will not know fear. But you …”

Freisler screamed at him: “Soon you will be roasting in hell!”

Dr Wirmer bowed curtly and gave the immortal retort “I’ll look forward to your own imminent arrival, your Honour.”

Claus von Stauffenberg’s cousin, Cäsar von Hofacker, could expect no mercy, but he was coldly determined when he addressed the court: “On November 9th 1923 Hitler tried to stage an insurrection when he conducted his ‘beer hall putsch’. I acted with as much right as Hitler on that occasion.”

Freisler angled for an abject apology: “And do you not regret your part in this evil conspiracy?”

“I regret that I was not chosen to carry out the assassination, because then it would not have failed. But I in no way regret that I attempted to save Germany from the destruction to which Hitler and his evil cohorts are leading us.”

“Do not dare to use this court in this way! I will not have …”

“Be quiet now, Herr Freisler, because today it’s my neck that’s on the block. In a year it will be yours!”

The trials were a propaganda disaster for the Nazis, and soon all publicity was stopped.

All of us face challenges in our lives, but few of us are called on to show such courage.