The Haeften brothers

Hans-Bernd August Gustav von Haeften (at his trial)

Born 18 December 1905

Lawyer

Diplomat

Werner Karl von Haeften

Born 9 October 1908

Claus von Stauffenberg’s aide

The Haeften brothers were nephews of Walther von Brauchitsch, the commander-in-chief of the German army from 4 February 1938 to 10 December 1941.

Hans-Bernd was a lawyer and worked for the Foreign Office. He was deeply religious, belonging to the Confessing Church (established by Karl Barth, Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, amongst others), and associated with the so-called Kreisau Circle – although he rarely attended, as his senior position made this too risky.

Werner was a lawyer who worked for a bank. He joined the army at the outbreak of war. From late 1943, having been wounded twice, he served as adjutant to Claus von Stauffenberg. He held the rank of First Lieutenant. A friend described him as ‘a kind of Siegfried with a sense of humour’.

In early 1944, Stauffenberg asked Werner to consider assassinating Hitler. Werner thought he could shoot Hitler with a pistol.

However, Hans-Bernd refused to have anything to do with killing Hitler. He persuaded his brother not to shoot Hitler as this would break the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ (the fifth commandment in the Lutheran division of the Decalogue). Thereafter, Werner remained troubled as to the morality of assassinating Hitler.

The effect of this dissuasion persisted. It is probably the reason that Werner took no part in the complicated process of arming the bomb on 20 July 1944.

However, Hans-Bernd did support overthrowing Hitler, and was ready on the day of the coup to help deliver control of the Foreign Office to the resistance.

Prior to 20 July 1944 Claus von Stauffenberg took the bomb to Hitler on (at least) two

occasions (11 and 15 July), but was prevented from using it. On those days Werner was ill, and Claus took another young officer of the conspiracy with him – Captain Friedrich Klausing.

On 20 July 1944, Werner accompanied Claus to the Wolf’s Lair. At various times that day he carried the plastic explosive.

Werner did not help arm the bomb – which was left to Claus despite the difficulties due to his injuries. As noted, it was probably Werner’s scruples about the assassination which prevented his involvement. The result was that Claus was able to arm only half the explosive before he was interrupted by one of the worst-timed phone calls in history.

After placing the briefcase, Claus joined Werner and two others to watch the explosion. Satisfied that Hitler must be dead, Werner travelled with Claus in their car to the airfield. On the way he threw from the car a parcel containing the unused plastic explosive – an action observed by the driver. When the driver reported what he had seen, the unused explosive was recovered, pointing to the involvement of the two officers in the bombing.

Throughout the afternoon and evening of 20 July, Werner remained with Claus at the Bendlerblock (Home Army headquarters) in Berlin.

Hans-Bernd waited with Adam von Trott and others in the Foreign Office. They expected an armed escort to Broadcasting House, where they would make broadcasts on behalf of the new regime. When they saw the roadblocks being removed as the plot unravelled, a friend described it as a ‘ghastly moment’ and said Hans-Bernd went ‘white as a sheet’.

In the early hours of 21 July 1944, General Fromm summarily sentenced Claus von Stauffenberg, along with Werner, as well as General Olbricht and Colonel Mertz, to death by firing squad – a sentence carried out forthwith.

Werner died when he threw himself in front of the volley meant for Claus.

With his brother Werner so deeply involved in the July plot, Hans-Bernd was an early suspect. 

On 23 July 1944, he was arrested.

On 15 August 1944, he was brought before the Nazi 'People’s Court'. During his trial he described Hitler as ‘the incarnation of evil in history’. 

He was hanged that day in Plötzensee prison.

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

Adam von Trott zu Solz

Adam von Trott 

9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944

The son of a Prussian minister for culture, Adam von Trott studied law and political science. He was a Christian who saw Nazism as standing against everything he considered important.

He travelled to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he met David Astor (later the editor of the Observer, and one of the founders of Amnesty International) Astor regarded Trott as the most influential person in his life.

Subsequently, Trott travelled to the US and Asia, returning to Germany in the late 1930s. In 1939, he travelled to Britain. He was able to meet Halifax (then Foreign Secretary) and Chamberlain (Prime Minister) to urge greater opposition to Hitler. He found Chamberlain’s response ‘icy’.

In 1940, Trott joined the Nazi party – having repeatedly been refused employment in key diplomatic posts because he was not a member. His membership also provided cover for his resistance activities.

As a diplomat involved in the resistance group later known as the Kreisau Circle, he took the lead on foreign policy matters. He sought a united Europe – in a union without conquest, and not under a German hegemony, but with a common market and even a common currency – a vision largely realised today.

Trott’s position enabled him to travel to neutral countries. From 1942 to 1944 he travelled abroad, on conspiracy business, at least sixteen times, visiting (amongst other places) Switzerland seven times, Sweden four times, and Turkey once. He did his best to impress on the Allies that Nazism and Germany were distinct, and to seek support for action against Hitler. He enlisted the assistance of Dr Visser’t Hooft, secretary of the World Council of Churches, as well as that of David Astor and Sir Stafford Cripps, his friends in Britain. In this way, he was able to pass messages to Winston Churchill.

He advocated the assassination of Hitler, and recruited many people to the conspiracy.

Trott was a friend of Claus von Stauffenberg. Claus’s brother Berthold introduced Claus to Trott before the war. Especially from 1943, they became close friends. Trott’s wife later indicated that this was the closest friendship of her husband’s life. Trott told her that Claus, by his ‘fiery’ character, had given new impetus and vigour to the opposition. Trott told a female friend after the July plot collapsed that Claus had been his ‘closest friend.’

On the eve of 20 July 1944, Claus sought Trott out and spent time with him.

On 20 July 1944 Trott was in the Foreign Office, he worked on speeches for radio with General Fritz Lindemann and Dr Fritz Theil. He was waiting to hear when these speeches should be given. Although troops loyal to the conspiracy seized the radio stations, they failed to pass on this news, and the speeches were never broadcast.

Trott was with Hans-Bernd von Haeften (another lawyer, and the brother of Stauffenberg’s aide Werner) when they heard that troops under the command of Major Remer (loyal to the Nazis) were surrounding the Bendlerblock, at which point they knew the Plot had failed.

The day after the Plot, Trott went to work in the Foreign Office as usual. That day a friend offered to fly him to Madrid. He considered the offer overnight, and declined, so as not to endanger his family. Two days later he was offered a further chance of escape – this time into Switzerland – and again declined. He was arrested the next day – 25 July.

After extensive interrogation he was tried before the People’s Court on 15 August 1944. His wife Clarita went to the court in the hope of providing some comfort. When her identity as discovered she was ejected. He was sentenced to death.

Following the trial, he was interrogated for eleven days. On 25 August he received covert news that he was about to die. Just before he was taken away, Trott wrote a moving last letter to his wife Clarita (which she did not receive until the following year):

My dearest Clarita, This unfortunately now is probably my very last letter.Before all else – forgive me for the great sorrow I have had to cause you. Today we have a clear sky, Peking blue, and there is a rustling in the trees. Teach our dear, sweet little ones to understand these signs from God – and his profounder ones – thankfully but also with an active and valiant spirit. I love you very much. There would be still so much to write – but there is no more time. May God keep you. I know that you will not let yourself be defeated, and that you will struggle through to a life in which I shall in spirit still be standing by your side, even if you seem to be all alone. I pray for strength for you – please do the same for me …  Do not grieve too much on my account – for fundamentally everything is very clear – even if very painful. I embrace you with all my heart and know that you are with me. God bless you and the little ones. In steadfast love, Your Adam 

Greet Innshausen and its hills from me!

He was hanged on 26 August 1944.

He did not know that his two small daughters, the older aged two and a half years and the younger just nine months, had been taken away by the Gestapo. His wife was imprisoned.

In 1945, with the Nazi administration beginning to crumble, she was released from prison and reunited with their children.

This is an edited extract from TREASON - Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler