Henning von Tresckow

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Henning von Tresckow
Bezirk Białystok, German-occupied Poland
Allegiance	German Empire (1917–1918)  Weimar Republic (1918-1920, 1926-1933)  Nazi Germany (1933–1943) German resistance (1943–1944)
Service/branch	German Army
Years of service	1917–20, 1926–44
Rank	Generalmajor
Commands held	Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army, commander of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Spouse(s)	Erika von Falkenhayn ​ ​ (m. 1926)​
Relations	Erich von Falkenhayn (father-in-law)
Other work	Drafted the Valkyrie plan for the 20 July plot

Henning Hermann Karl Robert von Tresckow (German:

He received most of his early education from tutors on his family's remote rural estate; from 1913 to 1917, he was a student at the gymnasium in the town of Goslar. He joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an officer cadet aged 16 and became the youngest lieutenant in the Army in June 1918. In the Second Battle of the Marne, he earned the Iron Cross 2nd class for outstanding courage and independent action against the enemy. At that time Count Siegfried von Eulenberg, the commander of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, predicted that "You, Tresckow, will either become chief of the General Staff or die on the scaffold as a rebel."^[3]

Career

After World War I, Tresckow stayed with the famed

Later in 1939 and into 1940, he served as the second general staff officer of Army Group A under Gerd von Rundstedt and Erich von Manstein, culminating in the invasion of France in the spring of 1940. Tresckow played a role in the adoption of the Manstein Plan, which proved to be successful in the French campaign. Tresckow's former regimental comrade Rudolf Schmundt was Hitler's chief military aide, and it was through the Tresckow-Schmundt channel that Manstein's plan, after being rejected by Army High Command, was brought to Hitler's attention.^[6] He is also said to have worked on developing the Manstein Plan itself as Günther Blumentritt's deputy.^[7] After the

As Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army, Tresckow signed an order on 28 June 1944 carrying out a plan originally conceived by Himmler, to abduct supposedly unaccompanied Polish and Ukrainian children in the so-called Heuaktion (Hay Action). Between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish and Ukrainian children aged 10 to 14 were kidnapped for Nazi Germany's forced labour programme.^[10] The order read in part "In operations against gangs, any boys and girls taken between ages 10 and 13 who are physically healthy, and whose parents either cannot be located or who, as persons unable to work, are to be sent to the area earmarked for remaining families (the dregs are to be sent to the Reich)."^[11]

The kidnapped children were used as forced workers in the Todt organisation, Junkers factories and in German handicrafts as part of an operation to "lower biological strength" of the enemies of Nazi Germany.^[11]

Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany has been classified by the

Although initially supportive of Hitler because of his own opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, Tresckow was quickly disillusioned by 1934 by the events of the Night of the Long Knives (30 June to 2 July 1934) as well as its violence against the Jewish population.^[14]

In 1938, the Blomberg–Fritsch affair further strengthened his antipathy to the Nazis.^[14] He regarded the Kristallnacht, a state-sanctioned, nationwide pogrom of Jews, as personal humiliation and degradation of civilization.^[15]

He therefore sought out civilians and officers who opposed Hitler, such as Erwin von Witzleben, who dissuaded Tresckow from resigning from the Army, arguing that they would be needed when the day of reckoning came.^[16] By the summer of 1939, he told Fabian von Schlabrendorff that "both duty and honor demand from us that we should do our best to bring about the downfall of Hitler and National Socialism to save Germany and Europe from barbarism."^[17] In the campaign against the Soviet Union, Tresckow resumed his resistance activities with renewed urgency. He was appalled by the Commissar Order, of which he said:

Remember this moment. If we don't convince the field marshal (Fedor von Bock) to fly to Hitler at once and have these orders (Commissar Order) canceled, the German people will be burdened with a guilt the world will not forget in a hundred years. This guilt will fall not only on Hitler, Himmler, Göring, and their comrades but on you and me, your wife and mine, your children and mine, that woman crossing the street, and those children over there playing ball.^[18]

He was likewise incensed by the treatment of Russian prisoners of war, and in particular by the mass shootings of Jewish women and children by the Einsatzgruppen behind the lines.^[19][20] When Tresckow learned about the massacre of thousands of Jews at Borisov, he appealed passionately to Field Marshal Fedor von Bock: "Never may such a thing happen again! And so we must act now. We have the power in Russia!"^[21][22]

Army Group Centre staff included Lieutenant Colonel Georg Schulze-Büttger, Colonel

It was decided that Tresckow's group would assassinate Hitler and thereby provide the 'spark' for the coup, which Olbricht would direct from Berlin. In late 1942, Olbricht indicated that he still needed about eight weeks to complete preparations for the coup. Shortly thereafter, Tresckow traveled to Berlin to discuss the few remaining questions and emphasize that time was running short.^[26] In the winter of 1943, Olbricht declared: "We are ready. The spark can now be set off."^[27] Tresckow assured the conspirators that he would take action at the first available opportunity.

It came on 13 March 1943, when Hitler finally visited troops on the Eastern Front at Smolensk after a few cancellations and postponements. Under the initial plan, a group of officers were to shoot Hitler collectively at a signal in the officers' mess during lunch but Kluge, commander of Army Group Centre, who had been informed about the plot, urged Tresckow not to carry it out saying, "For heaven's sake, don't do anything today! It's still too soon for that!"^[28] He argued that the German army and people were not ready to accept the coup and would not understand such an act. He also feared a civil war between the Army and SS, since Heinrich Himmler had canceled his visit and could not be killed at the same time.^[29]

Tresckow, however, had a backup plan. During the lunch in question, he asked Lieutenant Colonel

A week later, on 21 March, Army Group Centre organised a display of Russian Army flags and weapons seized at the Eastern Front. It was exhibited at Zeughaus, military museum in Berlin, which Hitler was to visit on Heroes' Memorial Day with Himmler and Hermann Göring. Colonel Gersdorff volunteered to be the suicide bomber, intending to explode a bomb on his person near Hitler while serving as a tour guide. He had with him bombs with ten-minute fuses, knowing that Hitler was scheduled to be in the museum for 30 minutes. But at the last minute, just before Hitler was to arrive, the duration of his stay was reduced to just eight minutes as a security precaution. Hitler breezed through in two minutes. As a result, Gersdorff could not accomplish his mission, the assassination plan failed again, and he barely managed to get out and defuse the bombs.^[32]

Other plots similarly failed because of Hitler's irregular habits. Most importantly, they had no access to Hitler since he no longer visited the front, rarely visited Berlin and spent most of his time at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia or the Berghof in Bavaria. Tresckow lacked the required clearance to enter either site and the extremely high security made any attempt impractical and unlikely to succeed. The elimination of Oster's group in April 1943 (his deputy Hans von Dohnanyi and Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer were arrested, and Oster was placed under house arrest) was a further setback.

Tresckow worked tirelessly to persuade army commanders such as Field Marshals Fedor von Bock, Günther von Kluge and Erich von Manstein to join in the conspiracy without much success. With unwitting help from Schmundt, he placed like-minded officers as their adjutants and staff officers to bring them closer to the conspiracy. Kluge sympathised with the conspirators and at times seemed ready to act, only to become indecisive at critical moments. Others refused outright, Manstein declaring, "Prussian field marshals do not mutiny."^{[citation needed]} Nonetheless, no-one reported their treasonable activities to the SS.

Operation Valkyrie

Eventually, the conspirators came to rely more on the Reserve Army in Berlin and other districts to stage a coup against the German government. Olbricht now put forward a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The Reserve Army had an operational plan called Operation Walküre (Valkyrie), which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities caused a breakdown in law and order, or an uprising by the millions of slave laborers from occupied countries now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilize the Reserve Army to take control of German cities, disarm the SS and arrest the Nazi leadership once Hitler had been assassinated. During August and September 1943, Tresckow took extended sick leave in Berlin to draft the "revised" Valkyrie plan with fine details and precise timetables. Revised orders and additional proclamations that would pin the blame for the uprising on the Nazi party were typed by Tresckow's wife, Erika, and his secretary, Countess Margarete von Oven, who wore gloves so as not to leave fingerprints.

When the assassination attempt on Hitler and the following coup in Berlin (the 20 July plot) had failed, Tresckow decided to commit suicide at the front in Królowy Most near Białystok on 21 July. His parting words to Schlabrendorff were:

The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler. God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if only ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope for our sake God will not destroy Germany. No one among us can complain about dying, for whoever joined our ranks put on the shirt of Nessus. A man's moral worth is established only at the point where he is ready to give his life in defense of his convictions.^[6]

To protect other conspirators, he staged an appearance of partisan attack by firing his pistols before detonating a grenade below his chin. He was buried in the family home in Wartenberg. When the Nazis learned about his connections to Operation Valkyrie in late August, his body was exhumed and taken to the crematorium in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His wife was arrested on 15 August, and her children taken away under the Nazi policy of Sippenhaft (shared family guilt); however, early in October she was released and survived the war.^[37]

Personal life

In 1926, Tresckow married Erika von Falkenhayn, the daughter of Prussian general Erich von Falkenhayn and his wife, Ida (née Selkmann). General von Falkenhayn served as Prussian Minister of War during World War I as well as Chief of German General Staff. Tresckow and von Falkenhayn had four children, Mark, born 1927, Rüdiger, born 1928, Uta, born 1931 and Adelheid, born 1939.^[38][39]

After his suicide, his wife and daughters were arrested. His sons were already serving in the military. Mark would die in military service in 1945, almost a year after his father's suicide.^[40] The daughters were detained in a children's home in Bad Sachsa, Germany, together with several other children of the leaders of the 20 July plot.^[39]

Portrayals in media

Tresckow has been portrayed by the following actors in film:

• Kenneth Branagh in the 2008 United States film Valkyrie.
• Ulrich Tukur in the 2004 German film Stauffenberg.

Awards and decorations

• German Cross in Gold on 2 January 1943 as Oberst im Generalstab (in the General Staff) of Heeresgruppe Mitte^[41]

See also

• Assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler

References

Citations

Bibliography

• ISBN 978-0-415-00617-0
  .
• ISBN 978-0-8021-3994-8
  .
• ISBN 978-1-85799-917-4
  .
• Hoffmann, Peter (1996). The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7735-1531-4
  .
• Kane, Robert B. (2008). Disobedience and Conspiracy in the German Army, 1918–1945. McFarland & Co Inc Pub.
  ISBN 978-0-7864-3744-3
  .
• ISBN 978-0-224-07121-5
  .
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941–1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941–1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall.
  ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8
  .
• Scheurig, Bodo (2004). Henning von Tresckow: Ein Preuße gegen Hitler [Henning von Tresckow: A Prussian against Hitler] (in German). Berlin: Propyläen.
  ISBN 978-3-549-07212-7
  .
• ISBN 978-0-8133-2190-5
  .

Further reading

• ISBN 3-88680-539-5
• Shirer, William
  (1973), The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich, London: Book Club Associates

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Henning von Tresckow.

• Short biography with photograph at the
  DHM
  (in German)
• The Restless Conscience: Resistance to Hitler Insider Nazi Germany 1933–1945 (Film, USA, 1991) Archived 14 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine