Putsch or Purge?
KATZ, RUDOLF
Putsch or Purge? Two Interpretations of the Events in Germany By Rudolf Katz THE crisis in the Nazi regime has erupted into open violence. Within a dictatorship there is only one possible (ores...
...It is importsnt to note that Beck never belonged to that political circle led by General Seeckt and Schlei-cher, the men who led the army during the Weimar Republic, who t'svored a war of revanrhe against the Wast in collaboration with Soviet Russia...
...These biographical data about the men helps esplain...
...The chain of command from Hitler down to the division •Beers has keen weakened...
...No details have been revesled which would justify the use by Goering of the words "usurpation" and "other government...
...This viewpoint does not overlook the fact that ths •vents of July 20 constitute a shattering blow to the Nssi dictatorship...
...Yet some essential features csn be discerned...
...But in time of war it it a sign of weaknett and a creator of weaknett...
...The picture of this general pretorian revolt was launched by the Nszis in order to rationalize a general li ildation of Army leaders and General Staff members...
...The attempt on Hitler't life wat genuine and the con-tpiracy wat real...
...Over there In Germany mstth has boon irretrievably destroyed...
...It will surely hasten ths defeats *a all fronts and th* fall of the Hitler regime...
...Under normal conditions the news of such sn attempt would simply have been suppresaed—as news of other similar incidents hss been...
...There is Colonel Klaus von Staufenberg, who placed the bomb it the Hitler staff room...
...2. The radio speeches of Hitler and Goering were carefully angled to achieve a certain effect...
...They cannot move until the iron clamps of dictatorship have been broken...
...In the bus) several years he commanded the German Home Army and it was he, according to newspaper accounts, •ho sjpvs the orders for the Berlin garrison to occupy government buildings...
...They made up their minds that it was so important to their safety that they must run sll the risks connected with announcing the attempt at assassination and liquidating the generals...
...The democratic elements in the population did not participate...
...For a long time Himmler and his SS people have coveted control of the home front and, eventually, of the entire military organisation...
...Taking what Ley ssid in the Igarativo sense, it certsinly seema likely...
...In Germany, at the present time, a mass revolution —though doubtless such s move is in its incipient Stages of development—it practically impossible...
...The plotters did not succeed...
...Turing the Republic, he served in technical posts bl Minster, in Dresden and I Mm During his time of iafl -e jfnjlhe army he opposed a war against the west and nejfought the occupation of Austria and the aggression sgsinst Czechoslovakia...
...The conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler and his staff while simultaneously giving orders that would have placed themselves in power...
...Many other reports tell of rising opposition sentiments...
...3. If the generals had reslly wanted to engineer a putsch, they would have made a better job of it...
...In many cases, these orders were .carried out...
...But it was the act of an individual...
...All the news about it came from Nasi sources...
...Tills interpretation of the news from Germany ia supported by the following facts: 1. Except for the* persons...
...According to several reports, the building of the staff high command and several other government centers were seized...
...Hitler and Himmler were able to rally the secret police immediately against the plotters and gain quick control of the situation...
...This news had been brought to him by a traveler who left Berlin on July 9. This is sufficient to show that the use made of the bombing incident was part of a plan decided upon and inaugurated by the Nazi government well before July 20...
...11 is much more, a preventive measure againit a possible future attack...
...The masses are atomised...
...And for a •omb that docs not explode st the decisive moment, ¦"?ory exact* a high prlcO...
...FrITZ Fromm was not a big a figure as I.udwig Beck, but he belonged to the close circle around Fritsch...
...Hitler snd his clique were simply up sgsinst it...
...Sines Beck's military talents are considerable, both as a tactician and as an organizer, the fart that he was not recalled emphasizes the political issues between them...
...This purge — in its present form—was released by Stauffenberg's attempt at assassination...
...Wa know only that he bo-longed to an old nohle family, that ho waa a Bavaria* and s Catholic...
...In addition it serves a more important purpose...
...Ledaig Beck was often cslled the "brains" of ths Wehstacht in 1934-88...
...After what has happened, who frusta whom...
...The conspiracy had an exclusive military character, rooted as it was the officer caste...
...The Schwarte Korpt, organ of Himmler, bad written a long time ago that Germany needs a purge on the "Bolshevik model," for only on this basis could be the war be effectively organized...
...Mv view of the business is thst what happened is not an actual revolt, not an all-out attempt at a coup d'etat by an important power-group...
...Bat Beck and his friends w«r* not aa fortunate as ths Italians...
...It <e a purge engineered by the Sati government...
...We must first underscore the fsct that this revolt is not, as seme newspapers and Lord Vansittart have indicated, an affair staged by the Gestapo as an excuse for the purge or a devious plot to make the Generals acceptable to the Allies...
...Now Himmler has ths opportunity to develop his talents . . . The list of the executed, therefore, when fully revealed, will not clear up the mystery about the active conspiratorial group...
...Reports are inadequate and probably inaccurate...
...attempt on Hitler's life there has been no report of any planned and inclusive scheme to overthrow the Nazi regime...
...What we have been told is what Hitler wanted us to hear...
...in taking the radio stations from which they had intended to announce news of the coup d'etat...
...But the upshot of ths affair is s terrific and open rupture of the whole German defensive apparatus...
...The material we have for analysis is sketchy and fragmentary...
...He was s close friend of Beck's of long standing...
...It does not follow that the rank-and-file of the German people are completely pro-Hitler...
...When Hitler, Goering and Himmler decided to proceed openly against whole groups of srmy commanders they knew, of course, that they would be desling s shock to German morsle...
...Among the three he is the only nobleman...
...Beck's ties wit lithe Crown Prince certainly helped him in this role...
...It explains Why tho Nazis now cry with rage against the "aristocrats...
...Only in Frankfurt did some of the conspirators succeed in transmitting a short speech by rsdio...
...It was not simulated or pretended...
...The discontented elements can start a conspiratorial putsch...
...The list of those against whom action has been taken includes not only men in the conspiracy hut a host of geperals and marahala who at one time or another had expressed disagreement with Hitler...
...Certainly he.didn't mean that the bomb was carried from England...
...These men know better than anyone else that to undertake such an adventure it is necessary to get possession of radio stations, flying-fields, railway stations and other centers of information and transport...
...The appeals made by Hitler and his propagandists to the soldiers indicates that there was less support among the soldiers than among the officers...
...If Hitler declares openly ever the radio that he has lest faith hi whole groups of generals, will not the men in the ranks nasi the lower ameers lone faith ia their immediate commanders7 Wfll ths men snd officers at the front face enemy bullets with their old spirit if they are haunted by the fear of a bullet in the back...
...This purge is not s mere defense against an attack...
...In time of peace a purge may etlengthen a dictator, thip...
...The failure of the putsch actually came as was to be expected in such a set-up, when the common soldier was not ideologically prepared snd willing to carry through...
...This attack on the Der fuehrer's life was real enough...
...for Hitlerite Germany paid such a high price in the loss of skilled Army men, as well as a blow to its morale and prestige, that only a lunatic would have taken that step...
...ThI biographies of Beck snd Fromm are revealing...
...Immediately after the explosion, troop units in Berlin and several other cities were notified of the death of Hitler and ordered, by their commanding officers, to oceupj certain governmental buildings...
...They have no organisation and no spokesmen...
...not be known lor a long time...
...This purge, planned well in advance, is directed against the generals and upper officials who do not go along with the Hitler policies...
...A young man of only 87, he har* played no active pslttical role in the past...
...Ths dictatorship replies with • purge...
...But if things are stirring among military leaders at the top, it is partly due to the stewing of discontent down among the common people...
...There are three names denounced by Hitler thst offer some clue to the actions that took place...
...This it etpoeially true at moment when froute on th* emtt, west and touth begin to waver and retreat—when, in /act, it begint to teem impoeiiblt to hold along any lint...
...After his retirement ia 1938, the Army availed calling on him and Beck was the only general, retired for political differences, who was not recalled after the outbreak of the war...
...4. The Times Stockholm correspondent, George Axel-son, reported on the morning of July 20—that is, before the throwing of the bomb—that Himmler had been elevated U> control of the home front...
...But in this phase of events, the initiative against the regime comes from' above, from the officer and the General Staff...
...Although previous reports had indicated a rising struggle, the dramatic events which began on July 19 strike the imagination...
...And we have no ground to attribute to Hitler such madness...
...too, the words of Robert Ley, the head of ths Nazi Labor Front, who declared that the •Mah that exploded near Hitler "came" from Eng-laad...
...To size up what happened on July 20 in Germany it is nectssary to keep one fact in mind...
...There is little doubt that the Gestatpo was prepared for some such events and they have utilised the events of July 19-20, but obviously the affair was not staged...
...There are few facts available about Von Stauffen-targ...
...In general there was no sign of a large popular movement...
...Max Fischer, an unusually well informed analyst, —:ting in the July 23 New York Staate-7.eitnng, stated that Beck during these last years had been the CSflter of a group of disgruntled officers, and that increasingly men on the General Staff had been seeking him out...
...The pattern seems to follow the Blood Purge of 1934, which was aimed primarily against Roehm and the tadiral wing of the Nazi Party, but which included as well dissidents such as General von Schleicher...
...The •triples of Tost Seeckt are as numerous ss the friends of Braurhtisch...
...By Boris fticolaevsku THE events in Germany of the past week did not come like a bolt out of the blue...
...This new purge is likely to be merciless, taking its toll not only of those who plotted but of prominent non-Nazis...
...These facta compliment each other...
...and Colonel General Frits Fromm, commander of the German Homo Army who was reported as hsving committed suicide ia the Elite Guard barracks at Spandau...
...This incident starts them on the way to realization of their ambition...
...Some of the news is deliberately manufactured and the real picture wil...
...Ths fact that they went through with their plan was not due exclusively to ths advantage given to them by the attempt on Hitler's life...
...Ws must wait for fresh news concerning the fate of the Crown Prince and others active in monarchist circles...
...There are Lieutenant General Lud» g Back, who was declared to the head of the tanspiracy and has been reported executed...
...Although there was a conspiracy, there were no street revolts snd no strikes...
...The notion that it represents a carefully planned plot of the genersls is pure invention...
...Except perhaps in some outlying arrears no real clashes took place between the Army snd the Elite Guards...
...In their qusndry they decided that the carrying through of their reorganisation plan was the important thing...
...They had long been foreshadowed in the known conflicts between the Nasi Party and the Genersls...
...And if it ia true that the leader *as l.adw if Beck, then it seems more than likely u»* Lay had stated the truth snd thst Beck was towards an agreement with England and America, in the manner of Marshal Badoglio and Kl"f Victor Emanuel...
...The basis of this opinion wiU be evident to everyone...
...In Berlin the units occupying the government buildings immediately withdrew and returned to the barracks...
...Beck termed Hit-lag's CzechoslovsJt policy a "catastrophe" and on the eve of Munich was forced to relinquish his post...
...The mighty pincer blows that have struck at Germany from the East and West in these psst months obviously shsrpened these conflicts...
...He had been a close collaborator of Gsnersl Werner Fritsch and it was he who laid and ranted through the plans for the reorganization of •Im Reichswehr and its expansion into the army of many millions...
...It h) smite in keeping with this analysis that smong the ssen named aa loaders of the conspiracy, there wsro bom with a pro-Soviet orientation...
...General Beck, born in the Rhine provinces, was aiao a Catholic and it is probable that General Fromm was • Catholic too...
...Two Interpretations of the Events in Germany By Rudolf Katz THE crisis in the Nazi regime has erupted into open violence...
...but there ia no information sbent the participation of pro-Soviet officers in tt* conspiracy...
...And the dramatic bomb-throwing waa fitted into their broader and previously devised scheme...
...Within a dictatorship there is only one possible (ores which opposition ran take, physical force...
...In a situation where Himmler has taken advantage of the set-up to move swiftly against all adversaries, actual and potential, it is difficult to delineate the actual conspiratorial group that initiated the coup...
...At thst time, Hitler already distrusted him, claiming that Rack had a bad conscience and avoided 'looking him ia the eye.' Ths clue to Beck's opinions may lie found in the fact that in the first world war Beck served on the staff Of the army led by the Crown Prince snd was known for his monarchist sentiments...
...After the removal of Fritsch, Beck occupied Fritsch's post as Chief of the General Staff...
Vol. 27 • July 1944 • No. 31
