Lot 1060
Plot of the Generals, Senior military officers conspired to have Hitler assassinated on 20 July 1944 at a staff meeting. A briefcase at Hitler's feet exploded and four officers were killed, but Hitler escaped with flash burns and cracked eardrums. The conspirators were quickly identified and executed.
Signed Photo of Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, highest ranking conspirator, was to command the Wehrmacht after Hitler's death. He was arrested and executed and British propaganda parody of the 1943 German stamp marking the 20th anniversary of the Munich Uprising, having the original stamp's storm trooper replaced with a picture of Witzleben and the anniversary dates replaced with the inscription "Hanged on 8 Aug 1944"; also Typed Letter Signed by General Heinz Guderian, who knew of the plot but resisted taking part. When the plot failed, Guderian denounced the participants and then got himself appointed to the military court that expelled them from the military and left them at the mercy of the civilian People's Court and infamous "hanging judge" Dr. Roland Freisler, represented by a 1937 cover bearing a Nazi Party postal meter, addressed to him. Freisler, from 1942 to 1945, as president of the People's Court, proved brutal and unmerciful, with most trials resulting in the death sentence. He was particularly vindictive at the trial of the leaders of the plot to kill Hitler, heaping verbal abuse on Witzleben and others in the dock before sentencing all to the gallows.
Estimate 500 - 750
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| Realized $950 |
