July 20 marks the 70th anniversary of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg’s attempt to assassinate German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. His son and a former guard still have vivid memories of that day.
Berlin, July 20, 1944: Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg headed to Adolf Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair field headquarters. It was still early, just before 8 a.m., on the day Stauffenberg planned to kill Adolf Hitler with a bomb. It was too good an opportunity to miss: Stauffenberg was supposed to brief Hitler as part of his military duties.
Kurt Salterberg, now 91, was a guard at the Wolf’s Lair, near what was then Rastenburg in East Prussia and today is the Polish town of Ketrzyn, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) east of Berlin. Back then, 21-year-old Salterberg was part of the team protecting the inner area.
At around 11 a.m. Stauffenberg and two co-conspirators, Major General Helmuth Stieff and First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, entered the command headquarters of the Nazi regime. It was where the most powerful military figures would meet and where Hitler would hand out orders to his officers.
Even today, Salterberg is still able to recall the smallest details. “Everything was blocked off. I had to check every single person who wanted to meet Hitler,” he said.
Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel brought along a group – Salterberg let them pass through since Keitel had an identification card. “That’s why I didn’t have to check his companions.”
‘Nothing out of the ordinary’
Stauffenberg was also among the people Keitel brought in. “I noticed him right away because of his war injury – he was wearing an eye patch,” Salterberg said. “Stauffenberg was carrying a briefcase, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.”
11:30 a.m.: Stauffenberg retreated to one of Keitel’s barracks to go through possible questions Hitler might have in the meeting. Stauffenberg had two packages of explosive agents on him, said Johannes Tuchel, head of the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.
“Stauffenberg excused himself under the pretext that he had to freshen up and left the room. He then went next door to arm the package of the explosives with the help of Haeften.” Crucially, they only planted one of the packages of explosives in the briefcase.
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