DEBATE ON THE HITLER PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600100001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 19, 1959
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved for ReWfiWe6: VA VRD
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FOIAb3
Letters to The Times
'debate on the Hitler Plot
JGerinan Attitudes on the Morality
of Participation Described
If I i,e writer of 0rr foUotarng lrtter
a. Gern,a.n soldicr to World War
i
1 111d no American officer i,, Worldl
TO THa Eorroa or THa NEw YORK TrMEa:
gated In the July, 1944, abortive
attempt to kill Hitler traitors or
heroes of their country? No other
question has been more actively de-
bated in post-war Germany.
President. Heusa recognized the
participants as great patriots. In his
praise for their supreme courage he,
quoted the classical words of Fried-
rich Schiller: 'There is a limit to the
power of a tyrant; if the oppressed
cannot find Justice elsewhere, * ? ?
he confidently reaches above to
heaven and seizes the eternal rights
Which are up there as unalienable'
and undestructible as the stars."
Yet despite the very positive atti.
tude of President House and Chan.
cellor Adenauer, public opinion .11n
Germay today is much divided.
While the Germane are ready to con.
cede that civilians may have a right
-- tad perhaps even a duty-to over-
; throw a criminal regime, many have
serious difficulties in judging the
deed of a soldier who took an oath
of loyalty and in times of war con-
spired to eliminate his Commander
' I r, Chief. Surely such doubts will be
shared by Allied Officers,
It is therefore rather sensational
that on th
f
e
ifteenth ai
nnversary of
the Hitler Plot Adolf. Hbusinger,
Inspector General of to new Ger-
man armed forces, published thei
following Order of the Day:
CPYRGHT
194
- I no Met] or e July,
a deed against wrong and oppression
- is a ray of light to the darkest
period of Germany ? ?, *. We soldiers.
of the German defense forces pay
our homage to the sacrifice of those
en whose conscience was awakened
ive guilt of the German people;
ample for us."
In World War II General Heu-
Inger was Chief of Operations
equivalent to Chief of G-3). In this
eating at army headquarters when,
Considering that Hitler not only
bused his powers as Chief of State
ut committ4A the heinous crime of
enocide In is own country and in
ilitary occupation, the action of
he men involved in the July plot-
ears fully Justified. Indeed, it was
holy reactiorL
Heusinger's proclamation offers
'cod evidence of the new spirit in
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