DECEMBER 22, 1942

"RED ORCHESTRA" SPY EXECUTED IN BERLIN

Arvid Harnack is executed for treason in Berlin. Harnack is a leading figure in the wide-ranging Soviet spy network, dubbed the "Red Orchestra" by the Gestapo (secret state police). The "Red Orchestra" is active in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and inside Nazi Germany. Harnack, a leading figure in the group active inside Germany, was involved in German economic planning. He sought to end Adolf Hitler's dictatorship by helping the Soviet Union defeat Germany. As early as 1936, Harnack began to pass on secret information about German armament production to the Soviet Union. During the war, Harnack and a group of about 100 other Germans combine espionage for the Soviet Union with sabotage and other acts of opposition to Hitler. In 1942, the Gestapo begins watching Harnack. He is then arrested, tortured, and condemned to death. Harnack is strangled and hung from a meat hook. Most of the remaining leaders of the spy network are also arrested and brutally killed.

FEBRUARY 22, 1943

HANS AND SOPHIE SCHOLL EXECUTED IN BERLIN

Hans and Sophie Scholl (brother and sister) are executed in Berlin. They had founded the White Rose opposition group in 1942. Both are students at the University of Munich. They write and distribute leaflets opposing the Third Reich. The last White Rose leaflet, which the Scholls scattered in the entrance hall of the University of Munich on February 18, 1943, arouses a particular stir. The leaflet declares that "The day of reckoning has come, the reckoning of German youth with the most abominable tyranny that our people have ever suffered." They are reported by the building janitor to the Gestapo (secret state police) and arrested, along with four others. They are brought before the People's Court in Berlin. Sophie and Hans are convicted of treason and beheaded.

JULY 20, 1944

BOMB EXPLODES IN HITLER'S EASTERN HEADQUARTERS

Military reverses following the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in 1942 cause increasing discontent, in the German military, with Adolf Hitler. A small group of high-ranking military officers plans a coup against Hitler. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an aide on the general staff of the German armed forces, places a briefcase containing a bomb next to Hitler at his headquarters in Rastenburg, in eastern Germany. During a briefing on the military situation on the eastern front, the powerful bomb explodes, shattering the building. Stauffenberg, who made an excuse to leave after placing the bomb, sees the explosion and returns to Berlin to report Hitler's death. However, the weighty conference table used for military briefings shields Hitler from the full force of the explosion. He survives with minor burns, damaged ear drums, and partial paralysis in his right arm. Stauffenberg is arrested and shot. The other participants of the conspiracy are arrested, tortured, tried for treason, and then brutally executed. They are strangled and hung from meat hooks.