Editing 20 July plot (section)

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Admiral Karl Donitz giving a radio speech after the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life. 21 July 1944.jpg|thumb|Admiral Karl Donitz giving a radio speech after the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life. 21 July 1944]]
Over the following weeks, Himmler's Gestapo, driven by a furious Hitler, rounded up nearly everyone who had the remotest connection with the plot. The discovery of letters and diaries in the homes and offices of those arrested revealed the plots of 1938, 1939, and 1943, and this led to further rounds of arrests, including that of [[Generaloberst|colonel general]] [[Franz Halder]], who finished the war in a concentration camp. Under Himmler's new {{lang|de|[[Sippenhaft]]}} (blood guilt) laws, many relatives of the principal plotters were also arrested in the immediate aftermath of the failed plot.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxHxaq6sMroC&q=Sippenhaft&pg=PA148|title=Family Punishment in Nazi Germany: Sippenhaft, Terror and Myth|last=Loeffel|first=Robert|year=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230343054|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Sippenhaft was proposed and introduced by Heinrich Himmler and remained in effect until the end of the war. Its distribution was aimed at creating fears among Wehrmacht members for their families in the event of an attempted betrayal. At first, the practice was not regulated and was carried out chaotically, which was due to Himmler’s refusal to “establish specific rules regarding clan guardianship”, however, on February 5, 1945, Keitel’s order was issued, according to which the family of a serviceman who committed high treason was subjected to repression up to and including the death penalty. Presumably, the Sippenhaft regulation was introduced to tighten control over the military and keep them in the army during the final period of the war.<ref>Terentiev V.O. [https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/posledstviya-pokusheniya-na-gitlera-20-iyulya-1944-g-dlya-vnutrenney-politiki-tretiego-reyha Consequences of the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 for the internal politics of the Third Reich] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619172333/https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/posledstviya-pokusheniya-na-gitlera-20-iyulya-1944-g-dlya-vnutrenney-politiki-tretiego-reyha |date=19 June 2024 }} // Klio. №5 (209). 2024. P. 59</ref>[[File:Bendelerblock.jpg|thumb|Courtyard at the [[Bendlerblock]], where Stauffenberg, Olbricht, and others were executed]][[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1969-069-29, Hitler-Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944.jpg|thumb|Hitler visits [[Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer|Puttkamer]] in the [[Carlshof Institutions|Carlshof hospital]]]][[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-676-7970-02, Beerdigung von Generaloberst Günter Korten.jpg|thumb|Funeral of General [[Günther Korten|Korten]] at the [[Tannenberg Memorial]]]]

Particularly noteworthy in considering this issue is the scientific publication of Robert Loeffel. In his study, Loeffel came to the conclusion that ''Sippenhaft'', as part of state terror at the end of the war, was a means of intimidation within Nazi Germany, when in reality this practice was not always applied, and most of the terror was adopted only after July 20. This was due to its duality: terror was implemented only in quantities necessary to maintain a level of fear among the population that would not lead them to go over to the side of resistance.<ref>Terentiev V.O. [https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/posledstviya-pokusheniya-na-gitlera-20-iyulya-1944-g-dlya-vnutrenney-politiki-tretiego-reyha Consequences of the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 for the internal politics of the Third Reich] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619172333/https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/posledstviya-pokusheniya-na-gitlera-20-iyulya-1944-g-dlya-vnutrenney-politiki-tretiego-reyha |date=19 June 2024 }} // Klio. №5 (209). 2024. P. 59</ref>

More than 7,000 people were arrested<ref>The Gestapo claimed 7,000 arrests. This can be found in [[William L. Shirer]]'s ''[[Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]'', ch.&nbsp;29.</ref> and 4,980 were executed.<ref>Kershaw, Ian. ''Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis'', p. 693.</ref> Not all of them were connected with the plot, since the Gestapo used the occasion to settle scores with many other people suspected of opposition sympathies. [[Alfons Heck]], former Hitler Youth member and later a historian, describes the reaction many Germans felt to the punishments of the conspirators:

{{blockquote|When I heard that German officers had tried to kill Adolf Hitler ... I was enraged. I fully concurred with the sentences imposed on them, strangling I felt was too good for them; this was the time, precisely, when we were at a very ... precarious military situation. And the only man who could possibly stave off disaster ... was Adolf Hitler. That opinion was shared by many Germans, Germans who did not adore Hitler, who did not belong to the [Nazi] Party.}}Allied radio stations also speculated on who the possible remaining suspects could be, many of whom were eventually implicated in the plot.<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg|Metternich, Tatiana]]|title=Purgatory of Fools|publisher=Quadrangle |year=1976|page=202|isbn=0812906918}}</ref>

Very few of the plotters tried to escape or to deny their guilt when arrested. Those who survived interrogation were given perfunctory trials before the [[People's Court (Germany)|People's Court]], a [[kangaroo court]] that always decided in favour of the prosecution. The court's president, [[Roland Freisler]], was a fanatical Nazi seen shouting furiously and insulting the accused in the trial, which was filmed for propaganda purposes. The plotters were stripped of their uniforms and given old, shabby clothing to humiliate them for the cameras.<ref name="See Shirer 1070-1071">See Shirer 1070–1071.</ref> The officers involved in the plot were "tried" before the Court of Military Honour, a [[drumhead court-martial]] that merely considered the evidence furnished to it by the Gestapo before expelling the accused from the Army in disgrace and handing them over to the People's Court.<ref name="RiseFall">William Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'' (Touchstone Edition) (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990)</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}

The first trials were held on 7 and 8 August 1944. Hitler had ordered that those found guilty should be "hanged like cattle".<ref name="See Shirer 1070-1071"/> Many people took their own lives prior to either their trial or their execution, including Kluge, who was accused of having knowledge of the plot beforehand and not revealing it to Hitler. Stülpnagel tried to commit suicide, but survived and was hanged.
[[File:Bysten av Hitler i Stortinget, 1944 (5492791548).jpg|thumb|Hitler's bust in the [[Storting building|Storting]] is decorated with flowers following the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944.]]
Tresckow killed himself the day after the failed plot by use of a hand grenade in no man's land between Soviet and German lines. 
[[Adjutant]] General [[Fabian von Schlabrendorff]] recalled Tresckow saying the following before his death:
{{blockquote|The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler. None of us can bewail his own death; those who consented to join our circle put on the [[Shirt of Nessus|robe of Nessus]]. A human being's moral integrity begins when he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions.{{sfn|Fest|1997|pp=289–290}}}}

Fromm's attempt to win favour by executing Stauffenberg and others on the night of 20 July had merely exposed his own previous lack of action and apparent failure to report the plot. Having been arrested on 21 July, Fromm was later convicted and sentenced to death by the People's Court. Despite his knowledge of the conspiracy, his formal sentence charged him with poor performance in his duties. He was executed in [[Brandenburg an der Havel]]. Hitler personally commuted his death sentence from hanging to the "more honourable" firing squad. [[Erwin Planck]], the son of physicist [[Max Planck]], was executed for his involvement.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alleged July Plot Conspirators Executed in Plötzensee Prison |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Plotzensee1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509185713/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Plotzensee1.html |archive-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=live |access-date=19 April 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heideking |first=Jürgen |author2=Mauch, Christof |title=American Intelligence and the German Resistance to Hitler: A Documentary History |publisher=Westview Press |location=Boulder, CO |year=1998 |edition=revised |series=Widerstand: Dissent and Resistance in the Third Reich Series |isbn=978-0813336367 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xoTWkzhf2uUC&q=erwin%20planck&pg=PA361 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

According to a report of SS-''Obergruppenführer'' [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]] to Hitler dated 29 November 1944 on the background of the plot, states that the Pope was somehow a conspirator, specifically naming Eugenio Pacelli, [[Pope Pius XII]], as being a party in the attempt.<ref>[http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=95893&cat=15 Pave the Way Foundation Reveals Evidence of Pope Pius XII's Active Opposition to Hitler], 29 June 2009. Accessed 4 September 2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090912042237/http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=95893&cat=15 Archived] 6 September 2009.</ref> Evidence indicates that 20 July plotters Colonel [[Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven]], Colonel [[Erwin von Lahousen]], and Admiral [[Wilhelm Canaris]] were involved in the foiling of Hitler's [[Alleged plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII|alleged plot to kidnap or murder Pope Pius XII]] in 1943, when Canaris reported the plot to Italian counterintelligence officer General [[Cesare Amè]], who passed on the information.<ref>[http://www.zenit.org/article-26194?l=english More proof of Hitler's plan to kill Pius XII: Son of German Intelligence Officer Comes Forward] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421235726/http://www.zenit.org/article-26194?l=english |date=21 April 2010 }}, Zenit News 16 June 2009</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110708124840/http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/9249 Italian newspaper reveals details behind Hitler's plan to kill Pius XII]}} CBCP News 17 June 2009</ref>

A member of the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] convicted of participating in the plot was SA-''Obergruppenführer'' [[Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorf]], who was the {{lang|de|[[Ordnungspolizei|Orpo]]}} Police Chief of Berlin and had been in contact with members of the resistance since before the war. Collaborating closely with SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]'' [[Arthur Nebe]], he was supposed to direct all police forces in Berlin to stand down and not interfere in the military actions to seize the government. However, his actions on 20 July had minimal influence on the events. For his involvement in the conspiracy, he was later arrested, convicted of treason and executed.<ref>Ted Harrison: ''"Alter Kämpfer" im Widerstand. Graf Helldorff, die NS-Bewegung und die Opposition gegen Hitler.'' Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte [http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1997_3.pdf 45(1997)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408181804/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1997_3.pdf |date=8 April 2023 }} (PDF, 6,5 MB), pp. 385–423.</ref>

After 3 February 1945, when Freisler was killed in an American air raid, there were no more formal trials, but as late as April, with the war weeks away from its end, Canaris' diary was found, and many more people were implicated.  [[Hans von Dohnanyi|Hans Von Dohnanyi]] was accused of being the "spiritual leader" of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, and executed 6 April 1945.  [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]], whom Von Dohnanyi had recruited into the Abwehr, was executed 9 April 1945 along with Canaris, Oster, and 4 others. Executions continued and ramped up into the last days of the war, as the Nazis were determined to take down as many of their enemies with them as they possibly could. 

Hitler took his survival to be a "divine moment in history",{{Citation needed|reason=This direct quote has been unsourced for nearly seventeen years|date=July 2024}} and commissioned a special decoration to be made for each person wounded or killed in the blast. The result was the [[Wound Badge]] of 20 July 1944. The badges were struck in three values: gold, silver, and black. (The colours denoted the severity of the wounds received by each recipient.) A total of 100 badges were manufactured,<ref>Forman, Adrian (1993). ''Guide to Third Reich German Awards...And Their Values'' (2nd Ed.) San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. {{ISBN|978-0912138398}}</ref> and 47 are believed to have actually been awarded. Each badge was accompanied by an ornate award document personally signed by Hitler. The badges themselves bore a facsimile of his signature, making them among the rarest [[List of military decorations of Nazi Germany|decorations to have been awarded by Nazi Germany]].<ref>Angolia, John R. (1976). ''For Führer and Fatherland: Military Awards of the Third Reich'' (1st Ed.) San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. {{oclc|2853647}}</ref>

For his role in stopping the coup Major Remer was promoted to colonel and ended the war as a Major General. After the war he co-founded the [[Socialist Reich Party]] and remained a prominent [[Neo-Nazi]] and advocate of [[Holocaust denial]] until his death in 1997.<ref>[http://www.hdot.org/en/denial/biographies Holocaust Denial on Trial: Using History to Confront Distortions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918111359/http://www.hdot.org/en/denial/biographies |date=18 September 2009 }}. "Biographies: Otto Remer," (Retrieved 10 April 2009).</ref>

Major [[Philipp von Boeselager]], the German officer who provided the plastic explosives used in the bomb, escaped detection and survived the war. He was the second-to-last survivor of those involved in the plot and died on 1 May 2008, aged 90.<ref>{{cite news|title = Hitler plot survivor dies aged 90|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7380365.stm|work = BBC News Online|location = London|date = 2 May 2008|access-date = 17 May 2008|archive-date = 19 April 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230419141221/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7380365.stm|url-status = live}}</ref> The last survivor of the 20 July Plot was ''Oberleutnant'' [[Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin]], the thwarted plotter of just a few months before. He died on 8 March 2013, aged 90.<ref>{{cite news|title = Hitler assassination plotter Von Kleist dies|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21760460|work = BBC News Online|location = London|date = 12 March 2013|access-date = 20 June 2018|archive-date = 5 February 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240205084217/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21760460|url-status = live}}</ref>

As a result of the failed coup, every member of the Wehrmacht was required to reswear his loyalty oath, by name, to Hitler and on 24 July 1944 the military salute was replaced throughout the armed forces with the [[Hitler Salute]] in which the arm was outstretched and the salutation {{lang|de|Heil Hitler}} was given.{{sfn|Büchner|1991}}