Editing 20 July plot (section)

=== Involvement in war crimes and atrocities ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 151-25-07, Berlin, Volksgerichtshof, Erich Hoepner.jpg|upright|thumb|General [[Erich Hoepner]] at the ''[[People's Court (Germany)|Volksgerichtshof]]''. In 1941, Hoepner called for an extermination war against the [[Slavs]] in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book| last = Burleigh| first = Michael| title = The Third Reich: A New History| year = 2001| publisher = Pan Macmillan| isbn = 978-0-330-48757-3| page = 521 }}</ref>]]
Involvement of the plotters in [[Consequences of Nazism|war crimes and atrocities]] has been studied by historians such as [[Christian Gerlach]].<ref>Men of 20 July and the war in the Soviet Union. [[Hannes Heer]], [[Klaus Naumann (historian)|Klaus Naumann]] (eds.): War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II, [[Berghahn Books]]; New york, Oxford, 2004, 127–145</ref> Gerlach proved that plotters such as Tresckow and Gersdorff were aware of mass murder happening in the East from at least 1941. He writes: "Especially with reference to the murder of the Jews, [it is said that] 'the SS' had deceived the officers by killing in secret, filing incomplete reports or none at all; if general staff officers protested, the SS threatened them." Gerlach concludes: "This is, of course, nonsense."{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Tresckow also "signed orders for the deportation of thousands of orphaned children for forced labor in the Reich"—the so-called {{lang|de|[[Heu-Aktion]]}}. Such actions led historians to question the motives of the plotters, which seemed more concerned with the military situation than with Nazi atrocities and German war crimes.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} However some others assert that, in such actions, Tresckow had to act out of principle to continue with his coup plans.<ref>The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany Roderick Stackelberg p. 250</ref>

Gerlach pointed out that the plotters had "selective moral criteria" and while they were concerned about Jews being exterminated in the [[Holocaust]], they were far less disturbed about [[German war crimes|mass murder of civilians in the East]].<ref name="Century page 134">Christianity and Resistance in the 20th Century: From Kaj Munk and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Desmond Tutu (International Studies in Religion and Society Series) pp. 134–135, 2008</ref> To Gerlach, the primary motivation of the plotters was to ensure German victory in the war or at least prevent defeat.<ref name="Century page 134"/> Gerlach's arguments were later supported by historian [[Hans Mommsen]], who stated that the plotters were interested above all in military victory.<ref>Christianity and Resistance in the 20th Century: From Kaj Munk and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Desmond Tutu (International Studies in Religion and Society Series) page 135, 2008</ref><ref>Germany: 1933–1990 – p. 96 Heinrich August Winkler – 2007</ref> However, Gerlach's arguments were also criticized by some scholars, among them [[Peter Hoffmann (historian)|Peter Hoffmann]] from [[McGill University]] and {{interlanguage link|Klaus Jochen Arnold|de}} from the [[Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung]]. While acknowledging that Tresckow and other 20 July conspirators had been involved in war crimes, Arnold writes that Gerlach's argument is oversimplified.<ref>Peter Hoffmann, Carl Goerdeler and the Jewish question, 1933–1942, Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011, xvi.<br />Klaus Jochen Arnold, [http://www.zeitgeschichte-online.de/sites/default/files/media/20juli_arnold.pdf Verbrecher aus eigener Initiative? Der 20. Juli 1944 und die Thesen Christian Gerlachs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105044328/https://zeitgeschichte-online.de/sites/default/files/media/20juli_arnold.pdf |date=5 November 2021 }}</ref> In 2011, Danny Orbach, a Harvard-based historian, wrote that Gerlach's reading of the sources is highly skewed, and, at times, diametrically opposed to what they actually say. In one case, according to Orbach, Gerlach had falsely paraphrased the memoir of the resistance fighter Colonel [[Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff]], and in another case, quoted misleadingly from an SS document.<ref>Danny Orbach, "Criticism Reconsidered: The German Resistance to Hitler in Critical German Scholarship", ''Journal of Military History'' 75:2 (April, 2011)</ref>