nina von stauffenberg > april > final credits

Nina von Stauffenberg was married to Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German soldier serving in World War II.

Col. von Stauffenberg placed a bomb near Adolf Hitler on July 20th, 1944 in an attempt to assassinate the Nazi leader.

The attempt failed and von Stauffenberg was later executed.

Hitler quickly rounded up those connected to the assassination plot.

Nina was pregnant with their fifth child when she was arrested by the Gestapo and held in a camp in Frankfurt. Her four other children were kept by sympathetic government officials in another orphanage under false names.

It was only after the war, after being held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property, that Nina and her children were reunited with a new sibling.

Nina dedicated her post-war life to improving relations between Germans and American soldiers stationed in Germany.

Nina von Stauffenberg died April 2nd, 2006 at the age of 92.

During late 1943 and early 1944, Germany's military situation had deteriorated. Within Hitler's elite, opposition mounted and a plot to remove and replace him was developed.

Hitler became increasingly suspicious and often changed his schedule without notice, but one senior officer who had frequent and constant access to the Nazi chief was Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

von Stauffenberg initially supported Hitler's drive for German nationalism but felt shame at the systematic maltreatment of Jews. While serving in the North African campaign, von Stauffenberg's vehicle was strafed by British fighter-bombers.

The exchange cost von Stauffenberg his left eye, his right hand, and the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand.

Among the plotters of what became known as "Operation Valkyrie," it fell to von Stauffenberg to carry out the plan of leaving a pair of briefcase bombs in a briefing hut in Ketrzyn (Rastenburg), Poland where Hitler was to attend.

The meeting had been moved from a bunker to a wooden hut because of construction work and high summer temperatures.

von Stauffenberg only had time to arm one of the two bombs. After it was placed under a map table next to Hitler, the briefcase was moved by another officer needing a better view.

The briefcase ended up behind a heavy table leg which shielded Hitler from a blast further weakened by the wooden hut's inability to contain the bomb's explosive pressure.

While Hitler was only slightly injured (suffering only ruptured eardrums), four others were killed.

Between 180 and 200 persons were rounded up by the Nazi regime in connection with the plot. They were shot, hanged, strangled with piano wire or hung up on meat hooks. Eventually 5,000 died as a result of Hitler's purge of perceived opponents.

von Stauffenberg was shot by firing squad. Sympathetic officers gave him an honourable burial with his medals but the next day his body was exhumed, stripped of medals and burned.

Claus von Stauffenberg has since been regarded as a national hero in Germany and remains a symbol of German resistance to the Nazi regime. Countless streets and squares have been named after him.

The July 20th plot was the subject of two movies: 1967's "The Night of the Generals" and the 1990 made-for-TV film "The Plot to Kill Hitler."

final credits - nina von stauffenberg