Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel ( Berlin , 2 of January of 1886 - Prison Plötzensee , 30 of August of 1944 ) was a general of the Wehrmacht who participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union . He was in charge of the occupation forces in France and was a conspirator and participant in the attack of July 20, 1944.
Biography
Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel was born in Berlin in 1886, entered the Army in 1904 and served during the First World War as an officer of the General Staff . After the war he did not abandon the army and enlisted in the Reichswehr ascended to captain in 1924 and then to major in 1925.
In 1936 he had reached the rank of Lieutenant General and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff OKW .
From 20 December 1940, during World War II , Stülpnagel was in charge of the XVII Army and was ordered to advance as part of the Group of armies Center towards Crimea during the Invasion of the Soviet Union , obtaining important victories in Uman next to I Panzer Army and in the conquest of Kiev in coordination with the VI Army of Walther von Reichenau . At this stage, Stülpnagel participated in war crimes against the civilian population, actively collaborating with the German Sixth Army and providing support to the Einsatzgruppen C extermination groups and their Sonderkommandos under Otto Rasch .
He was relieved with honors by General Hermann Hoth in October 1941, and assigned as Military Chief of the forces in charge of occupied France based in Paris .
Attack of the 20 of July
Stülpnagel had been disappointed by the Nazi regime since the Sudetenan Crisis . After a time of passivity, he made contact with the conspiratorial circle of the army in charge of General Olbritch , through the liaison with his assistant , Colonel César von Hofacker . His mission for July 20 was specific: to take control of the SS and the Wehrmacht headquarters in Paris in coordination with the actions of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Wolfsschanze , East Prussia . 1
On July 20, 1944, Stülpnagel gave orders to assemble the members of the Gestapo and officers of the SS in their headquarters in Paris and apprehend them. When the Putsch against Hitler failed , Marshal Günther von Kluge - cynically disengaging himself from his involvement - gave counter-orders freeing the prisoners and Stülpnagel was unable to persuade him to continue Operation Valkyrie . Kluge gave him the opportunity of honorable suicide and Stülpnagel made the attempt on July 21 on the banks of the Meuse river in Verdun ; But the shot to the head only left him blind. He was captured and during his captivity, in the middle of a delirium in an interrogation, he shouted the name of Marshal Erwin Rommel , implicating him.
He was tried by the People ‘s Court presided over by Roland Freisler , found guilty of high treason and executed by piano and meat hook in prison Plötzensee , the 30 of August of 1944 .
References
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