Hans-Bernd von Haeften August Gustav ( Berlin , 18 of December of 1905 - 15 of August of 1944 ) was a German jurist, member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler .
Son of Agnes (von Brauchitsch, relative of Walther von Brauchitsch ) and of the official Hans von Haeften, its brothers were Elisabeth and Werner von Haeften (1908-1944). He studied law at Oxford University and, in 1933, entered the diplomatic service and was cultural attache in Copenhagen , Vienna and Bucharest .
Haeften refused to become a member of the Nazi Party because he belonged to the Confessing Church . He had contacts with the Kreisau Circle , through Ulrich von Hassell and Adam von Trott zu Solz .
He supported the coup against Hitler; But not murder for religious and moral reasons. In 1944 he prevented his brother Werner von Haeften from shooting Hitler with the excuse that he would violate the fifth commandment 1
Haeften was arrested on July 23, 1944, three days after the attack on the Wolfsschanze of Prussia . On 15 August he was brought before the People’s Court - Volksgerichtshof - where he was presented as “sent by the devil” by Judge Roland Freisler , 2 who sentenced him to be hanged in Plötzensee .
References
- Back to top↑ (Hoffman, 1995) p.231
- Back to top↑ (Fest, 1996) p.326
- Fest, Joachim (1996), Plotting Hitler’s Death (translation of ‘Staatsstreich: Der lange Weg zum 20 Juli’) , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297817744
- Von Haeften, Barbara (1997), Nichts Schriftliches von Politik - Hans Bernd von Haeften: Ein Lebensbericht , München (CHBeck), ISBN 3-406-42614-X
- Hoffmann, Peter (1995), Stauffenberg (translation of ‘Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine Brüder’) , University of Cambridge, ISBN 0521453070