Germany honors resisters who tried to assassinate Hitler
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Germany Resistance Anniversary - In this Friday, July 12, 2019 photo a picture of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, left, and Albrecht Ritter Merz von Quirnheim is displayed a the exhibition at the German Resistance Memorial Center inside the Bendlerblock building of the defensive ministry in Berlin. Stauffenberg was one of the leaders of the failed assassinate to Adolf Hitler one July 20, 1944. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
BERLIN (AP) — Germany is marking the 75th anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Adolf Hitler, honoring those who resisted the Nazis — who were stigmatized for decades as traitors — as pillars of the country's modern democracy amid growing concerns about the resurgence of the far-right.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will speak Saturday at an annual swearing-in ceremony for some 400 troops before addressing a memorial event, paid tribute ahead of the anniversary to executed plot leader Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators and highlighted their importance to modern Germany.
"Only if we understand our past can we build a good future," she said.
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Von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944, during a meeting at his headquarters in East Prussia. Hitler escaped the full force of the blast when someone moved the briefcase next to a table leg, deflecting much of the explosive force. The plot crumbled when news spread that Hitler had survived. Von Stauffenberg and his fellow plotters were executed within hours.
he story had little resonance in the immediate post-World War II years, when many still viewed the July 20 plotters as traitors, as they had been painted by the Nazis in the aftermath of the failed assassination.
The resistance against the Nazis only came to be "laboriously accepted" over subsequent decades, said Johannes Tuchel, director of the German Resistance Memorial Center, and even in the 1980s many believed its memory would fade away. Only in 2004 did a survey show that a majority of Germans believe the resistance to the Nazis is "important for our political culture," he added.
Why don't those armed to protect tyrants do humanity a favor and just shoot them?
Becuase they supported Hitler-- the vast majority of germans at the time were totally aligned with his goals.
One decent human with one bullet could have saved 20 million lives...