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Leaders honor resisters who plotted to kill Hitler
7/21/2005
Associated Press
An honor guard stands beside a wreath at the Bendlerblock building in Berlin Wednesday.
BERLIN (AP) - German political and military leaders commemorated the unsuccessful attempt to kill Adolf Hitler 61 years ago, laying wreaths Wednesday at the former Nazi military headquarters where the plotters were executed.
Military chief of staff Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan and the supreme court president, Hans-Juergen Papier, laid wreaths at the Bendlerblock building, now the Defense Ministry, where the plotters were executed after their plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb failed on July 20, 1944.
The executed plotters included Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg and other high-ranking soldiers from the German aristocracy. Two generals were given the chance to take their own lives and one did.
A separate ceremony was held to honor the more than 2,500 Nazi resisters executed between 1933 and 1945 at Ploetzensee, on the outskirts of Berlin. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries praised their efforts.
"The men and women who participated deserve great credit for deciding in favor of law and justice," Zypries said.
Leaders honor resisters who plotted to kill Hitler
7/21/2005
Associated Press
An honor guard stands beside a wreath at the Bendlerblock building in Berlin Wednesday.
BERLIN (AP) - German political and military leaders commemorated the unsuccessful attempt to kill Adolf Hitler 61 years ago, laying wreaths Wednesday at the former Nazi military headquarters where the plotters were executed.
Military chief of staff Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan and the supreme court president, Hans-Juergen Papier, laid wreaths at the Bendlerblock building, now the Defense Ministry, where the plotters were executed after their plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb failed on July 20, 1944.
The executed plotters included Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg and other high-ranking soldiers from the German aristocracy. Two generals were given the chance to take their own lives and one did.
A separate ceremony was held to honor the more than 2,500 Nazi resisters executed between 1933 and 1945 at Ploetzensee, on the outskirts of Berlin. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries praised their efforts.
"The men and women who participated deserve great credit for deciding in favor of law and justice," Zypries said.
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