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In memoriam: Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
In memoriam: Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
6 September 1917 – 1 May 2008
He was the last surviving member of the “inner circle” of the July 20 Plot, a conspiracy among Wehrmacht officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. He supplied explosives for the operation led by Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg.
Von Boeselager, disturbed by the Nazi campaign to exterminate Jews and by German atrocities that he witnessed on the Eastern Front, joined an anti-Hitler conspiracy in 1942 and later took part in the plot organized by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.
Von Boeselager, was responsible for organizimg the explosives. He was able to acquire top-grade English explosives.
Had the assassination succeeded, Von Boeselager was supposed to lead 1,200 men back to Berlin and take part in a general uprising against the Nazi regime, code-named Operation Valkyrie.
Almost immediately after the failed assassination, von Stauffenberg and many of his cohorts were arrested and executed in revenge killings. Though many of those rounded up by Nazi officials were tortured in the hopes they would give up conspirators, Freiherr von Boeselager's name was never divulged and he was never found out.
Von Boeselager was informed in time to turn his unexplained cavalry retreat around and return to the front before suspicions were unduly raised. Because of Boeselager's fortuitous timing, his involvement in the operation went undetected and he was not executed along with the majority of the other conspirators.
Freiherr von Boeselager was a Knight´s Cross Holder. Most probably he received the decoration on 27th (!) July 1944. 7 days after the failed operation.
Phillipp Freiherr von Boeselager will be buried with military honours on 8th May.
Ehre seinem Andenken. Gott gebe ihm die letzte Ruhe.
steffen/otlig
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