HENNING HERMANN KARL ROBERT VON TRESCKOW GENERALMAJOR – MAJOR-GENERAL

DESCRIBED BY THE GESTAPO AS THE ‘PRIME MOVER’ BEHIND THE PLOT

an aristocrat like his fellow conspirator von stauffenberg, von tresckow served with distinction in World War i, becoming the youngest lieutenant in the army in June 1918. swiftly rising through the ranks, he participated in the 1940 invasion of France and Barbarossa the following summer, being instrumental in hitler’s adoption of Manstein’s controversial plan to defeat France by an armoured thrust through the ardennes to sedan. Disgust at nazi atrocities in the soviet Union, and fear of the military-industrial might of the Usa, turned him from a hitler enthusiast into a member of the resistance.

Closely tied to the likes of Beck and Goerdeler, he made several failed attempts to assassinate hitler, including putting a bomb hidden in a bottle of Cointreau on board the dictator’s private plane. in the autumn of 1943 he used his position to revise the existing army contingency plan on how to deal with a coup, Operation Valkyrie beacme the vehicle by which the plotters would remove the nazis from power and establish a provisional government under army protection. sent back to the staff of second army on the russian Front, von tresckow entrusted implementation of Valkyrie to von stauffenberg.

While in the east – and awaiting the planned assassination – von tresckow signed an order authorising the deportation to the reich of tens of thousands of Polish and Ukrainian children for forced labour. On hearing of the Plot’s failure – and knowing his part in it would soon be discovered – he drove out to a nearby forest and faked a partisan attack, firing his pistol into the air and then blowing himself up.