#tresckow

[unteriors]

W Oak Street, Tresckow, Pennsylvania.

[unteriors]

W Oak Street, Tresckow, Pennsylvania.

[vonstauffenberg]

The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler. God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope that for our sake God will not destroy Germany. No one among us can complain about his death, for whoever joined our ranks put on the shirt of Nessus. A man's moral worth is established only at the point where he is ready to give up his life in defense of his convictions.

Henning von Tresckow, July 21, 1944

[vonstauffenberg]

Henning von Tresckow (January 10, 1901 - July 21, 1944)

“It is almost certain that we will fail. But how will future history judge the German people, if not even a handful of men had the courage to put an end to that criminal?”

“Henning von Tresckow volunteered at the age of sixteen and served in the First World War in 1917-18. In 1920, he left the army and took up the study of law. Four years later, he took over his father's estate in the Neumark region only to join the Reichswehr again two years after that. Tresckow was initially skeptical of the Weimar Republic. He completed training for the General Staff and was married to Erika von Falkenhayn, with whom he had two daughters and two sons. He initially welcomed the National Socialist takeover but became increasingly skeptical of Hitler's policies and finally joined the ranks of the resolute opponents to the regime following the November pogroms in 1938. Tresckow strengthened the connections between the military resistance and Ludwig Beck and Carl Goerdeler and assumed a dominant position among the officers of the opposition. He believed it was necessary to "shoot Hitler like a mad dog." For him, the assassination attempt was an act of self-defense and the consequence of a moral obligation. Tresckow succeeded in finding several fellow officers who were prepared to risk their lives to carry out the assassination that they knew to be necessary. Assigned to the command of Army Group G under General Gerd von Rundstedt as a major in 1939, Tresckow was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1940 and transferred as First General Staff Officer (Ia) to Army Group B, which in 1941 was renamed Army Group Center in preparation for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Tresckow was promoted to colonel in the General Staff in 1942. From mid-1942 on, he repeatedly tried to organize attempts on Hitler's life but these assassination attempts were repeatedly aborted. Tresckow was transferred to the "Führer's reserve" in late July 1943. In Berlin, he used this opportunity to work together with Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg on the "Valkyrie" plans for a coup. In the fall of 1943, Tresckow was transferred to the southern segment of the eastern front, where in late November 1943 he was appointed chief of staff of the 2nd Army. In 1944, now with the rank of major general, he maintained contact with the conspirators although he was unable to be directly involved in the preparing the coup. Immediately before the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, Tresckow strengthened Stauffenberg's determination to carry out the assassination attempt. When Henning von Tresckow heard that the coup had failed, he took his own life at the front near Ostrów on July 21, 1944.”

- from the German Resistance Memorial Center.