Who was the Guy Fawkes in the Munich cellar ?.
Several attempts are believed to have been made on
Adolf
Hitler's life, but non more publicised and mysterious
vandal bomb explosion in the famous beer cller at Munich on
8 November 1939.
A man must have luck,
Adolf
Hitler is reported to have said when he was told of the
bomb explosion in the hall at Munich. Luckily, indeed, was
the
F�hrer,
for his escape was entirely due to the fact that he left the
hall a little earlier than he had expected. As it was only
15 minutes after
Adolf
Hitler and many of his most prominent supporters had gone
to the station an infernal machine exploded in the ceiling,
and in the resulting crash the platform on which the
F�hrer
had just been standing was buried beneath 10 feet of debris.
Nine people were killed, including two long-standing members
of the S. S., and more than 60 injured.
The meeting was held in the famous beer hall in Munich the
Bürgerbräukeller from which
Adolf
Hitler marched on the occasion of his Putsch in 1923,
and all of thousand persons present were carefully hand-picked
members of the Nazi old guard each one of them must have,
carried a party membership card with a number below 10,000
assembled on the occasion of their annual reunion to celebrate
the march that initiated their movement.
Following the explosion there was a scene of great confusion.
The black guards flung a cordon round the place, and in order
to facilitate the work of the rescue the lights were turned
on in the immediate neighbourhood. This sudden raising of
the blackout gave rise to the spread of rumours that the war
had ended, and that the beer halls and in the streets excited
crowds started noisy, peace celebrations until they were silenced
by police and black guards.
Jews and the British again !
For several hours no official comment on the outrage was available.
Then every German commentor brazenly declared that the attempt
on the
F�hrer's
life was the work of British secret service agents, and in
a short time, too the Jews were being bracketed in the accusation.
Outside official circles, however, there were doubts. How
was it that a bomb could be placed in position in a building
which had been most thoroughly searched by the Nazi blackguards
just before the meeting ? And what a strange thing, it was
that
Adolf
Hitler, on this one occasion should not only have delivered
a speech which had not been previously advertised, but most
extraordinary of happenings, have put a stop to his eloquence
earlier than was expected !
Soon rumours got around that the attempt had been made by
men of the Nazi party sympathisers with that Captain roehm
been slaughtered in their blood purge of 1934, because they
advocated a radical policy very much on the same lines as
that now favoured by
Adolf
Hitler himself.
Someone spoke knowingly of the Reichstag Fire, which occurred,
all was made to occur, so opportunely on the eve of the 1933
vital election. Might it not be possible that the bomb in
the Bürgerbräukeller had been similarly, conveniently
timed to go off when the German people needed some evidence
of British devilish Malignity in order to develop a really
first class War Fever ?
The anti-Nazi movement in Germany, however, claimed that a
real attempt had been made on the
F�hrer's
life. In Munich, declared the announcer Freedom station broadcasting
on
9 November
1939 the first bomb against German dictatorship has exploded,
many will follow. Though
Adolf
Hitler has eluded once more, the punishment he deserves,
he will not escape from his fate. Already the myths of Hitlerism
have been smashed by that infernal machine. There is nobody
in Germany who will not help the heroes of Munich to flee,
who will not give them shelter and assist them in hiding,
so that they will be able next time to strike
Adolf
Hitler himself.
The theory that British Secret Service agents, acting on the
instructions of Mr Chamberlain, were responsible for the explosion
appeared to be discarded when
Heinrich
Himmler announced on
11
November 1939 that preparations for the unsuccessful outrage
in the Bürgerbräukeller cellar were begun as early
as late August. Suspicion falls on a person who came frequently
to do work in the gallery of the hall at the time. This mysterious
individual was described as a man about 5'9" 30 to 35
years old, wearing workmans yellowish clothes with knee breeches
and a peaked cap.
The Gestapo Worried
This claim was received, even in Germany with some misgiving.
It would be very remarkable a time fuse, which produced an
explosion accurately after some 2 1/2 months ! The occasion
gave the Nazi authorities a welcome opportunity for stimulating
public loyalty to
Adolf
Hitler, and led to a great round up of all groups in Germany
suspected of hostility to the Nazi regime. The Gestapo asked
for information to be given of any suspicious remarks overheard
after the broadcast of the Bürgerbräukeller meeting,
such as surprise at the shortness of
Adolf
Hitler's speech. the offer of a reward of £45,000
for information that might throw light on the outrage, special
officers had to be set up to deal with a flood of denuncitions
which poured in. Police raids and house-to-house searches
continued day and night, and thousands of arrests were made
of Jews, Monarchists (including many army officers), Social
Democrats, and that even members of the police, but not apparently
Communists. The Gestapo itself was uneasy following numerous
arrests within its own sacrosanct, body. Perhaps the most
pointed comment was that the German Freedom station's announcement
on the
10 November
1939 Our illegal Front Group, which new how to enter the
Munich beer cellar will also push open the door of Germany's
future.
Other:
Articles:
The Second Great War.
Edited by Sir John Hamilton
The War Illustrated.
Edited by Sir John Hamilton
2194 Days Of War.
ISBN-10: 086136614X
For a complete list of
sources
