How valid is this assessment of the july plot of 1944 The plotters Essay

How valid is this assessment of the july plot of 1944 The plotters were not courageous men whose purpose was honourable but reckless men who acted out of their own self interest - Essay Example Gisevius (1998) describes the situation in Germany, under Nazi control in that period, as a nation whose leaders felt â€Å"only in terms of violence.† He further explains: How easily naked violence is spread & practiced! We can observe this even more in the sub-leaders than in Hitler†¦ Party leaders and sub-leaders found themselves in positions of power beyond their wildest dreams†¦ They had no professional training. They knew nothing about the law. They did not trust the professional officialdom who worked under them. They simply dictated, in the firm conviction that their subjects would obey†¦ First, they conquered power. By means of power they achieved totality. Soon they tasted the pleasures of arbitrary rule. And then, swiftly, they plunged into excess†¦ (pp 101 & 102). Thus began the savage rule which was to become a canker sore in the mouth of not only Europe, but the entire world for years. It is also interesting to note that several moves had been made to overthrow Hitler even before the war began. Even though it seems clear, it is important, at this point, to insist that the plot of July 1944 was not just an attempt by a bunch of renegade army officers to kill Adolf Hitler and take over his government, but a truly patriotic and humanitarian move to liberate and distance the German nation from the vices of greed, hate, genocide and absolutism, all of which the Nazi government embodied. Germany was in the heart of the Second World War, and there was a wanton killing of Jews in German concentration camps all over Europe. â€Å"If the plot had succeeded, the war could have been shortened, the slaughter ended and the lives of millions of Jews saved† (Holocaust Educational Trust of Ireland). At the immediate conception of the plot, however, opposition to Hitler’s government was not military, but simply political. But by the mid 1930’s, several trade and political opposition groups, which existed or voiced their discontent with his