2-611-838 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Loerzer, Göring and Bormann inspecting bomb damage at Wolf's Lair, World War II, 1944. German political and military leaders Bruno Loerzer, Hermann Göring (in light-coloured uniform), and Martin Bormann in the conference room at Wolf's Lair (Wolfsschanze in German). This top secret, high security bunker in the Masurian woods near Rastenburg in Prussia (now Poland), was Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters. An assassination attempt was made here in 1944. The intention of the '20 July plot' was to eliminate Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power in Germany. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the leading members of the plot, took a briefcase bomb into a daily conference meeting and placed it just feet away from Hitler. The plot failed, partly because Hitler unexpectedly called the meeting earlier than anticipated, and the location was changed at short notice. The bomb exploded and the interior of the building was devastated, four people were killed, but Hitler was only slightly injured. Stauffenberg was captured and executed by firing squad the next day. Thousands of others were arrested by the Gestapo, and 4,980 were executed.