Claus von Stauffenberg Biography

Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is remembered as one of the tragic heroes of World War II. Born into an aristocratic German family, von Stauffenberg was a German army officer during the war but grew disillusioned with the Nazis. Eventually he joined a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Von Stauffenberg planted a briefcase bomb during a staff meeting with Hitler on 20 July 1944. The bomb went off as planned, but by chance Hitler was shielded by a heavy conference table and survived. Von Stauffenberg escaped the blast and flew to Berlin, where he and others had hoped to lead a coup. Instead he was captured the same day and executed early the next morning.