‘… if a man in this Reich is untrue, then he and his family will be punished …’ Sippenhaft and the 20 July 1944 Plot

Abstract

The assassination attempt on Hitler and planned coup of 20 July 1944 was the greatest act of treason accomplished in Nazi Germany. Consequently, alongside the deteriorating war situation, it was the catalyst for the widest implementation of Sippenhaft and has rightly come to symbolize the distinct radicalization of German-on-German terror within the Third Reich. As noted earlier, the 20 July incident had significant ramifications for the infliction of Sippenhaft against other forms of resistance, such as the NKFD and BDO, as well as within the German military in general. Certainly, the arrests of the relatives connected to the plot were initially driven by Himmler and the Gestapo and, with few exceptions, there was little distinction between various families. Senior and junior members of the military, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, wives, adolescent children, infants, uncles, aunts and cousins were all taken into custody due to their relationship to an identified conspirator. The range of victims was matched by the punishments, including imprisonment in police and military prisons, concentration camps, and labour camps,1 to many male relatives being reassigned to penal and punishment battalions.2KeywordsConcentration CampFamily HomeLabour CampArmy OfficerHouse ArrestThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.