Georg Elser was a 36-year-old cabinetmaker from Württemberg who hated bullies and who had a profound sense of justice. When Adolf Hitler came on the radio and a colleague told him to raise his arm in the Nazi salute when a Nazi parade came by, Elser refused. Elser was threatened by local officials to change his views, but he refused. Instead, he drew up a plan to kill Hitler. He managed to plant a bomb and set it to go off on the evening of Nov. 8, 1939, at 9:20 p.m. at a ceremony where Hitler was due to speak between 8:30-10 p.m.
On that day, Hitler flew down to Munich, but because fog was expected he advised his staff he would return to Berlin by special train. The train was due to leave at 9:31 p.m. Hitler would need to start speaking earlier than planned and to complete his speech by 9:10 p.m. in order to get to the station on time.
Hitler left the gathering at 9:07 p.m.
Just as Elser had planned, the bomb went off at 9:20 p.m., killing eight of Hitler’s “Old Fighters” and injuring more than 60 others. By leaving a few minutes earlier, Hitler’s life was saved.
On the evening of the speech, Elser hoped to sneak across the fence bordering Switzerland, but he was challenged by two border guards. Elser had kept a pair of pliers, a postcard of the place where Hitler spoke marked with an X, a fuse, and sketches of a bomb to prove to the Swiss and to history that he was the man who had killed Hitler. When the guards found these items in Elser’s possession and heard the news about the explosion, they contacted the Gestapo.
After several days of being beaten,........