Hans Bernd Gisevius

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Hans Bernd Gisevius (July 14, 1904-February 23, 1974) was a leading opponent to the Nazi regime. During World War II he served as a German diplomat and intelligence officer, posted in Zürich, where he served as a liaison between the OSS and the anti-Hitler forces in Germany.

After law school, Gisevius joined the Prussian Interior Ministry and was later transferred to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. After joining the police, he immediately became disillusioned with Hitler because of lawlessness in Germany, most notably the tolerance of violence by the Nazis. Gisevius joined the secret opposition to Hitler, began gathering evidence of Nazi crimes (for use in a later prosecution) and attempted to restrain the increasing power of Heinrich Himmler and the SS. Himmler prevailed, and the day he took total control over police functions in the German Reich, Himmler removed Gisevius from office.

When the war started, Gisevius joined the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, which was headed by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, also an opponent of Hitler. Canaris had surrounded himself with Wehrmacht officers opposed to Hitler and he welcomed Gisevius into this group. Under the cover provided to him by Canaris, Gisevius participated in several plots against Hitler, including the 20th of July, 1944 attempted assassination and putsch.

Canaris arranged for appointment of Gisevius as Vice Consul in Switzerland, where Gisevius met with Allen Dulles, and agreed to serve as a liaison with the German opposition to Hitler, including General Ludwig Beck, Canaris, and Mayor Carl Goerdeler of Leipzig. Upon returning to Germany, he was investigated by the Gestapo, but released. In 1944, after the failed assassination attempt against Hitler, Gisevius fled back to Switzerland, making him one of the few conspirators to survive the war.

After the war, Gisevius returned to Germany and served as a key witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials in the case against Hermann Göring, his former boss in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. His autobiography, Bis zum Bitteren Ende, ("To the Bitter End"), published in 1946, offered a sharp indictment of the Nazi regime, many of whose leading members Gisevius knew personally, as well as of the German people, who, Gisevius claimed, pretended not to know about the atrocities being committed in its name. At the same time, it also offers an exciting insider's account of the German resistance movement.

Hans Gisevius died in Germany in 1974.