Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst

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Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst (24 April 1919 - 26 January 1993), usually referred to as Axel von dem Bussche in English, was a German Army officer and member of the German Resistance to Adolf Hitler's regime.

Born in Braunschweig, he joined the German Army in 1939 and was posted as a junior officer to the eastern front, where he witnessed a massacre of Jews near Dubno in 1942. He then joined an ad hoc resistance group within the Army based at Army Group Centre, declaring that there were only three ways to preserve his honour: die in battle, desert, or rebel.

In December 1943 Bussche undertook to carry out a suicide bombing to kill Hitler. At that time, Hitler was due to inspect new Army winter uniforms, and Bussche planned to demonstrate one of the uniforms with two hand grenades hidden in the coat, which he would detonate, killing both Hitler and himself. The plan failed when an Allied bomb attack on Berlin destroyed the railway truck with the uniforms on the day before the planned assassination attempt.

In January 1944, Bussche volunteered for another assassination attempt, but before it could be organised, he was severely wounded in action and lost a leg. He then spent many months in hospital and, as result, was not involved in the July 20 Plot to kill Hitler. His role in the earlier assassination plots was not suspected, and he was not betrayed by any of the officers who knew of his involvement. As a result, he was one of the few Army plotters to survive the war.

After the war, Bussche became a lawyer and diplomat, serving from 1954 to 1958 in the German Embassy in Washington. He was also a member of the German Evangelical Church presidency, an advisor to the World Bank, and a delegate to the Stockholm UN environment conference of 1972. In 1950, he married Lady Camilla Acheson, daughter of Archibald Acheson, 5th Earl of Gosford.

[edit] References

Fest, Joachim; Plotting Hitler's Death – The Story of the German Resistance, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1996. ISBN 0-8050-4213-X