Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg

"Nina" Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (27 August 1913 – 2 April 2006) was the wife of Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the leader of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, after which she was arrested and imprisoned, where she delivered her youngest child.

Contents

Early years

She was born Magdalena Elisabeth Vera Lydia Herta von Lerchenfeld, but known as "Nina" in Kowno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to General Consul Gustav Freiherr von Lerchenfeld (1871–1944) and a Baltic-German noblewoman, Anna Freiin von Stackelberg (1880–1945).

Biography

Nina and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg first met around 1930 and were married on 26 September 1933 in Bamberg. In accordance with von Stauffenberg's father's tradition, the couple's children were raised as Catholics, although Nina and Stauffenberg's own mother were Protestant. The marriage produced five children:

After her husband's failed attempt to assassinate Hitler (von Stauffenberg was executed the night of 21 July), the Countess von Stauffenberg was arrested by the Gestapo and taken into custody (according to the new Nazi law reinstating the ancient practice of Sippenhaft.) The government placed her five children in an orphanage in Bad Sachsa, Lower Saxony, under the false surname Meister.

Nina von Stauffenberg was pregnant at the time of Stauffenberg's death, and gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze, in January 1945, while imprisoned in a Nazi maternity center in Frankfurt an der Oder. That same year, her own mother, Anna, died in a Russian camp.

By the end of World War II, Nina had been moved to the Italian province of South Tyrol, where she was held as a hostage in return for the redemption of Nazi property. After the war, she was reunited with her family at the Stauffenberg family seat in Lautlingen, Baden-Württemberg.

Death

Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg died on 2 April 2006, aged 92, at Kirchlauter near Bamberg, Bavaria and was buried there six days later.

Depiction in media

American actress Madolyn Smith Osborne portrayed Nina in the 1990 telemovie The Plot to Kill Hitler. In the 2004 German production, Stauffenberg, Nina is portrayed by actress Nina Kunzendorf. Dutch actress Carice van Houten portrayed Nina in the 2008 film, Valkyrie.

Biography

In 2008, Konstanze von Schulthess-Rechberg, von Stauffenberg's youngest daughter, wrote Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg - Ein Porträt. Pendo Verlag: Munich, 2008, ISBN 3-858-42652-0/ISBN 9-783-85842-652-9

References

For additional English-language references, see the article on Claus von Stauffenberg.

Notes

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Gräfin is a title, translated as Countess, not a first or middle name. The male form is Graf. In Germany, however, since 1919 Gräfin/Graf are no titles any more but part of the surname, thus following the given name(s) and not to be translated.
  2. ^ Regarding personal names: Freiin was a title, translated as Baroness, not a first or middle name. The title is for the unmarried daughters of a Freiherr. In Germany, however, since 1919 Freiin/Baroness/Freiherr are no titles any more but part of the surname, thus following the given name(s) and not to be translated.

External links