Who?
Before the German military Resistance could trigger Operation Valkyrie, assassinate Adolf Hitler, and mount a coup, they had to find the right man for the job. Their search intensified in 1943-44, when several possible candidates tried and failed to kill the Führer.
https://alchetron.com/Axel-Freiherr-von-dem-Bussche-Streithorst
Captain Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst. Bussche joined the military Resistance in 1942 after he could do nothing to stop SS and Einsatzgruppen from killing 5000 Jewish residents of the Dubno Polish ghetto in a single day. After Ukrainian militia had already executed 10,000 ghetto residents in daily mass shootings, letting the bodies fall into mass graves on the outskirts of town, SS and Einsatzgruppen were ordered to finish off the rest expeditiously. Jewish men, women, and children were stripped of their clothing, led to one of three pits along the perimeter of an abandoned airfield, and shot to death. (Countdown to Valkyrie)
Little more than a year later, Bussche agreed to carry a bomb hidden in the pocket of a new greatcoat uniform and detonate the device while Hitler inspected the garment that had been designed to withstand the cold of the Russian winter. But he never got the chance to meet with Hitler. The inspection was rescheduled time after time, and it was called off entirely when the supply of greatcoats was destroyed in an Allied bombing run. (Countdown, Plotting Hitler’s Death)
Lt. Ewald Heinrich von Kleist. After new greatcoats became available in January, 1944, Kleist was enlisted to take Bussche’s place as model of the uniform and bomb carrier. Kleist was the son of a conservative German political leader who had tried to get England’s support for the Oster coup plan in 1938 (see the Oster Conspiracy in Historka,) and urged his son to take on the mission, saying: “You have to do it. Anyone who falters at such a moment will never feel at one with himself again.” The plan to tape plastic explosives to his waist and trigger a hand grenade was called off at the last minute, however, because SS leader Heinrich Himmler would not also be present at the inspection. (Countdown, p 166)
https://infostation.synagoge-stadthagen.de/biografien/biografie-details/eberhard-breitenbuch.html
Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch. Opposed to the National Socialists since they had come to power, Breitenbuch had been aware of assassination plans since August, 1943. He was eager to participate the following year when he was scheduled to attend a military briefing on March 11. He planned to carry a rifle grenade under his clothing and detonate it when Hitler was close by. An added and opportune turn of events--Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and Josef Goebbels would also be at the briefing. Breitenbuch was denied entry at the door to the briefing, however, when an SS officer pulled him away and told him no one from his unit of the special missions group was permitted. (Stauffenberg)
The Resistance then turned to one in their midst, a principal planner of Operation Valkyrie itself and a man who had been vetting assassin candidates himself—Lt. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.
https://www.pinterest.com/pamelalizlee/claus-von-stauffenberg-biography/
Stauffenberg originally supported Hitler over von Hindenburg (whom he considered to be “a reactionary favoured by the narrow-minded middle classes”) in 1932 and Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor the following year. He agreed with Hitler’s plans for rearmament, the acquisition of heavy weapons, and expansion of the army as well as the reunification of all Germans living in other countries, eg, Austria and Czechoslovakia, within the country’s borders. (Stauffenberg)
Stauffenberg’s views soured, however, when he realized the Hitler regime did not value the military or wish to govern alongside it. (Hitler went ahead with his plans to acquire Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in 1938 despite lack of support from military leaders, for example.) Stauffenberg echoed other military leaders who believed the “Army was Germany’s right hand and…the Chief of the Army must be consulted on all major internal and foreign policy decisions that might affect the Army.” His position intensified over time, until he actively supported overthrowing the Third Reich, noting: “We are the leadership of the Army and also of the nation and we shall take control of that leadership.” (Stauffenberg, p 110)
Though involved primarily with military operations, Stauffenberg over time also learned about crimes committed by SS and Einsatzgruppen units behind the lines in Russia after ordering an aide to gather reports of any activity involving the SS in 1941, and he was told about the mass murders of Jews in Poland and Russia in 1942. From that point on, he quietly insisted that the “foolish and criminal” Adolf Hitler must be overthrown. (Stauffenberg, p 133) He still did not consider joining the military Resistance officially until 1943 when he was approached by Henning von Tresckow while recovering from grievous war wounds.
Believing the Allies most assuredly would win the war, Henning von Tresckow accelerated plans to remove Hitler from power, telling a friend in the summer of 1943, “everything…must be done to end [hostilities] soon,” meaning “the leadership would have to go.” (Plotting Hitler’s Death, p 214) He began working closely with Stauffenberg six months after a strafing had seriously injured the colonel.
On April 7, 1943, Stauffenberg was being driven from one armored unit to another while fighter-bombers swooped down on vehicles of the 10th Panzer Division as they attempted to retreat over the narrow Chabita-Khetati Pass in Tunisia. Planes strafed burning vehicles, igniting ammunition, disabling lorries, leading men and their machinery to fling themselves away from the trajectory, and spraying Stauffenberg with bullets after he threw himself from his automobile to the ground. In the field hospital near Sfax, Stauffenberg was treated for his injuries—the little and ring fingers on his left hand and his right hand above the wrist were amputated, and his left eye was removed.
One month after being introduced to one another in August, Tresckow and Stauffenberg set about revising plans for the Operation Valkyrie coup, including orders for mobilization and deployment of military units and rapid formation of combat-ready regiments. Under the guise of bolstering the regime’s response if civil unrest or Allied gains threatened Berlin or other municipalities on the home front, Stauffenberg even met with Hitler and gained his approval for rapid-mobilization measures that would bolster the coup by conferring power over the SS, the Nazi Party, and the government of the Third Reich to military commanders-in-chief as soon as Hitler was assassinated and Operation Valkyrie was set in motion.
In early July, 1944, Stauffenberg was promoted to full colonel and confirmed as the Chief of Staff to the commander of the Reserve Army, a position that brought him in direct contact with Hitler at military briefings. And, thus, he became the ideal assassin—the man who had regular access to Hitler, was respected by the leaders of the German military and Third Reich, and would not be suspected.
To that end, Stauffenberg began carrying a bomb in his briefcase on July 8, 1944. Although he was in close proximity to Hitler on several occasions in the early days of July, he did not activate the device: On July 11, he refrained because Göring and Himmler were not present at the briefing. It’s not clear why he deferred on July 15. He may not have been able to prime the bomb beforehand. A coconspirator may have removed the bomb from the Stauffenberg’s briefcase for fear that he would act regardless of whether Himmler was present or not. Or the conference may have ended unexpectedly.
The need to act and act quickly intensified in the next few days. There were major setbacks on both the Eastern and Western fronts of the war, rumors that the Gestapo was zeroing in on at least one of the major coup plotters (a warrant had been issued for the man who had been selected by the conspirators to serve as leader of the military coup government), and suspicions that coup plans were being leaked. (Countdown)
The day for launching Operation Valkyrie then became clear: The military coup and the assassination of Adolf Hitler would take place on July 20, 1944.
Sources:
Peter Hoffman: Stauffenberg, A Family History, 1905-1944, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Nigel Jones: Countdown to Valkyrie, The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler, Frontline Books, 2008.
Joachim Fest: Plotting Hitler’s Death, Metropolitan Books, 1996.