Dr. Armin Mruck
Abstract: An assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler took place on July 20, 1944. This event raises the following questions: (1) what information did the President of the United States have about the existence and activities of the anti-Hitler plotters; (2) what use was made of this information; and (3) why did the White House decide not to support the Resistance against the Nazis? The article establishes that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had full knowledge of the German anti-Nazi resistance. Although the highest elected official in the U.S. was provided with detailed information about Nazi activities as well as multiple requests for specific action to support the resistance, the Roosevelt administration was cautious and at times distrustful of members of the anti-Nazi resistance; it only listened and gathered information. The reason for this reticence is that the Allies, especially, F.D.R., wanted to start with a clean slate, i.e., they wanted to set the terms of victory without interference from any German group. Germany needed to be taught a lesson it would not forget. Moreover, the course of inaction aligned with Stalin’s desire to increase the Resistance’s frustration with the Western powers and thus to promote an East (Soviet) orientation. However, a successful overthrow of the Hitler regime would have meant an earlier end to the war and a considerably stronger position of the Western powers in Europe. As it happened, a warning that “…Allied military victory would mean little, since peace will be quickly lost and a new dictatorship may take the place of a present one in Central Europe,” became true.
Keywords: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, WWII, World War II, Nazi, Anti-Nazi Resistance, Marshal Stalin
