Target Hitler by James P. Duffy

Author:James P. Duffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enigma Books
Published: 2011-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

The efforts by Pope Pius XII to arrange to negotiate the peace sought by everyone except Hitler came to nothing for several reasons. Paramount was Brauchitsch‘s correct assessment that (1) most Germans continued to support Hitler, and (2) a coup would probably have led to a civil war between the part of the army loyal to the Führer, the SS, and other Nazi groups on one side, and the faction of the army that sought to remove the Nazis from power and even kill Hitler. How long the insurgents could have held out against the forces massed against them if the air force sided with the Nazis, as it likely would have under Göring, is a matter for conjecture.

But all that activity would have been a result of the coup, and it is impossible to predict what portion of the army would have supported the coup, especially if they struck quickly and decisively against Hitler and the other leading Nazis, removing them entirely as rallying points. The coup at this point was doomed in part because the British remained reluctant to deal with any anti-Nazi Germans, partly as a result of the deception played on them in the Venlo incident.

Although the responsibility cannot be placed solely on the British government, a more positive attitude toward the overtures made to them through the Pope might have resulted in a more favorable outcome. As usual with critical points in history, one is left with the question, “What if?” As usual, it is a question that must remain unanswered.

As Hitler scheduled and then rescheduled the invasion of the West, the Pope and several of his emissaries were kept informed of the dates by Müller. This intelligence was passed on to the Belgian and Dutch authorities. Meanwhile, the Pope, Father Leiber, and others in the Vatican who knew of Müller‘s mission and the Pope‘s participation waited for the resistance to act against Hitler so the peace negotiations could begin. They continued to wait until the most important condition, no German invasion of the West, could no longer be met.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.