Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt - November 8th, 1939

On this day in 1939, a German carpenter tried to kill Adolf Hitler. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day.

(00:21):
I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode, we're looking at
a little known plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the
early days of the Second World War. The day was
November eighth, nineteen thirty nine. A German carpenter tried to

(00:44):
kill Adolf Hitler. His name was Georg Elzer, and his
plan was to blow up a Munich beer haul where
Hitler was scheduled to speak. The timed explosion did massive
damage to the building. It even collapsed the ceiling right
above the podium, But when the smoke finally cleared, Adolf
Hitler was not one of the casualties. Elser's plan had

(01:07):
been a solid one. He knew that every year on
November eighth, Hitler held a reception at the burger brow
Keller in Munich. The venue had once been the site
of the despot's failed coup, the Beer Hall Putch of
nineteen twenty three. Once Hitler rebuilt the Nazi Party and
rose to power, he began returning to the hall each

(01:28):
year on the anniversary to deliver a speech to his
old Guard supporters about just how far they'd come. November eighth,
nineteen thirty nine marked sixteen years since the Pusch, and
Hitler used the occasion to celebrate Germany's recent invasion of
Poland and the beginning of World War II. But what
he and his loyal audience didn't realize was that in

(01:50):
that very room a bomb had been rigged to explode.
Elser had timed it to detonate roughly half way through
Hitler's hour long speech, and the bomb did go off
right on que. The only problem was that Hitler had
already left the building by that point. Eager to get
back to Berlin to continue his military planning, Hitler had

(02:11):
hurried through his speech faster than expected and then departed
early in the end. Elser's bomb killed eight people and
wounded more than sixty others, but it missed Adolf Hitler
by about thirteen minutes. The following day, a Nazi newspaper
hailed the event as quote the miraculous salvation of the Furor,

(02:33):
a phrase that would get plenty of mileage in the
years ahead. All told, Hitler managed to survive at least
fifteen attempts on his life during World War II, some
of which were carried out by the Allied forces and
some by the people of Germany. Most of the would
be assassins belonged to a resistance movement, a military unit,

(02:53):
or a political group, but not Georg Gelzer, he acted alone.
The thirty six year old carpenter had always despised national
socialism for the restrictions it placed on personal freedom and
for its hostile treatment of the working class. But in
nineteen thirty eight, after the Nazi annexations of Austria and
part of Czechoslovakia, Elser became convinced that the regime was

(03:18):
even more dangerous than he had thought. It seemed to
him that war was unavoidable under Adolf Hitler, so the
best thing for the German people, in his mind, would
be the removal of its current leadership. As he later
explained during his interrogation, quote, I thought to myself that
this is only possible if Hitler, Ghring and Gebels are

(03:39):
together at a rally. From the daily press, I gathered
that the next meeting of leaders was happening on the
eighth and ninth of November nineteen thirty eight in Munich
in the Burger Browkeller. Elser took the train to Munich
that fall and attended the beer hall on the day
of Hitler's anniversary speech. He took note of the layout
of the venue and how the event was run, eventually

(04:02):
concluding that his best chance for killing the fearer was
to hollow out a pillar directly behind the speaker's podium
and pack it full of explosives. He would have to
wait until next November eighth to put his plan into action,
but that gave him plenty of chances to prepare. At
the time, carpentry wasn't paying the bills, so Elser had

(04:22):
to take a job at an armament's factory in Heidenheim.
On the plus side, the gig provided him with a
working knowledge of explosives, as well as access to bomb
making materials such as detonators, powder and fuses. In the
summer of nineteen thirty nine, he experimented with explosives at
an orchard near his hometown of Swabia. Then in early

(04:44):
August he returned to Munich, rented a room from an
unsuspecting couple, and began making nightly visits to the beer
hall for meals. Over the next several months, Elser hid
in the hall over night more than thirty times. When
the coast was clear, he'd emerge and set to work
hollowing out a chamber in the pillar. By the stage.

(05:05):
He concealed this growing cavity behind a secret door in
the pillar's wood paneling, making full use of his carpentry
and joinery skills. When the hall's doors were unlocked early
the next morning, he would simply slip out the back
carrying a briefcase full of debris. Elser installed the explosives
in the pillar over the course of two nights in

(05:26):
early November. Then on the evening of the seventh, he
made one final trip to the beer hall to make
sure the clock mechanism was set correctly. Then he hopped
a train out of town. The whole thing had been
meticulously planned and expertly concealed. Elser even muffled the timers
and cork casings to prevent anyone from hearing them ticking.

(05:48):
The one thing he couldn't account for, though, was Hitler's
hasty departure, a twist of fate that wound up saving
the fearer's life. As for Elser. He was apprehended shortly
before the bomb went off while trying to cross the
border into Switzerland. Customs officers had caught him with some
rather incriminating items, including several notes and sketches related to explosives,

(06:11):
as well as a postcard of the beer hall's interior.
He was handed over to the Gestapo for interrogation, and
the transcript from that prolonged encounter, which resurfaced in the
nineteen sixties, is how we know all these details today.
Georg Elzer was never tried for his bombing, as any
legal proceeding would have forced the Nazis to admit that

(06:33):
an ordinary, working class German had come this close to
killing Hitler, so instead they pinned the whole thing on
the British Secret Service, a tactic meant to stir up
more animosity for Germany's enemies. Meanwhile, Elser was locked in
a basement cell of the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, where
he was periodically drugged and tortured for the next year. Then,

(06:57):
in early nineteen forty one, he was moved to the
Zachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was placed in solitary confinement.
Four years later, He was transferred to Docow and executed
by firing squad on April ninth, nineteen forty five, just
a few weeks before the war ended. Adolph Hitler followed

(07:18):
Elser in death just three weeks after that. He had
escaped assassination numerous times, only to die by his own hand,
defeated and freed cowering in a bunker. Elser had once
called Hitler the downfall of Germany, and in the end
he was the source of his own as well. I'm

(07:40):
Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can learn
even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have
any comments or suggestions, feel free to pass them a
law by writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com.

(08:03):
Thanks to Chandler Maze for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in History class.