13. The planned assassination at Smolensk
Less than a month after unwittingly avoiding arrest and probable death on the Eastern Front, Adolf Hitler again escaped an attempt on his life. Henning von Tresckow was actively involved – in fact in many cases the instigator – in several plots against the Fuhrer, including a planned assassination of Hitler while he and several of his aides were having lunch with senior officers at Smolensk in March of 1943. The plan was a simple one, as Hitler arrived to have lunch following a conference with senior officers those officers were to simply draw their sidearms and start shooting, killing Hitler and any who arose to defend him. The plan was known at the highest level of German military leadership, but to date, there has been no evidence to suggest that the Gestapo or SS were aware of its existence or even suspected such a level of disloyalty among the ranks of the Army.
It was the commander of Army Group Center, Gunther von Kluge, who had been informed of the plan to assassinate Hitler during the visit, who took Tresckow aside and pleaded with him not to execute the plot. To Kluge, the assassination of the Fuhrer was not yet a military necessity, and he was concerned about the reaction of the SS. Kluge told Tresckow, “It’s still too soon for that”, believing that the German people would react negatively to a military coup. Kluge also noted to Tresckow that SS leader Heinrich Himmler had not accompanied Hitler to Smolensk as planned and that Himmler would seize the opportunity to take over all power in Berlin, supported by SS troops. Tresckow listened to Kluge’s arguments and canceled the assassination on March 13, 1943, though unknown to Kluge at the time was the existence of a backup plan to kill Hitler during the trip, also orchestrated by Tresckow.