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Should Hitler have been targeted for assassination during WWII?

posted 4 years ago by Redsfan001 (6019)
16 replies | jump to latest

Vote Y/N please.

(I know he was..but the question 'is this wise?')

Assassination anytime after 1941.

Since everyone here probably knows the yes reason, let me give you the minority opinion of the allies for a good reason not to target him.

Hitler was such a balloon head when it came to overarching military strategy, he directed resources in the wrong areas, didn't like for his generals to retreat, constantly overrode their wiser decisions...the argument was put forth that by killing him, the possibility of a wiser more skilled commander would come to lead Germany and probably prolong the war.

Germany had some of the finest most capable Generals...all denutted to some extent by Hitler.

The case FOR assassination is clear, a swift chopping off of the head of the dragon would end the war quickly.

What say you?

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 4 years ago

Y, Could of ended the European War much sooner.

[–] Satan2016 (23566) 4 years ago

Nazi lives matter!

[–] TimMC (9143) 4 years ago

Yes but they're dead now.

[–] JohnnyDoe (1728) 4 years ago

Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Path_to_defeat

[–] Redsfan001 (6019) 4 years ago

Thank you for the input.

But you did not answer the question, do you think it was wise?

A question we will never be able to answer is what would happen if one of those plans was successful.

Many generals would fear being prosecuted for war crimes, the Holocaust killed millions.

To think that a complete capitulation would occur would be a little naive in my view.

[–] JohnnyDoe (1728) 4 years ago

If others would continue on in his place, or not? I don't know.

[–] Karl Aksel (1453) 4 years ago

To think that a complete capitulation would occur would be a little naive in my view.

A complete and immediate capitulation, no, but the Germans would broker for peace much sooner. To lose one's leader - especially if the plot came from within - would be a devastating blow to morale, which it would be near impossible to recover from. I very much doubt that Göring would have been able to rally the people like Hitler had, or even inspire confidence in his immediate associates. There would have been a power struggle, especially between those who agreed with the invasion of Russia and those who did not.

As for the Holocaust, things certainly couldn't get worse for the Jews. The one who was the most fanatical about the Endlösung was Himmler, and a Reichsführer Göring might well have Himmler replaced as head of the SS, and quietly set about dismantling the camps. He might conceivably put on a great show of shock at "discovering" what was happening to the Jews, and then paint himself as their liberator, but more likely he would simply stop the deportations and let the current populations of the camps perish, and then dismantling the camps.

[–] Redsfan001 (6019) 4 years ago

Nice reply.

The problem would be if the allies would not except anything less than unconditional surrender (like Japan).

If this were the case, (which I think likely) many generals would see their doom in upcoming war crime trials.

[–] Adam60z (3750) 4 years ago

Yes, that's why the question is idiotic. There were countless attempts to do so, the most well known is the Von Stauffenberg one. The question should be: what if one of those attempts succeeded, especially the 1939 time bomb attempt.

[–] Redsfan001 (6019) 4 years ago

After 1941.

The British and other allies were AGAINST killing Hitler.

Hitler's bonehead invasion of Russia cost him WWII, his refusal to back off and regroup sealed the deal.

So say after 1942 the attempt was successful. Does this shorten or lengthen the war...and why.

[–] Adam60z (3750) 4 years ago

The von Stauffenberg attempt was in 1944 after D Day. Yes, the whole purpose of the attempt was to end the war. But the 1939 time bomb by Georg Elser would have stopped the war then. In these and other cases they just missed him. What they needed was a suicide bomber to make sure it worked. I mean they were killed anyway, but von Stauffenberg planned to take over the government.

[–] ebhaynz (3550) 4 years ago

Y, Hitler was fighting another war in which a large portion of the world did not know about. Hitler had surrounded himself with other Nazi's who were under strict orders to murder millions of innocent Jews, Slavs, and mentally ill/handicapped people. Hitler had these guys do all the dirty work while carefully keeping himself from direct proof the orders were coming from him. Note these evil followers(Himmler, Goerring, Goebbels, Heydrich, Borman) didn't know what to do with themselves without Hitler, most of them immediately killed themselves after Hitler shot his stupid brains out..so, if you go back in time and cut off Hitler's head the rest of his murderous henchmen would immediately collapse as well.

[–] Redsfan001 (6019) 4 years ago

We will never know.

After the war was in full swing 1941.

But you bring up a good point on slave labor and concentration camp....would these have been discontinued?

Albert Speer seemed to have no moral quandaries about the slave labor aspect.

[–] liscarkat (16652) 4 years ago

Wouldn't have hurt to find out.

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

He was.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

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