Famous Days for Students of English

20-07-1944

In the summer of 1944, Hitler was at war with most of the world. Big armies stood against him, and Germany was gradually losing the war.

Some people in Germany understood that the war was lost and they wanted to end it. However, they had to remove Hitler first if they wanted to bring a change.

One of these people was Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. He was 37 years old, and he originally agreed with Hitler’s ideas. However, everything changed when he saw how people suffered in the war. He was also badly injured in Africa. He lost his eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand.

After his injuries, Stauffenberg stayed in the army, and he had access to meetings with Hitler.

On July 20, 1944, he hid a bomb into his briefcase and he brought the briefcase to a meeting with Hitler. At the meeting, he put the briefcase under the table near Hitler. Some minutes later, he said that he needed to leave the room.

After he left the room, another army officer pushed the briefcase behind a heavy conference table leg. Then an explosion came. The explosion was very big.

Stauffenberg was sure that everybody in the room was dead, but only 4 people died. Hitler wasn’t one of them. He had only little injuries because the heavy table leg protected him from the explosion.

Difficult words: remove (to take somebody from an important position), originally (in the beginning), access (a possibility to enter a place), briefcase (a bag for businessmen).