SS Internal Report — Sicherheitsdienst (SD) File

(Classification: STUFE IV – Nur für den Dienstgebrauch)

Subject: Operation Walküre — Elimination of Adolf Hitler and Consolidation of New Reich Leadership
Date: 20 July 1944 — Confidential Archive, RSHA Berlin

Summary of Event:
At approximately 12:45, an explosive device was successfully detonated at the Führerhauptquartier (Wolfsschanze). The detonation fatally wounded Adolf Hitler, along with General Keitel and several adjutants.

Key Conspirators:

• Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – Execution officer of the assassination plan. Eliminated during firefight at Bendlerblock.

• General Ludwig Beck – Appointed interim Head of State by conspirators. Died by self-inflicted wound following arrest.

• Carl Goerdeler, Julius Leber, Ulrich von Hassell – Detained, awaiting interrogation.

Outcome:

• Initial chaos contained within 12 hours by SS and Wehrmacht loyalists.

• Surviving conspirators neutralized.

• Power vacuum rapidly filled by alliance of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, and Armaments Minister Albert Speer.

Resolution:

• Göring secured command of resource corridors and Luftwaffe.

• Himmler consolidated SS and state security.

• Speer appointed Reichskanzler and, within days, acclaimed as Führer of the New Reich.

Assessment:

• Public narrative re-framed: Hitler died a martyr for German destiny, struck by traitors.

• The regime is now presented as reborn under Führer Speer, emphasizing efficiency and order.

• Propaganda value: Hitler’s chaotic leadership quietly erased, replaced by technocratic promise of victory.

(Margin note, redacted): “The Machine will endure where the Man failed.”)