©Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Berlin
After the attempt on Hitler’s life, Himmler announced the introduction of the “absolute detention of kinship”. The Stauffenberg family was to be “extinguished down to the last member”. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was one of the key figures in the conspiracy: on 20 July 1944, he placed the explosive charge intended to kill Hitler. The coup failed, and the regime struck back mercilessly. Co-conspirators were jailed, tortured, condemned in show trials and executed. The Nazi leadership took action against entire families, especially the Stauffenbergs. Their property was confiscated, family members interned, the children put in a home. From February 1945 onward, they were transferred to an isolation barrack in Buchenwald along with other kinship inmates. In early April 1945, the SS ordered the evacuation. It was not until 4 May 1945 that they were liberated by U.S. troops in South Tyrol.
