Hans Bernd Gisevius: Difference between revisions

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'''Hans Bernd Gisevius''' ([[July 14]], [[1904]]-[[February 23]], [[1974]]) was a [[Germany|German diplomat]], posted in [[Zürich]] during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] regime, who served as a liaison between the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] and the anti-[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] forces in the German army.

PoliticallyAfter alaw conservative supporter of [[Paul von Hindenburg]]school, Gisevius joined the Prussian Interior Ministry (police) after graduating from law school and was later transferred to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. HeAfter immeidatelyjoining the police, he immediately became disillusioned with Hitler because of lawlessness in Germany, most notably the failure to enforce German law and tolerance of violence by the Nazis. Gisevius joined the secret opposition to Hitler and attempted to restrain the increasing power of Heinrich Himmler and the SS. As a result, on the day Himmler took total control over police functions in the German Reich, he removed Gisevius from office.

When the war started, Gisevius joined the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, which was headed by [[Admiral Wilhelm Canaris]], who had surrounded himself with German officers opposed to Hitler. Under the cover provided to him by Canaris, Gisevius participated in several plots against Hitler, including the 20th of July, 1944 assassinationattempted attemptassassination and putsch.

AsCanaris arranged for appointment of Gisevius as Vice Consul in [[Switzerland]], where Gisevius met with [[Allen Dulles]], and agreed to serve as a liaison with the German opposition to Hitler, including General [[Ludwig Beck]], Canaris, and Mayor [[Carl Goerdeler]] of [[Leipzig]]. Upon returning to Germany, he was investigated briefly by the Gestapo, but released. In [[1944]], after the failed assassination attempt against Hitler, Gisevius fled back to Switzerland.

After the war, Gisevius returned to Germany and served as a key witness for the prosecution at the [[Nuremberg Trials]] in the case against [[Hermann Göring]], his former boss in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. His autobiography, ''Bis zum Bitteren Ende'', ("To the Bitter End"), published in [[1946]], offered a sharp indictment of the Nazi regime, many of whose leading members Gisevius knew personally, as well as of the German people, who, Gisevius claimed, pretended not to know about the atrocities being committed in its name. At the same time, it also offers an exciting insider's account of the German resistance movement.