Too Late to Save Warsaw: The July 20 Plot, Valkyrie, and the Shadow of Dirlewanger
- balvarez1812
- Jul 20
- 4 min read
July 20, 1944, a German officer with a patch over one eye and a mangled right hand walked into Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair, carrying a briefcase. His name was Claus von Stauffenberg, a decorated aristocrat-turned-conspirator who had grown disgusted by the crimes of the Third Reich, especially those committed on the Eastern Front. He wasn’t acting alone. Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators; generals, diplomats, intellectuals, and devout Christians believed it was their moral duty to kill Adolf Hitler, dismantle the Nazi regime, and negotiate peace with the West to prevent the total destruction of Germany and further annihilation of Europe.
The plan, known as Operation Valkyrie, was bold and desperate. It aimed to assassinate Hitler, use the Reserve Army to seize control of Berlin, arrest high-ranking SS officials, and stop the atrocities being carried out in occupied territories. Valkyrie because Hitler’s favorite musical piece was the Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner and listened to it in his Munich jail cell believing the music was made for the Germans as an omen for Germany to save Europe from alleged “Jewry” and embraced German nationalism with the song. Listening in jail made him even more determined to start the Nazi Party as we know it in 1930s Germany.
Back to 1944 mid-summer. At 12:42 PM on July 20th, the bomb exploded. But Hitler survived. And with him, the nightmare of the east continued…
Why July 20th Plot Mattered More Than the Western World Realized
The failed assassination was not just a German internal crisis. Its ripple effects were global, none more devastating than in occupied Poland, particularly in Warsaw.
Polish resistance fighters of the Armia Krajowa(AK) Polish Home Army were watching the Germans collapse closely. Soviet tanks were already pressing through Belarus and approaching the outskirts of Warsaw. Many Poles believed that if Hitler fell and Germany fractured internally, a successful Polish uprising might secure national sovereignty before the Soviets arrived and establish communist Poland and NKVD terror in Warsaw.
Warsaw’s Gamble: Inspired by Collapse
In the days after July 20, the Wehrmacht was gripped with paranoia. The SS purged suspected traitors. Over 7,000 people were arrested, and nearly 5,000 were executed. Chaos and fear rippled through the ranks of Nazi Germany. But for the Poles, it seemed like a final moment of opportunity.
Just 12 days later, on August 1, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising erupted. It was a bold move: 50,000 Polish resistance fighters rising up in the heart of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Had Hitler been killed, German forces might have fractured, abandoned Warsaw, or at least lacked the leadership to mount a full-scale retaliation. And most likely loyal Germans would have sued for peace with the west and Moscow (maybe) perhaps Poland, Eastern Europe and East Germany would have been spared the brutal Red Army and NKVD destruction from 44-45. But Hitler lived. And his revenge would be monstrous…
Enter Dirlewanger: The Devil’s Battalion
In the fury that followed the uprising, the Nazis unleashed the worst of the worst. Among the units sent to crush the rebellion was the SS Dirlewanger Brigade led by Oskar Dirlewanger and the SS RONA Russian Liberation Army (SS volunteers of Anti-Stalin Russians and Ukrainians) led by Bronislaw Kaminski .
What Dirlewanger’s and Kaminski’s men did in Wola, Ochota, and other neighborhoods was not war it was murder, rape, and massacre on an industrial scale. Civilians women, children, nurses, the elderly all were shot, burned, bayoneted, raped, and violated in some of the worst atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. Up to 50,000 civilians were slaughtered in Wola alone, as soon as August the 5th came it was not a heroic fight…
The connection is haunting: had Valkyrie succeeded, Dirlewanger’s Einsatzgruppe would have likely never set foot in Warsaw. The city may still have suffered in battle—but not like this. Not the systematic massacre of civilians. Not the streets piled with bodies, the girls, women, nurses raped to death, the children bayoneted, and hospitals torched.
A Crucial "What If" in History
July 20 is more than a failed assassination attempt. It's a moment when the world held its breath. For Poland, it marked the final window of hope before the gates of hell opened. The Nazis saw treason in their own ranks and responded by doubling down on terror especially in Poland, where they feared rebellion the most. The Warsaw Uprising was timed in part because of the Valkyrie plot. Had Stauffenberg succeeded, Poland might have emerged from the war in a different shape. Soviet occupation still loomed, but the city might have been spared Dirlewanger’s reign of terror, and Poland’s Home Army might have negotiated peace as a recognized force. If Hitler's meeting was held in the bunker and not the hut, if the weather was raining or slightly cooler or too windy, history and Europe as we know it would not be the same.
Instead, Warsaw was left to burn while the SS, criminals, and monsters like Dirlewanger painted the city red with blood. Most of what you see in Warsaw today was rebuilt due to the destruction of the city caused by Kaminski, Dirlewanger, Reinfarthe, Von dem Bach. We, including myself who is in love with Warsaw and the Polish people, would see Warsaw as it was before the war. However, we cannot undo history, only honor it and never let it die...
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