He is the model of resistance to the Nazis,
but also the model of treason, he is Hans
Oster, deputy head of the German Abwehr and
the informal managing director of the German anti-Nazi resistance.
I’m Spartacuss Olsson And this is a WW2
biography special, where we look at the key
figures of the conflict and find out what
makes them tick.
Welcome to a World War Two Biography Special,
where we cover the lives of the men and women
who played vital roles in the Second World
War.
I’m Spartacus Olsson.
In our German resistance special on War Against
Humanity, I briefly mentioned Hans Oster,
as has Indy several time in the weekly episodes
To understand Oster is to understand the dilemma
faced by officers in the Wehrmacht who opposed
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
He is a career soldier who starts climbing
the ranks of the German military even before
The Great War.
But when the Nazis take power, he sees how
his country is threatened by a racist madman,
and he decides to use his position in the
German Military Intelligence Agency to oppose
Nazi-ism.
He will be considered by many as one of the
most courageous, determined and skilled indi-viduals
who resisted nazism from within the confines
of the Third Reich.
He is born in Dresden in 1887 to a Protestant
clergyman and his wife, he fights in the Great
War as an officer and is awarded the Iron
Cross at the Western Front.
He is promoted to lieutenant and works for
the General Staff from 1916.
After the war, holding the rank of Captain,
he stays in the reduced Weimar Military, the
Reichswehr, but in 1932 he is fired for indiscretion
when he is caught in an affair with another
officer’s wife.
He gets a new job in the new Prussian police
force that is being created by Herman Göring,
and in 1933 he gets transferred to the Abwehr,
the Wehrmacht Military intelligence service.
Now, Oster is largely apolitical and serves
the army regardless of ideology.
But as an officer of the ‘old guard’,
Oster finds Nazi leadership deeply unpleasant,
as they challenge the authority and sta-tus
quo of the state military by increasing the
power of the Party through the SS and the
Gestapo.
That said, like most military men, initially
he cautiously appreciates their politics of
national strength and military rearmament.
His distaste strengthens in the aftermath
of the Night of the Long Knives, June 30th
1934, the internal purge of any imminent threats
to Hitler’s power.
Oster’s supe-rior, General Von Bredow, is
one of the victims and Oster now gradually
develops into active re-sistance.
By his own words, the 1938 Reichskristallnacht
Jewish pogrom, and the Blomberg-Fritsch affair
when Hitler increases his influence over the
Wehrmacht, turns Oster’s resistance into
hatred of the Führer.
From that moment on, Oster is committed beyond
resistance, Hitler must be put down, at any
cost
And he is not alone, he now becomes the ringleader
of a small group of likeminded in the Wehr-macht,
the Gestapo and the Abwehr.
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr
and Oster’s commander is one of them, which
effectively allows Oster to use the Abwehr’s
network to his ad-vantage.
According to Staff Officer Von Schlabrendorff,
it is thanks to Oster’s efforts that the
disparate re-sistance groups within Germany
coalesce into a unified movement, and he continuously
expands this network with high-ranking dissidents.
One crucial friendship he cultivates – as
early as Febru-ary 1934 – is with Gestapo
officer, Hans-Bernard Gisevius, who becomes
his most important co-conspirator.
Through Gisevius, Oster learns the intricacies
of the Gestapo’s plans for the elimina-tion
of political opponents and ‘undesirables.’
But it’s in the Wehrmacht that he will attempt
his biggest plot, known to the afterworld
as the ‘Oster Conspiracy’.
In 1938, Canaris puts Oster in contact with
Wehrmacht General Ludwig Beck, another ideological
opponent to Hitler.
Together they forge a gang of conspirators,
that even includes Franz Halder, chief of
staff of the OKW the German High Command,
and numerous more high ranking officers.
Their plan is to ‘occupy the government
quarter in Berlin, to seize the main centers
of communica-tion, to isolate SS command posts
and to capture Hitler.’
Oster’s pre-made resistance network of the
Abwehr provides them with, false papers, lists
of possible co-conspirators and general intelli-gence
However, Oster believes that the British appeasement
effort is in the way of getting rid of Hitler.
See, Oster can only convince the others that
his actions are just if Hitler is shown to
be a warmon-gering maniac.
Not if his false promises of peace are broadcasted
and accepted on a global level.
Come early September 1938, Oster and Canaris
have one of their network’s agents convey
a mes-sage to 10 Downing Street, to not appease
Hitler, saying; “If you block him now, he
either loses face or is forced to invade,”
and assuring the the will be dealt with internally.
But British Prime-Minister Neville Chamberlain
rejects the report, believing the plot to
be fantasy.
And thus, Hitler’s false concessions at
the Munich conference marks the end of the
Oster Conspiracy.
Beck is fired for public opposition to war
and the others, including Halder, lose faith
in the feasibility of the plan.
Oster doesn’t give up though - he just changes
tack.
He realizes that he can’t count on the Wehrmacht
Generals anymore.
What he can do by himself, is pass information
to Germany’s enemies.
From March 1939 onwards, Oster forges a friendship
with Major Gijsbertus J. Sas, a Dutch military
attaché in Berlin.
Oster informs Sas of the German invasion plans,
emphasizing how the Benelux is in grave danger.
Sas informs Dutch General Reijnders, but he
refuses to believe that Germany would violate
Dutch neutrality, and takes no ac-tion, setting
up the Netherlands for a bigger surprise in
May 1940 than needed.
But lets’s be clear here, Oster is now endangering
his comrades, his countrymen, by selling them
out to foreign powers.
How could he, a military man, oppose his men,
his superiors, his government and his Führer?
How could he commit such an act of treason
and jeopardize the lives German soldiers?
After the war this will lead to a discussion
in Germany that redefines the definition of
German patriotism, centered on Oster.
It’s a distinction between Hochverrat – high
treason – and Landesverrat – national
treason.
While national treason is unconditionally
dishonorable, in some cases committing high
treason against the leadership of your nation,
is the only way to save your country.
Or as Oster puts it him-self:
„Man könnte nun sagen daß ich ein Landesverräter
sei, aber das bin ich in Wahrheit nicht.
Ich halte mich für einen besseren Deutschen
als all die anderen, die Hitler nachlaufen.
Mein Plan ist und meine Pflicht sehe ich darin,
Deutschland und damit die Welt von dieser
Pest zu befreien.
To spare the lives of German soldiers is to
sacrifice the lives, and livelihoods, of tens
of millions of civilians and foreign soldiers
across Europe and the world.
He chooses the lesser of two evils, what he
believes will lead to less death in total.
Oster bases this in a belief in absolute moral
virtue based on humanism and tolerance.
That one life cannot be more valuable than
the other, He actively opposes the racism
and antisemitism of the Na-zis.
Together with Canaris, Oster protects Jewish
German citizens by smuggling them out of the
country, and even openly employing Jewish
agents in the Abwehr, without giving them
any real tasks, but ensuring that as agents
they are protected from arrest and deportation.
All of this undoubtedly takes sheer courage
and blind hope.
Historians will comment on his “irre-sponsible
carelessness” especially his readiness to
keep a diary and notes to maintain efficiency
in his work.
Disregarding the dangers at hand, Oster is
engrossed in his mission, he’s absorbed
in his secret circles, and burning with the
intent to bring down Hitler.
But his luck of not getting caught can’t
last forever.
Oster, Canaris and other members of their
resistance network will later be involved
in the failed 1944 Stauffenberg plot to assassinate
Hitler.
He will be arrested, put on sham trial and
on April 9, 1945 at the Flossenbürg Concentration
Camp, a bare month before the defeat of Naziism
that he worked so hard for, Hans Oster will
pay the ultimate price for his resistance,
death by hanging.
Do you want to know more about Osters Efforts
to warn the Allied countries in the fall of
1939 and winter of 1940?
Click here for our World War Two in realtime
episode on that.
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see you next time!
