In July 1944, a group of high-level German military leaders attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler and stage a coup d’état, code-named Operation Valkyrie.
Lieutenant Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, wounded veteran and chief of staff of the reserve army, left a briefcase bomb beneath a table during a meeting with Hitler at his Wolf Lair headquarters in East Prussia. Although the bomb killed one person and wounded three others, Hitler escaped with minor injuries.
With no official confirmation of Hitler’s demise, Operation Valkyrie stalled. Hundreds of people, including von Stauffenberg, were arrested, and ~200 were executed.