Death
In April 1945 German defeat became imminent and Allied troops were drawing nearer to Dachau. This meant that the Nazis' aim of staging a trial became futile, so Hitler ordered the killing of the "special security prisoner Eller", the name by which Elser was called in Dachau. Gestapo chief, SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller delivered the order for this killing to the Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, SS-Obersturmbannführer Eduard Weiter.
Following order has arrived: At one of the next terror attacks on Munich area of Dachau, "Eller" has a deadly accident. I ask you to liquidate "Eller" without attracting attention after such a situation appears. Also take special care that only a few people who are specially bound come to know of this. The message for me then shall be something like...
On... caused by a terror attack (air raid) on.... security prisoner "Eller" fatally injured
Elser was shot dead on 9 April 1945, in the Dachau concentration camp, a few weeks before the end of the war. He was 42 years old. A plaque (see illustration) dedicated to his memory in Königsbronn says:
| “ | I wanted to prevent even greater bloodshed through my deed | ” |
Read more about this topic: Johann Georg Elser
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“It is not love you will find:
You have no limbs
Crying for stillness, you have no mind
Trembling with seraphim,
You have no death to come.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“And of the other things death is a new office building filled with modern furniture,
A wise thing, but which has no purpose for us.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)