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Show 149 Horror is, of course, exactly what Hitler gave the people not only in his death camp atrocities but also in having the Gestapo fake an attempt on his own life in 1939 as a means of increasing the Fuehrerts pOpularity among the people. A cabinet-maker named Elser was offered his freedom from the Dachau concentration camp in return for placing an explosive charge in one of the pillars of the Burgerbraukeller in Munich near the Spot where Hitler would stand during a Speech on the anniversary of his 1923 putsch. Hitler cut the Speech short and left early. time later an explosion wrecked the hall, A short killing several party members and injuring many more. Subsequently, Hitler declared "The fact that I left the Burgerbrau earlier than usual is a corroboration of Providencevs intention to allow me to reach my goal,"6 Under the circumstances, itvs hard to believe that Hitler took his own statement seriously. Yet he may have. After narrowly escaping a genuine assassination attempt, the famous effort by the German generals to kill him with a bomb on July 20, 1944, Hitler told the German peOple in a radio address: 6A. Zoller, Hitler Privat, p. 181, cited by Allen BullOCk, Hitler: A Stud in T rann and Row, 1962 , pp. 566-7. (New York: Harper |
