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 a strange, strange fate, and now, as I stand face to face with death I feel just as if they were going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—and my hands so free from blood and my heart always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me.”
—Roger Casement (1864–1916)
“Old age is a tyrant that forbids us upon pain of death all the pleasures of youth.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“It is better to sit down than to stand, it is better to lie down than to sit, but death is the best of all.”
—Indian proverb, quoted in Sébastien-roch Nicolas de Chamfort, Maxims and Considerations, vol. 1, no. 155 (1796, trans. 1926)