Assassination Attempt on Hitler – Munich 1939

On November 8th 1939, a bomb planted by Georg Elser, a German Communist who worked as a carpenter, exploded at the Burgerbraukeller in Munich killing eight people and wounding 63. Eva Braun’s father was among the dead. The bomb was intended for Hitler who was scheduled to make a speech there on the occasion of the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. Elser had managed to hide in the Burgerbraukeller after closing every night for over a month. During that time he hollowed out a column near where Hitler would be speaking and filled it with explosives.

Hitler did make his speech but cut it short. Somewhere between eight to thirteen minutes after Hitler left the building (depending on which source you use) the bomb exploded. Elser was arrested, tortured and confessed to the attempt but claimed to have acted alone. He was imprisoned in a concentration camp and murdered there on April 9, 1945 to ensure he would not be rescued by the Allies. He lived as long as he did because Himmler wanted to use him in a show trial to establish British complicity in the assassination attempt after Germany won the war.

Historians generally agree that Elser planted the bomb but it remains uncertain whether he acted alone. Depending on how you count there were as many as seventeen attempts on Hitler’s life between September of 1939 and May of 1945. The July 20, 1944 attempt is only the most famous one.

United States Amends Neutrality Act – “Cash and Carry”

On November 4th, 1939 amendments to the Neutrality Act became effective which allowed the United States to sell weapons and military supplies to belligerents in Europe which would (1) pay cash and (2) carry the material away in their own ships. As a practical matter British control of the seas meant that only Britain and France could benefit from this policy. Earlier on October 18th in the same spirit President Roosevelt had banned foreign submarines from U.S. territorial waters, a ban which though neutrally stated could concern only the Germans.

The invasion of Poland affected opinion in the United States in a way which allowed Roosevelt to overcome isolationist opinion on this occasion and to this degree. Thus did Roosevelt’s slow and patient movement toward the end of American neutrality continue.