Office of the Historian

862.00/7–1844

The Director of the Office of Strategic Services (Donovan) to the Secretary of State

Washington, 18 July, 1944.

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am enclosing herewith copy of two dispatches received from the Bern office of this agency,46 which I feel will be of interest to you. These dispatches form a sequel to a report dated 16 May 1944 (forwarded to you on 17 May) concerning an opposition group in Germany, including some high military figures, which favors peace.

Respectfully,

William J. Donovan
[Page 530]
[Enclosure]
Washington, 18 July, 1944.

Germany: Nazi Opposition Group Reports Progress

The following, transmitted by the OSS representative in Bern, is a sequel to a report dated 16 May concerning an opposition group in Germany, including some high military figures, which favors peace:

The objectives of this group have received new stimulus from the Soviet gains, the Soviet threat of invading German soil, and the Allied landings in Normandy. The group is receiving cooperation from another group composed of a number of anti-Hitler elements which are described as working independently of the Gestapo. The former group believes that the next few weeks represent the final opportunity to initiate steps to prove the desire of the German people to overthrow Hitler and his organization and to set up a “respectable government”. It is the wish of the group that as much of Germany as possible be kept from falling into Soviet hands. The group’s proposed plan of action would call for an ordered retreat from the west and the transfer of the best divisions to the defense of the eastern front.

The group also has been encouraged by their alleged acquisition of Colonel-General Fritz Fromm47 because he has charge of reserves in the Berlin area.

[Washington Comment: General Fromm, Chief of the Home Command, is in charge of army equipment and commander of replacement training for the army.]48

According to the group, the OKW49 has shifted its headquarters from East Prussia to a locality near Berlin. The group views this transfer as favorable to its purposes, for General Frederich Olbricht, Chief of the General Army Office, under General Fromm, and Colonel-General Kurt Zeitzler, Chief of Staff, as well as other generals supposedly in the opposition, are now accessible in the vicinity of Berlin.

(OSS Official Dispatches, Bern, 13 and 15 July)

  1. Presumably the two despatches here referred to were combined into the one document enclosed, below. No other enclosure was found in the Department files.↩
  2. Commander-in-Chief of the German Home Army.↩
  3. Brackets appear in the original.↩
  4. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, High Command of the German Armed Forces.↩