Claus von Stauffenberg

German military man, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Nazi general staff. Handsome and heroic, he served in WW II when he was wounded in April 1943. Struck in the face, hands and knee by enemy aircraft fire, he lost one eye, his right hand, part of his left hand and part of one leg. His life was saved by Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, chief surgeon during the Third Reich.

Stauffenburg became Chief of Staff; however, he gradually began to display his utter contempt of Hitler and the Reich. Joining the conspirators of the underground resistance, he became a key figure in the July assassination plot. It was he who carried an explosive in his briefcase to the guest barracks in Hitler's headquarters on 20 July 1944. The explosion failed to kill Hitler as he left the podium minutes before it went off. Stauffenburg was captured and shot the same day at the Bendlerstrasse, Germany.