Hans Oster

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Hans Oster (August 9, 1887–April 9, 1945) was a career officer in the German Army, and a dedicated opponent of Hitler and Nazism. He was a central resistance figure; as early as 1937 he was plotting a coup against Hitler, whereby Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal and other officers would march into the Reich Chancellery and arrest Hitler; the plan was aborted when Chamberlain adopted the policy of appeasement. In 1940 he informed the Dutch of the exact date of invasion of The Netherlands. Suspicions of Oster's loyalty and also of aid to Jews led to his dismissal in 1943. The day after the failed July 20 plot, Oster was arrested and the following year, on 8 April 1945, he was tried along with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Wilhelm Canaris in a show trial that showed not the slightest trace of normal legal standards. He was found guilty and hanged the next day in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. For humiliation, and for the edification of the SS staff present, he was forced to strip down completely in his cell before walking completely naked to the gallows. Only a few days later, the camp was liberated by American forces.