General Hans von Boineburg-Lengsfeld statement concerning the 20 July 1944 plot

Hans von Boineburg-Lengsfeld (1889-1980) was an officer in the German Army, his last rank being Lieutenant-General during World War II, when he participated--but was never implicated--in the plot to overthrow Hitler of 20 July 1944. Born in Eisenach, he was from a noble family that had estates in various locations around Thuringia. After completing schooling in Kassel and Eisenach, he joined the Prussian Army in 1910, and by the time of World War I had reached the rank of lieutenant. Assigned to a cavalry division, he saw action during that war on the western front (Lorraine) as well as the eastern front (Masurian lakes, Warsaw, Łódź, the Baltics). In the final year of the war, he was sent back to the western front, where he saw action in the Battle of the Marne, among other campaigns, prior to the end of the war. By the time of the outbreak of World War II, he had been promoted to the rank of colonel, and had been placed in command of the 1st Schützen Regiment (sharpshooter regiment) during the invasion of Poland. Following the conclusion of the Polish campaign, he was assigned to the 4th Schützen Brigade of the 4th Armored Division, which took part in the invasion of Belgium and France in 1940, and as a result, was promoted to the rank of major general, and placed in charge of German forces in the area around Paris. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he was transferred there, and saw action in the southern campaign, including the push toward the Caucasus. When one of his chief officers, who held the plans for the German summer offensive of 1942, fell into Soviet hands, Boineburg was recalled, imprisoned and court-martialed, as having been seen as responsible for the loss of this intelligence. He was later released and returned to command the 23rd Armored Division in the Caucasus, which participated in the attempt to break the siege of Stalingrad in late 1942. In the spring of 1943, he was transferred back to France, and was placed in charge of German forces in the area of greater Paris, under the supervision of the German commander of France, General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. It was during this time that Boineburg began to take part in plans, led by Stülpnagel, to implement actions in Paris following the planned assassination of Hitler, "Operation Walküre." On the day of the actual assassination attempt, 20 July 1944, Boineburg rounded up and imprisoned leading Gestapo and SS officers in the Paris region, as well as over 1,200 members of the SS and the SD, including SS leader Carl Oberg, and held them until late that evening, when it became apparent that the attempt on Hitler's life had failed. Although these officers were released and the whole action had been portrayed as an "exercise," Stülpnagel and other leading participants were arrested and executed, but Boineburg was spared. In later years, Boineburg believed that Stülpnagel and others had covered for him, and as a result the worst punishment he faced was being transferred to other positions in France and Germany as a reserve commander. He was captured by Allied forces in May 1945, and was held as a prisoner-of-war until May 1946, when he was released. He returned to one of his family estates in northern Hessen, and worked there as a forester for the remainder of his life, and he died there on 20 November 1980. [Source: Wikipedia article, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Boineburg-Lengsfeld, accessed on 30 November 2015].

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anita and Marc Fiedler

Gift of Anita and Marc Fiedler, 2015.