8-Nov-39: German Worker Arrested, Executed for Bürgerbräukeller Bomb Assassination Attempt that Narrowly Misses Hitler; Hans Frank Plans Mass Jewish/Polish Deportations; Dutch Flood More of Border Zone; Finns Reject More Soviet Proposals
Today is 8-Nov-1939, the 39th day of World War II; there are 2,124 days left in the conflict.
Georg Elser, a German workman opposed to the National Socialist government, conceals a time bomb in a support pillar in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller. The target is Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, who traditionally delivers an anniversary speech in the beer hall commemorating the National Socialists’ failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. While Hitler usually speaks for an extended time, on this night he inexplicably cuts the speech short and leaves the hall. The bomb goes off at its appointed time; it kills seven and injures 63.
While rumors are circulated that, like the Reichstag fire of 27-Feb-1933, the incident is deliberately planted by the government so that it can be used as anti-British propaganda and to usher in a final crackdown on what remains of the German opposition, a Gestapo search for the perpetrator quickly zeroes in on Elser, who is arrested and immediately executed. The damage to the Bürgerbräukeller is severe and the building will never be reconstructed. Hitler will return to the site three years later; on 8-Nov-1942, he will deliver an address on the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad. The building will finally be demolished after the German surrender in 1945.
In the German-occupied areas of Poland, consolidation is underway of plans to transport 600,000 Jews and 400,000 Poles from territory incorporated into the Greater German Reich as the General Government, to un-annexed areas. Governor of the General Government Hans Frank, a National Socialist former Justice Ministry attorney, is in charge of the planning and sets the start date for the deportations as 1-Dec-1939. Frank will be convicted of war crimes in 1946, find religion and express great remorse for his crimes, and then be hanged at Nuremberg.
German troop movements along the Dutch border, as well as recent reports received from secret sources, cause the Dutch government to flood a larger portion of the defensive zone along the border.
After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations on border and territory revisions, Finnish negotiators once again reject Soviet proposals. The Finns express a willingness to grant a few concessions, but report that the government sees Soviet attempts to bargain as a sign of weakness. Finnish military chief, Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, reportedly opposes this viewpoint by the Finnish government.