Hans Oster

Hans Oster was a German general and a leading figure of the anti-Nazi German resistance from 1938 to 1943. He served in the First World War as a General Staff officer and later joined the Reichswehr, which he left in 1932 for personal reasons. He was recalled to active duty in 1933 and served as a counter-intelligence officer in the Reichswehr and later the Wehrmacht. He became deputy head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence, under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Oster was opposed to Hitler and Nazism since the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 and the Kristallnacht in 1938. He was involved in several plots to overthrow or assassinate Hitler, such as the Oster conspiracy of 1938 and the July 20 plot of 1944. He also used his position in the Abwehr to help Jews escape from Germany and to warn other countries of Nazi aggression. He was arrested in 1943 on suspicion of helping Abwehr officers caught helping Jews and remained under Gestapo surveillance until 1944. After the failed July 20 plot, he was interrogated and implicated Canaris as the leader of the resistance movement. The Gestapo found Canaris' diaries, which revealed Oster's anti-Nazi activities. Oster was sentenced to death by a summary court in Flossenbürg concentration camp and executed by hanging on April 9, 1945, along with Canaris and other resistance members.