Helmuth Stieff was born in Germany in 1901. He joined
the German Army and, by 1938, had joined the army general staff. In October, 1942,
Stief became chief of the organization section of the Abwehr.
He was the youngest and smallest general, and displayed
outstanding organizational talent, but Hitler did not conceal his personal dislike for Stieff, calling him a "poisonous
little dwarf."
Stieff wrote many letters to his wife during the war
illustrating his despair with Hitler's conduct of the campaigns. He
was particularly outraged at the atrocities committed in Poland.
Recruited by Henning
von Tresckow, Stieff joined the active resistance against Adolf
Hitler. Initially, he volunteered to kill Hitler, but later reneges,
and refuses repeated requests from Colonel
von Stauffenberg to lend active support to the assassination plans.
He was arrested by the Gestapo on the night of July 20-21 at the Wolf's Lair and brutally tortured. He held out for several days
against all attempts to extract the names of fellow conspirators. Tried
by the People's Court, he was sentenced to death on August 8, and executed
the same day in Plotzensee prison.
