Unit 1012: The Victims' Families For The Death Penalty.: THE HEAD OF ABWEHR: WILHELM CANARIS (JANUARY 1, 1887 TO APRIL 9, 1945)

70 years ago on this date, April 9, 1945, six German Resistance Members were executed by hanging at Flossenbürg concentration camp. As the German Resistance had inspired the comrades of Unit 1012, let us not forget them and remember them as heroes who stood against evil.

We will post information about one of the six, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr from Wikipedia and other links.

Wilhelm Canaris

Birth name	Wilhelm Franz Canaris
Born	1 January 1887 Aplerbeck, Westphalia, German Empire
Died	9 April 1945 (aged 58) Flossenbürg concentration camp, Nazi Germany
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Kaiserliche Marine Reichsmarine Abwehr
Years of service	1905–44
Rank	Admiral
Battles/wars	World War I Battle of Coronel Battle of the Falkland Islands Battle of Más a Tierra World War II
Awards	Iron Cross First and Second Class German Cross in Silver The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 Wehrmacht's Twelve and Twenty-Five Year Long-Service Ribbons.

Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral, and chief of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944. During the Second World War, he was among the military officers involved in the clandestine opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. He was executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp for the act of high treason.

Early life and First World War

Interwar years

Munich Agreement

World War II

Foiling Hitler's plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII

Downfall and execution

Decorations and awards

During his military career, Canaris had been decorated with the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Silver German Cross, the Cross of Honour and the Wehrmacht Twelve and Twenty-Five Year Long-Service Ribbons:

Order of the Bust of Bolivar, 5th class (Venezuela, 1909)
Order of the Crown, 4th class (Prussia)
Iron Cross of 1914, 1st and 2nd class
U-boat War Badge (1918)
Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with War Decoration (Austria-Hungary)
Ottoman War Medal (Turkish: Harp Madalyası), better known as the "Gallipoli Star", or the "Iron Crescent"
Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
Wehrmacht Long Service Award, 4th to 1st class
War Merit Cross (1939) with swords, 1st and 2nd class
Iron Cross 1939 clasp, 1st and 2nd class
Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty

First Class with Star and Swords (16 September 1941)
First Class with Star, Swords and Oak Leaves and Breast Star (19 September 1941)

German Cross in Silver (11 November 1943)

In popular culture

The 1954 film Canaris starring O.E. Hasse is based on his biography.
In the 1961 novel, Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein (It Can't Always Be Caviar) by German author Johannes Mario Simmel, Canaris is the primary benefactor of agent Thomas Lieven during his time as German Agent in World War II. The novel is claimed by the author to be authentic.
In the 1968 Soviet film The End of Saturn, Canaris was portrayed by actor Bruno Freindlich.
In a 1968 episode of Hogan's Heroes (Season 4, Episode 11 - "Bad Day in Berlin"), Major Hans Tepple of the Abwehr speaks of needing to attend a meeting with Admiral Canaris.
In the 1970 Colin Forbes novel The Heights of Zervos, Canaris is mentioned along with the Abwehr.
In the 1976 film The Eagle Has Landed, Canaris was played by actor Anthony Quayle.
In the Frederick Forsyth novel The Odessa File, set in the mid-1960s, the hero infiltrates the organization of former SS members by claiming to have commanded, as a 19-year-old sergeant, the firing squad which executed Canaris. This is not in fact how Canaris was executed, which was by hanging.
In the 1980 Brian Garfield novel The Paladin, Canaris is visited by an agent acting for Churchill. It is apparent that in this book, Canaris is acting as a knowing conduit for British misinformation.
In the 1985 James P. Hogan novel The Proteus Operation, Canaris reviews evidence that elite enemy soldiers have been trained to assassinate or sabotage in Germany.
In the 1996 Daniel Silva novel The Unlikely Spy, Canaris is the head of the Abwehr who initiated the infiltration of SHAEF to discover its invasion plans of Normandy.
In the Phillip Kerr novel Hitler's Peace, Canaris attempts to have Hitler poisoned during a secret appearance at the 1943 Tehran Conference.
In the 2001 Mike Whicker novel Invitation to Valhalla, Canaris is the head of Abwehr who sends a female spy to America.
In Philip Kerr's 2013 novel A Man Without Breath, Canaris appears briefly to give evidence against an NKVD secret agent.
In Peter Quinn's novel Hour of the Cat (2005), a murder mystery set mostly in New York and Berlin in 1938, Admiral Canaris and Colonel Oster play major parts.
He is mentioned in the first half of Ken Follett's 1977 thriller The Eye of the Needle.
In the Southern Victory Series of alternate history novels by Harry Turtledove, the Confederate character General Clarence Potter, an intelligence chief of the dictator-controlled C.S.A., plays a role analogous to Canaris' in the Third Reich.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris

Sourced

I die for my fatherland. I have a clear conscience. I only did my duty to my country when I tried to oppose the criminal folly of Hitler.

Quoted in "Admiral Canaris - Chief of Intelligence" - Page 210 - by Ian Colvin - 2007

Please don't worry about me, Captain Patzig. I'm an incurable optimist. And as far as those fellows are concerned, I think I know how to get along with them.

To Captain Konrad Patzig. Quoted in "The Game of the Foxes" - Page 5 - by Ladislas Farago - 1972

You can talk to the man. He is reasonable, and sees your point of view, if you point it out properly.

About speaking to Hitler. Quoted in "Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II" - Page 234 - by David Kahn - True Crime - 2000

As the officer before the World War was naturally a monarchist...so it is naturally understandable today...to be a National Socialist...The Wehrmacht has become the tool of the National Socialist will for development.

1938. Quoted in "Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II" - Page 234 by David Kahn - True Crime - 2000

General Franco made it clear that Spain could enter the war only when England was about ready to collapse.

Quoted in "The Last European War" - Page 114 - by John Lukacs - History - 1976

You know, my dear Lahousen, the students of history will not need to trouble their heads after this war, as they did after the last, to determine who was guilty of starting it. The case is, however, different when we consider guilt for prolonging the war. I believe that the other side have now disarmed us of the last weapon with which we could have ended it. 'Unconditional surrender', no, our generals will not swallow that. Now I cannot see any solution.

To General Erwin Lahousen. Quoted in "Admiral Canaris - Chief of Intelligence" - Page 163 by Ian Colvin - 2007

Badly mishandled. Nose broken at last interrogation. My time is up. Was not a traitor. Did my duty as a German. If you survive, please tell my wife...

Final message to Colonel Landing, in the cell next to his. Quoted in "Canaris‎" - by Heinz Höhne - 1979

One day the world will hold the Wehrmacht responsible for these methods since these things are taking place under its nose.

Alternate version: A day will come when the world will find the Wehrmacht responsible for these methods, inasmuch as the things happen with our tacit consent.
September 1939. Quoted in "Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day‎" - Page 178 - by Anthony Cave Brown - 2007

About Canaris

His skill in acting a part, his cunning, his imagination, the ease with which he affected naive stupidity and then emerged into the most subtle reasoning disarmed the security agents who interrogated him.

Fabian von Schlabrendorff

Canaris was a highly intelligent and sensitive man with many likeable qualities. He loved his dogs and his horse almost more than any other living creatures. He often said to me, 'Schellenberg, always remember the goodness of animals. You see, my dachshund is discreet and will never betray me — I cannot say that of any human being...'

Walter Schellenberg

Canaris hated not only Hitler and Himmler, but the entire Nazi system as a political phenomenon .. He was everywhere and nowhere at once. Everywhere he traveled, at home and abroad and to the front, he always left a whirl of confusion behind him .. In reality this small, frail, and somewhat timid man was a vibrating bundle of nerves. Extremely well read, oversensitive, Canaris was an outsider in every respect. In bearing and manner of work, he was the most unmilitary of persons.