Who do you believe?
Sir: Andrew Roberts's letter of 23 Novem- ber misrepresents what I wrote. I did not say I believe, because 'a German colonel' once told me, that 'the July conspirators were in a position to defeat Himmler's SS'. I mentioned Colonel Muller solely in refuta- tion of what Mr Roberts wrote about a new 'stab-in-the-back' legend — a topic about which Mr Roberts is now significantly silent.
The army plan against the SS can be found in the lit. -ature concerning the resis- tance. Almost th e only relevant volume I have to hand is Wh-nvell and Fraenkel, The July Plot (1964). (Int-)'ientally, Muller is mentioned there and in Hans Rothfels', Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler (1961).) There is a brief earlier reference in Alan Bullock's Hitler (1952): 'The Waffen-SS was to be incorporated in the army, and all senior Party, SS and police officials [were] to be placed under arrest.' Bullock refers to 'the smouldering hostility of the army to the SS'. (The ordinary German soldier detested the SS because of their arrogance and would have carried out orders against them enthusiastically.) We can surely assume that the plotting generals in 1944 were better qualified than Mr Roberts to judge whether the army could have dealt with the SS in the occu- pied rear areas and in Germany. The Waf- fen-SS were, of course, fighting the Rus- sians under ultimate army command.
Nor do I rely on Miiller for a belief that 'British-backed murderers of the Fiihrer were genuinely likely to be popular with the Wehrmacht'. And what nonsense is this? The conspirators were not British-backed!
Your readers can now judge whether I was right in calling Mr Roberts's views ill- informed and wrong-headed.
Lindsey Platt
3 Sherwood Avenue, Fallowfield, Manchester
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