Ernst John von Freyend (25 March 1909 Ernst John von Freyend detention report card at yadvashem.org
Retrieved 25 October 2013– 24 March 1980) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Oberkommando der Wehrmacht officer who served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as the

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Wilhelm Keitel. He is notable for unwittingly helping to place the

20 July plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...

bomb that was intended to kill

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Biography

On 20 July 1944, he held the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

and arrived at the

Wolf's Lair The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...

headquarters in Rastenburg,

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

for a situation conference attended by Hitler. Also there as a subordinate to Field Marshal Keitel was Colonel

Claus von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

who arrived clutching a briefcase. As Stauffenberg was disabled following the loss of his right hand and two fingers from his left hand, von Freyend offered to carry it for him. Stauffenberg at first refused, but then relented upon approaching the conference room and he asked von Freyend to put him as near as possible to Hitler so that "I catch everything the

Führer ( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the Umlaut (diacritic), umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi Germany, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany ...

says for my briefing afterwards". Freyend placed the briefcase by the conference map table to the right of General Adolf Heusinger who was standing next to Hitler and Stauffenberg adjusted its position. However,

Heinz Brandt Heinz Brandt (11 March 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German officer. During World War II he served as an aide to General Adolf Heusinger, the head of the operations unit of the General Staff. He may have inadvertently saved Adolf Hitler's life, ...

, wanting to get a closer look at a map on the table, re-positioned the briefcase farther away from Hitler on the other side of a thick table leg. Seven minutes later the bomb exploded. It was later concluded that its exact positioning next to the table leg was a crucial factor in determining who in the room survived. Freyend survived the explosion and the remainder of the war. After surrendering with Keitel, he was briefly interrogated by the Americans who decided that he was not involved in military decision making and acted mainly as Keitel's valet. In the early 1950s, he became an employee of Gehlen Organization.

Portrayal in the media

Ernst John von Freyend has been portrayed by the following actors in film productions. * Manfred Bendik in the 1971 Eastern Bloc co-production '' Liberation: Direction of the Main Blow''. * Michael Fitzgerald in the 1990 US television movie ''

The Plot to Kill Hitler ''The Plot to Kill Hitler '' is a 1990 television film based on the July 20 plot by German High Command to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. Brad Davis stars as Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who plants a bomb in the conference room of ...

''. * Andy Gätjen in the 2004 German TV movie ''

Stauffenberg The Schenk von Stauffenberg family is a noble (''Uradel'') Roman Catholic family from Swabia in Germany. The family's best-known recent member was Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – the key figure in the 1944 "20 July plot" to as ...

''. *

Werner Daehn Werner Daehn (born 14 October 1967) is a German actor, who has worked with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson in '' XXX'', with Jason Priestley in ''Colditz'' an ITV1 2005 miniseries, with Bill Pullman in '' Revelations'' and with Steven Seagal in ...

in the 2008 US film '' ''Valkyrie''.

References

1909 births 1980 deaths German Army officers of World War II People from Wrocław {{Germany-army-bio-stub