Cäsar von Hofacker
Cäsar von Hofacker, Luftwaffe Lieutenant Colonel, born March 2, 1896, aide to Army Lieutenant General (General der Infanterie) Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, conspirator in the plot to assassinate Hitler, condemned to death by Roland Freisler in the People’s Court, executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on December 20, 1944, said to Judge Roland Freisler on August 30, 1944: “Be quiet now, Herr Freisler, because today it’s my neck that’s on the block. But in a year it will be yours!” (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)
Note: It did not take a year; Freisler was killed during an Allied bombing attack on Berlin on February 3, 1945.
Freisler at the People’s Court
On December 20, 1944, Company B is one and one-quarter mile north of Elsenborn; strength unchanged. Weather: high – 46°, low – 32°; cloudy; visibility poor. Cpt Dunlap summarizes: “Company remained in defensive position; received heavy artillery fire.” The company improves its positions and ties-in with flank units; the CP is in the low ground at the bottom of the western slope of Hill 597, known to locals as the Büschelberg, a treeless, windswept ridge 2,500 yards east-northeast of Elsenborn. Porky Pourchot receives a treat today – he gets to talk with a real, live assistant division commander. “Talked with Brigadier General [Hugh T.] Mayberry of the 99th. Regular Joe, he. He was so glad to see friendly faces that he almost kissed me.” The men must dig new, deeper foxholes, but the ground is frozen too hard for picks and shovels, so they obtain dynamite, probably from combat engineers, to blow holes in the frozen earth. At 1535 hours, the enemy shells the Battalion CP. Lawrence Cherry is recommended for the Bronze Star for heroism this day. (Dying Hard: Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th US Infantry Division in World War II)