Editing Wilhelm Canaris (section)

==Downfall and execution==
[[File:Flossenbürg April 9 1945 Memorial.JPG|thumb|upright|Memorial at [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]] to the German resistance members executed on 9 April 1945]]
The evidence that Canaris was playing a double game grew, and at the insistence of [[Heinrich Himmler]], Hitler dismissed Canaris and abolished the {{lang|de|Abwehr}} in February 1944.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=486}} Its functions were taken over by the {{lang|de|Ausland-SD}}, part of the [[Reich Security Main Office]] and led by SS-{{lang|de|[[Brigadeführer]]}} [[Walter Schellenberg]].{{sfn|Höhne|1979|pp=553–554}} Previous areas that had been the responsibility of the {{lang|de|Abwehr}} were divided between Gestapo chief [[Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)|Heinrich Müller]] and Schellenberg.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1980|p=596}} Some weeks later, Canaris was put under [[house arrest]].{{sfn|Höhne|1979|p=556}} He was released in June 1944 to take up a post in Berlin as the head of the Special Staff for Mercantile Warfare and Economic Combat Measures (HWK), which co-ordinated the resistance to the Allied economic blockade of Germany.{{sfn|Höhne|1979|p=561}}

Canaris was arrested on 23 July 1944 on the basis of the interrogation of his successor at Military Intelligence, [[Georg Hansen]].{{sfn|Höhne|1979|pp=559–570}} Schellenberg respected Canaris and was convinced of his loyalty to the Nazi regime even though he had been arrested.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|pp=486–487}} Hansen admitted his role in the [[20 July plot]] but accused Canaris of being its "spiritual instigator".{{sfn|Höhne|1979|p=570}} No direct evidence of his involvement in the plot was discovered, but his close association with many of the plotters and certain documents written by him that were considered subversive led to the gradual assumption of his guilt. Two of the men under suspicion as conspirators who were known in Canaris's circle shot themselves, which incited activity from the Gestapo to prove he was at the very least privy to the plan against Hitler.{{sfn|Höhne|1979|p=570}}

Investigations dragged on inconclusively until April 1945, when orders were received to dispose of the various remaining prisoners of the plot. Canaris's personal diary was discovered and presented to Hitler in early April 1945, which implicated him in the conspiracy.{{sfn|Bassett|2011|pp=288–289}} Canaris was placed on trial by an SS summary court, presided over by [[Otto Thorbeck]] with [[Walter Huppenkothen]] as prosecutor.{{sfn|Bassett|2011|p=289}} He was charged with treason, convicted, and sentenced to death.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=1073}} Together with his deputy general, Hans Oster, the military jurist General [[Karl Sack]], the theologian [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]], and military officer [[Ludwig Gehre]], Canaris was humiliated before witnesses. Canaris was led to the gallows naked and executed on 9 April at the [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]], just weeks before the end of the European war. According to [[Jürgen Stroop]] (SS-Gruppenführer), Canaris was hanged on a butcher's hook, a method deriving from medieval times.{{sfn|Wistrich|1995|p=29}}

A prisoner claimed to have heard Canaris tap out a coded message on the wall of his cell on the night before his execution in which he denied he was a traitor and said that he had acted out of duty to his country.{{sfn|Abshagen|1956|pp=252–255}}

[[Erwin von Lahousen]] and Hans Bernd Gisevius, two of Canaris's main subordinates, survived the war and testified during the [[Nuremberg trials]] about Canaris's courage in opposing Hitler. Lahousen recalled a conversation between Canaris and General Wilhelm Keitel in which Canaris warned Keitel that the German military would be held responsible for the atrocities in Poland. Keitel responded that they had been ordered by Hitler.{{sfn|Gilbert|2004|p=8}} Keitel, who survived the war, was found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and hanged.{{sfn|Wistrich|1995|p=137}}