On Wednesday evening, we were fortunate enough to welcome back Dr Percy Smend to speak to an audience of alumni and parents. With his lecture titled, ‘Resistance in the Third Reich’, Percy spoke at length during his emotive presentation about the remarkable story of his grandfather’s role in the Stauffenberg plot.

Dr Smend originally presented his talk to an audience of UIV, UV and UVI pupils and staff members in January. Gratefully, his talk was reprised for the benefit of our parent and alumni communities.

During the talk, Dr Smend detailed the great risk his grandfather took to resist the Nazis regime. 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. While the plot ultimately failed to kill Hitler, it nonetheless became a celebrated episode of German resistance during World War II. Before finishing, Dr Smend took the time to answer questions from his audience.

With grateful thanks to Percy Smend for giving his time to tell his family’s captivating story.