Poland: Unrug, the man who could have stopped Hitler
Admiral refused to bomb hotel where the Fuhrer was staying
07 November, 20:27But Unrug would have refused to give that order, because the objective was civil and not military, and because the Geneva Convention condemned a gesture that would result in a targeted murder. On 2 October, after 32 days of resistance, Unrug negotiated the surrender with the Germans. But first, he burned all the military documents. The Germans tried several times in the following months to have him sign a declaration recognizing himself as an "ethnic German", promising him an important role in Kriegsmarine, but he continued to refuse and asked to be assisted by an interpreter in each interview. He would no longer speak German. Freed by the Americans in 1945 from the concentration camp for officers in Murnau, he remained loyal to the legitimate Polish government in exile in London and never set foot in communist Poland. He died in a hospital for Polish veterans in 1973 and was buried in the cemetery of Montrésor.
His remains were brought back to Gdynia in 2018, facing the Baltic Sea, where the tragedy of the Second World War had begun and where a cannon shot could have changed the course of history. (ANSA).