Hans Oster found refuge in the Abwehr, and acting together in 1939,
they dispatched Josef Müller to explore the possibility of averting
war through the intercession of the Vatican. But Canaris’s opposition
to the regime was tempered by his participation in the war effort and
his reluctance to join the inner circle of anti-Nazi conspirators. Many
contemporaries—struck by his divided personality—found his deeper
motives inscrutable.
Although the Gestapo had amassed a considerable collection
of incriminating reports on the Abwehr chief, Heinrich Himmler
appeared unusually hesitant to take any action, even after learning
about Canaris’s role in persuading Francisco Franco not to conclude
an alliance with Germany in 1940. Walter Schellenberg, anxious to
absorb the Abwehr under his command, felt convinced that Canaris
possessed damaging information on Himmler. Finally, on 11 Feb-
ruary 1944, following the defections of several Abwehr members,
including Erich Vermehren, Canaris was relieved of his duties—
ostensibly for lack of performance. He was later appointed head of
the Office for Commercial and Economic Warfare. Despite no evi-
dence of direct involvement, he was arrested by Schellenberg in the
aftermath of the 20 July attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life.
Canaris’s undoing was the discovery of his personal diaries at his
former office in Zossen (contrary to his orders, parts of them had
been left undestroyed in an armored safe). The main charges lodged
against him involved his knowledge of the Abwehr conspiracy
against Hitler since 1938 and his sheltering of Oster and other re-
sistance activists. After undergoing repeated interrogations and a
summary trial spearheaded by Walter Huppenkothen, Canaris was
hanged at Flossenbürg concentration camp on 9 April 1945—only
days before the liberation of the area by Allied troops. According to
a fellow prisoner, Hans Lunding, Canaris’s last statement affirmed
his devotion to his country and proclaimed his “clear conscience.”
See also FELIX.CAPRICORN. A black propaganda effort of the U.S. Office of Stra-
tegic Services (OSS) in the final months of World War II, Operation
capricorn was devised by Howard Becker of the Morale Opera-
tions Branch in order to bolster resistance to Nazi rule in the Munich
area. For a period of nine weeks beginning in February 1945, 61
CAPRICORN • 63