On July 20, 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg (1907–1944) placed a bomb inside the Wolf’s Lair, Adolf Hitler’s field headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb, which exploded shortly thereafter, ignited a failed coup d’état against Hitler’s regime. Among the conspirators, in what was known as Operation Valkyrie, were several military leaders and traditional conservative politicians, as well as known members of the Confessing Church, the strain of Protestantism most adverse to the Nazis’ worldview. After the failed assassination attempt of July 20, Hitler invoked the ancient tradition known as Sippenhaft to punish the crimes of those considered traitors. With Sippenhaft, a person could be guilty simply by association. Starting with those connected to the failed attack, family members, friends, and colleagues of the conspirators were also held responsible. This tradition was used to justify the imprisonment and sometimes murder of thousands of people.

Hans Koch (1893–1945), a professed Confessing Church member and lawyer, was sentenced to death in April 1945 for his involvement in the coup. This document is a clear statement from the Protestant Church against the failed attempt on Hitler’s life. Here, Church leaders call out the perpetrators as murderers and traitors and reinforce their loyalty to the Reich and its Führer. Learning of the ties between the resistance movement and the Confessing Church, Protestant authorities feared guilt by association and the consequences that came with it.