When the briefcase bomb failed Hitler lost his temper. He did not want the officers to have a normal death. No firing squad. In his view they were to be hanged like animals. That choice changed everything.
The jail became a killing room. Heavy meat hooks were fixed into the ceiling like in a butcher shop. They did not use thick rope. They used thin piano wire on purpose. Rope can break the neck quickly. Piano wire cannot. It tightens slowly and cuts into the skin. The person stays alive and dies slowly from suffocation. Death took much longer. Pain was the point.
Then came the humiliation. Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben was a famous war hero. Before his trial the Gestapo took his belt suspenders and false teeth. On camera he struggled to hold up his trousers while a judge screamed at him. They wanted him to look weak and foolish. He did not break. He stood as straight as he could and warned them that their time would come.
It grew even darker after the executions. Hitler ordered searchlights and cameras. The killings were filmed. The footage was sent to him and he watched it in private. At that moment the state stopped pretending it had law or honor. People were no longer treated as human. They were handled like animals. When that line is crossed the end is usually near.