To confirm their loyalty following the 20 July bomb plot , from 24 July 1944 onwards, members of the German armed forces were required to use the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute, the Hitlergruss.

The salute had long been a common form of greeting throughout Germany and Austria, and was also used as a form of ‘goodbye.’ It had been compulsory for German public employees since 1933 and was commonplace in schools, in the Hitler Youth (see photo on the left) and, of course, for the SS. (Jews were forbidden from using it.)