ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Wilhelm Canaris

Wilhelm Canaris was a man who lived a very long time ago. He was born in 1887 and he died in 1945. He was a very important man in Germany during a time when a very bad man named Adolf Hitler was in charge.

Canaris worked in the Navy and he was very good at his job. He helped the Navy in many different ways, but he also did something secret. He worked with other people to try and stop Hitler from doing bad things.

Canaris didn't like the way Hitler was treating people who were different from him. Hitler didn't like Jewish people, and Canaris didn't agree with that. He also didn't like the way Hitler was treating people who didn't agree with him. Canaris thought that everyone should be treated fairly, no matter what they believed.

Canaris worked hard to try and stop Hitler from doing bad things. He talked to other people who also didn't like Hitler and they tried to figure out how to stop him. They were very brave because if Hitler found out what they were doing, he would have punished them.

Sadly, even though Canaris and his friends tried very hard to stop Hitler, they were not successful. Hitler did many very bad things during his time in charge, and many people were hurt because of it. Canaris was eventually caught and punished by Hitler's people. Some people think that he was killed because of what he tried to do to stop Hitler.

Even though Canaris was not able to stop Hitler from doing bad things, we can still learn from what he did. He showed us that it is important to stand up for what is right, even when it is hard. He tried to make the world a better place, and that is something we can all try to do too.