According to Moczarski, no subject enraged Stroop more than the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler. Whenever the subject came up, Stroop cursed those involved, "in unprintable terms," as a "murderous band of generals and Jew-ridden civilians."[26] Stroop blamed Germany's defeat on Germans: "A few weaklings poisoned by enemy agents and infected with subversive ideologies were all it took to undermine us. The minute we suffered military defeats, the cancerous elements in our society swung into action, organizing Mafias and creating 'patriotic discussion groups.'