Although his brothers were executed and the rest of the adult family members were held in concentration camps, Alexander's wife Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg was released on 2 September 1944, because of her importance in the development of aircraft. She was now called "Gräfin Schenk", since Hitler wanted to erase the name Stauffenberg. She still maintained contact and support for the imprisoned members of the family. In the final weeks of the war, as Melitta tried to catch up to her husband her aircraft was shot down by an American fighter; she died hours later of injuries from the attack and crash-landing.