I had the pleasure of watching the 2008 movie “Valkyrie,” which is based on a true story that took place during World War II. Valkyrie shows the last of the known 15 attempts to assassinate the German dictator Adolf Hitler.
The most important military conspirators of this final assassination attempt were General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, along with Claus-Heinrich Stülpnagel, the German military commander in France. Most of these people come from the aristocratic families and it is understandable that they didn’t approve Hitler’s increasingly irrational management of the war.
A young German officer, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who is not happy with Hitler’s cruel and despotic rule over Germany and occupied Europe. He is already badly wounded in Tunisia, which lost him an eye, the right hand and two fingers in the left hand. He rejoins the service once he is treated and rested for a few months.
As part of the plan, Colonel Stauffenberg is to keep a briefcase with two bombs under a table in the room in which Hitler was to hold a war briefing and blow him up. The plan succeeds but luckily for Hitler and unluckily for the rest of the world; he gets away with some minor injuries.
Colonel Stauffenberg after placing the briefcase under the table leaves the briefing on some pretext and therefore is under the impression that the plot worked and that Hitler was killed. He and his group then put the plan code-named “Valkyrie” into action to take control of the country without letting the public know, it was his group who planned to kill Hitler and take Germany under their control and then have a truce with the Allied Forces that were fighting against Germany.
Till I watched this movie, I was under the impression that almost all Germans approved Hitler’s sickening atrocities against humanity, but now that I did some research after watching this movie, it is apparent that there had been a large number of German civilians and military (regular army) themselves who was against Hitler. Therefore, we can imagine how many civilians must have tolerated Hitler’s massacres simply because they had no way of opposing or doing anything to the contrary.
Not only Hitler but also many other despots elsewhere in the world have committed atrocities of similar brutality against humanity until they were brought to justice in the end. But many escaped justice too.
I think you should watch this movie as it is historical and to know that, there had been brave people who had the courage to stand up and oppose the autocratic dictators even though many of such brave people hardly succeeded and paid with their lives.
Nanda Wanninayaka 