Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

Two new titles explore Oper­a­tion Valkyrie – the plot to assas­si­nate Hitler:

When the Sec­ond World War broke out, Philipp Frei­herr von Boe­se­lager, age twen­ty-five, fought for his coun­try enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly as a cav­al­ry offi­cer. His rear­ing on the fam­i­ly estate in the Rhineland had instilled in him a strong Catholic faith, a rev­er­ence for the father­land, and a love of horse­man­ship and the hunt. And so, like his broth­er Georg, he accept­ed a com­mis­sion when the call came to restore the pride Ger­many had lost in the humil­i­at­ing peace of Ver­sailles…Read More

Count­down to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assas­si­nate Hitler (Nigel Jones)

Although there were more than 40 plots to assas­si­nate Adolf Hitler, none came clos­er to suc­cess than the July Plot of 1944. The attempt was mas­ter­mind­ed by Count von Stauf­fen­berg, a mem­ber of the Ger­man Gen­er­al Staff, who had been rushed back from Africa after los­ing his left eye and right hand. For his injuries, he had been dec­o­rat­ed as a war hero. Nev­er a sup­port­er of Nazi ide­ol­o­gy, he was increas­ing­ly attract­ed by the approach­es of the Ger­man resis­tance move­ment. After a attempt to assas­si­nate Hitler in Novem­ber 1943 failed, Stauf­fen­berg devel­oped a new plot to kill him at the Wolf’s Lair Head­quar­ters on 20th July 1944…Read More

Next­book pub­lished a review of Valkyrie (von Boe­se­lager) by Adam Kirsch today, here.

To view the trail­er of the 2008 film ​“Valkyrie” star­ring Tom Cruise and Ken­neth Branagh, click here.