Operation Valkyrie Research Paper

My essay.

If the German army generals were under oath of loyalty to Hitler, why did they plan to assassinate Hitler and initiate operation Valkyrie?

There was many brave people that fought against Hitler’s rule in Nazi Germany. In particular some brave generals under oath of loyalty to Hitler planned to assassinate him and initiate operation Valkyrie to take over Germany after his assassination. These brave men put their lives at risk to overthrow this tyrannical reign of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

In the summer of 1944 some senior German army generals believed that Germany’s military power was crippling under leadership by Hitler and was doomed for defeat especially after the Russian successful operation (operation Barbarossa) which repelled the

German invasion of Stalingrad. They believed that the allies would be willing to open to negations with regards to conditional surrender once Hitler had been killed. From this belief the bomb plot emerged in correlation with operation Valkyrie. Operation Valkyrie was a plan ironically put together by Hitler if there was a breakdown between communication between high command in Nazi Germany and Hitler which would put the command of the reserve army under the control of General Friedrich Fromm.

Operation Valkyrie is directly linked to the July bomb plot of 1944 which was attempt by senior German army officers to kill Hitler. It was the closest successful attempt to assassinate Hitler. The plotters involved in the July bomb plot planned to use operation Valkyrie which officially passed the command of Germany over to the reserve (home) army to remove the power of the SD, gestapo and SS. Three of the major powers of Hitler’s power base, Also when Hitler died the soldiers under his command would be released from their oath to him. Claus von Stauffenberg a German army commander was the mastermind behind all this planning. He decided earlier in the 1942 that he must try overthrow Hitler. Throughout the summer of 1942 he persuaded senior commanders to move against Hitler, and he then declared in September 1942 that he himself was prepared to kill Hitler. On July, 20, 1944 a meeting at the Wolfs lair conference took place (Hitler’s secret base) with Hitler and high ranking German officers loyal to him. Stauffenburg planted an explosive in his briefcase under the table that

Hitler was sitting at. He then claimed that he had to make a phone call and went outside where his getaway car was waiting using the bomb as a distraction as the soldiers though the compound got hit by a allied bomb. Before that inside the briefcase got placed further away from Hitler by an officer. The bomb went off at 12:42 p.m. One person died straight away and 3 other were badly wounded with Hitler only suffering minor wounds. (Staff, 2009) (trueman, 2014) (enteprise, 2015) (enteprise, 2003)
After the bomb went off Stauffenberg flew back to berlin believing Hitler was dead to initiate operation Valkyrie. However the planned stalled due to no confirmation of Hitler’s death. When the news of Hitler’s survival came through General Friedrich Fromm commander of the reserve army and someone who condoned the July Plot, turned on the conspirators in order to have his association with them covered up. Stauffenberg was arrested and executed on July 21. Hundreds of people thought to be involved in the conspiracy also soon were arrested, and around 200 eventually were executed it is however estimated that 4980 Germans were executed after the July plot. Hitler then decided that the leaders deserved to have a slow death and hung them with piano wire from meat hooks. He then filmed and later showed it to high ranking officers and the armed forces. In the aftermath of the July plot, Hitler and his top officials took an even greater grip of Germany and it weakened war machine. Hitler became certain that fate had spared him” “Having escaped death in so extraordinary a way,” Hitler stated, “I am now more than ever convinced that the great cause which I serve will survive its present perils and that everything can be brought to a good end. “Quoted from (Staff, 2009) However on April 30, 1945, shortly before Germany surrender to the allies, Hitler committed suicide1. (enteprise, 2003) (Staff, 2009) (enteprise, 2015)
Should Claus van Stauffenberg viewed as a hero or a traitor?

Had Stauffenberg been successful in his assassination attempt, the final part of the war would definitely have gone differently. The fact show that more people died between the July assassination attempt and the end of the war than in the previous four-and-a-half years before that. Very few people doubt that Hitler’s death would not have affected Germany’s strength to go on fighting. If he was successful many more people would have survived. However Stauffenberg place in history as a hero of the German resistance was not established after the war. In the decade after the war had ended the German public viewed him as a traitor, his wife was denied her pension and no memorials were erected to mark his brave acts. Some were suspicious of his motives they accused him upon acting more out of self-interest and less about the common good and the plight of the Jews. Perspectives have changed over time and there has been exhibition on Stauffenberg in the German resistance memorial center in Berlin and a recent movie called “Valkyrie” which shows him (played as tom Cruise) as brave and good man. He is now regarded as a national hero for Germany. (Ziwica, 2011) (enteprise,

2015)
Most Germans in Nazi Germany were Hitler supporters and those were who resisted him were in the minority. So why did these generals change their view of Hitler to plan a coup. There is no direct answer to that question. There was a broad number of reasons, some were social democrats, some former labor union activists and some had personal motives. Now days it is accepted that they wanted to re-establish the law and end the war as well as growing disgust of Nazi war crimes. (Ziwica, 2011)