Codename Valkyrie

Book excerpt: On 20 July 1944, the last in a series of assassination attempts against Hitler failed. In the aftermath, leading conspirators and thousands of supporters and sympathizers were arrested and executed. First to fall to the vicious Nazi retribution was the man who had nurtured the coup d’état plans over three years, codenamed ‘Valkyrie’ – General Friedrich Olbricht. Helena Schrader traces the transformation of a highly decorated and senior German officer into an active conspirator dedicated to removing the Führer from power. She shows how Olbricht’s coup plans might well have succeeded if Stauffenberg had not failed at several key junctures.