There is one noted misconception displayed in the film. It involves General Fritz Erich Fellgiebel, who, at the time was the head of Hitler's signal corps -- his main communications guy. He was also deeply involved in and committed to the conspiracy to kill Hitler. It was his function to cut off communications from the Wolf's Lair to the outside world after the bomb exploded.
The film treats him as if he is reluctant to become involved and desiring not to participate in the assassination plot at all. This is inaccurate. Fellgiebel had been committed to the conspiracy since 1939 -- long before von Stauffenberg came onboard. Fellgiebel was court-martialled and shot after the failed attempt to kill Hitler.
There are a couple of other inaccuracies in the film which go almost unnoticed because they have little relevance to the main plot of the movie or to the accuracy of it.
At the beginning of the movie, Stauffenberg is in Africa in the middle of a battle with other soldiers all around and, according to the movie, he is talking to a General trying to convince him to join the conspiracy to kill Hitler. Not likely. Had von Stauffenberg been this foolish to reveal his secrets where anyone, including Hitler's SS or Gestapo agents, could have overheard, certainly he couldn't have kept the plot secret for several more years.
And, finally, the movie depicts Stauffenberg's meeting with Hitler at Hitler's residence in the Bavarian Alps. Supposedly the purpose of this meeting was to have Hitler sign off on his own Operation Valkyrie plan. The conspirators had rewritten the plan so that they might seize power in Berlin after they...
So, finally, in the movie, Hitler signs off on the plan not knowing, the movie indicates, that he is signing is own
death certificate. The truth is that meeting probably never took
place at all. And Hitler would not have to sign off on the modified Valkyrie plan since it was only a few weeks before the assassination, and he would be dead. Nor would the conspirators expose themselves to such a ridiculous meeting.
A few dramatic inaccuracies that mean nothing to the historical accuracy of the movie vs. The events that took place surrounding the attempted assassination on July 20, 1944.
Speaking to historical accuracy, this movie lacks the suspense that the real events must have had for the conspirators. We know they fail. That's the problem. And the conspirators of that time, didn't. The movie depicts tension and
mystery as much as is possible when the outcome is already a foregone conclusion.
Bibliography
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. "Operation Valkyrie and the July Plot to Assassinate Hitler." 2009. Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 26 July 2009 .
American-Israieli Cooperative Enterprise 2. "Claus von Stauffenberg." 2009. Jewish Virtual Library. 27 July 2009 .
Gisevius, Hans Bernd, Allen W. Dulles and Peter Hoffmann. Valkyrie: An Insider's Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2008.
Kershaw, I. Hitler: 1936-45: Nemesis. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2000.
MFA Productions LLC. "The Plot to Assassinate Hitler July 20, 1944." n.d. WW2database.com. 26 July 2009 .
Valkyrie. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Tom Cruise. 2008.
