Valkyrie's historical accuracy in depicting the July 20 plot

¶ … Accuracy of Movie "Valkyrie"

This is a guideline and template. Please do not use as a final turn-in paper.

Historical Accuracy of Movie "Valkyrie"

If I were awarding thumbs up for the historical accuracy of movies, I would give this movie two thumbs up (out of two). I was surprised at the accuracy of Valkyrie, given that it seems so many movies dramatize so much that the original story is somewhat lost. In my opinion, not so with Valkyrie. There are some inaccuracies, but mostly in things left out rather than purposely portrayed inaccurately.

The Actual Events

At approximately 12:30 P.M. On July 20, 1944, Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg excused himself from a military conference held by Adolf Hitler at his "Wolfsschanze" (Wolf's Lair) field operations center in Prussia. He proceeded to the restroom, produced a one kilogram block of plastic explosives from his briefcase, and crushed the pencil detonator with a pair of pliers. The detonator was a thin copper tube which contained acid. The acid, after von Stauffenberg crushed the tube, would take about ten minutes to eat through a wire holding back the firing pin from detonating the explosive.

He quickly put the explosives back in his briefcase when an aide summoned him back to the conference. He placed the briefcase under the massive conference table near Hitler and in the proximity of 20 other officers attending the conference. After about five minutes, he made an excuse and left the room.

At exactly 12:40 the high-powered plastic explosives detonated, totally demolishing the conference table and the entire conference room. Several officers were killed. Hitler survived. The reason was that one of the officers in attendance had moved von Stauffenberg's briefcase to the other side of a heavy leg of the table because he kept nudging it with his foot. The leg of the table deflected the blast away from Hitler, who was only slightly injured.

By 12:30 A.M. The next morning, July 21, von Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad in Berlin along with several other German officers who had taken part in the plot.

Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg

The Colonel was 36 years old when he died that night. At 19 he became an officer cadet, and attended the War Academy. He joined the General Staff in 1938 and served in combat in all of Germany's major battles and campaigns across Europe and Russia. He first became critical of the Nazi regime after seeing some of the atrocities committed by the SS, Security Police units, and the German Army (American-Israieli Cooperative Enterprise 2).

In particular the slaughter of Russian Jews, the brutal treatment of Russian POWs by the German Army, and murderous occupation of the Russian civilian population incited him, in 1942, to begin making comments and inferences to fellow German officers who held the same beliefs. It was then that he first had thoughts of overthrowing Hitler.

In 1943 while serving with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, von Stauffenberg was strafed by Allied fighter planes while riding in his vehicle and seriously injured. He lost his right hand, two fingers on his left hand and was blinded in his left eye. It was also that year that he joined a growing conspiracy to kill Hitler, and after several of the group's leaders were arrested, or sent to the Eastern Front, von Stauffenberg became the leader.

The July plot also involved several German officers taking control of Berlin and overthrowing the Nazi government while von Stauffenberg was responsible for killing Hitler, which he had announced he intended to do. On July 11, he concealed a bomb and brought it to Hitler's residence, but due to circumstances could not detonate it.

On July 15th, he flew to the Wolf's Lair, and though called off by his superiors in Berlin, made an attempt to blow it up with Hitler in it on that day. However, when he returned to the conference room, the session was over and Hitler was gone. Then, on July 20th, he got his third chance, and detonated the plastic explosives.

After Operation Valkyrie Failed

After hearing the explosion and seeing the smoke and debris, von Stauffenberg assumed Hitler was dead and climbed into a staff car to the airport, where he flew to Berlin to assume charge of Operation Valkyrie. By the time he reached Berlin, another of the conspirators had phoned Berlin to let them know that Hitler had survived. However, that telephone transmission was garbled. Stauffenberg still claimed that Hitler was dead. The confusion caused by all this caused Operation Valkyrie to be delayed by indecision. In some locations, the plan went into effect and SS and German officers were arrested by the conspirators. In other places, nothing happened. The chaos remained until later that evening when Hitler was able to make phone calls.

As Hitler regained control, some of the conspirators turned against others. General Friedrich Fromm, Commander of the Reserve Army, which was going to be used to control Berlin, and one of the conspirators, in a desperate chance to save his own neck, ordered four of his fellow-conspirators, including von Stauffenberg court-martialled immediately and shot.

In the months that followed approximately 5000 people were arrested -- many not involved at all -- and 200 were executed (Kershaw 693). Hitler and the SS used the assassination attempt as an excuse to settle a lot of old grudges and failed plots against him to include many innocent people, including family and relatives of the conspirators. General Fromm was among those executed.

Comparison to the Movie "Valkyrie" (Cruise)

As I mentioned in the beginning, my opinion is that the movie followed the actual events carefully and with accuracy. Hitler's Secret Service had done a comprehensive investigation of the conspiracy and there were thousands of documents available to research the movie.

In actuality, Claus von Stauffenberg was a proud man. Some may have said he was arrogant. He was loyal to Germany -- not Hitler -- Germany. He loved his country. He served Hitler, and hoped that someone would rise up and destroy him before he destroyed the country von Stauffenberg loved so much. But, finally, he recognized that it was not going to happen and he knew he had to take action himself.

An intelligent and sophisticated man, he figured out how to use Hitler's Operation Valkyrie Plan against him. He truly became the ringleader of an already existent but somewhat failed conspiracy, and, finally, the only one so dedicated and so committed that he knew he had to end Hitler himself.

All of this is portrayed accurately in the film, Valkyrie, with Tom Cruise starring as Claus von Stauffenberg.

What is also portrayed with historic accuracy is the fact that, although von Stauffenberg could no longer stand the atrocities on Jews that the Nazis were committing, that was not really the reason for the conspiracy. He joined an existing conspiracy because other German officers knew that Germany was going to lose the war and that a more orderly, civilized government had to be in place when they did in order to negotiate with the Allies.

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 killed Hitler. 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.