"Valkyrie" and the Myth of the "Good German"

Pajamas Media ^ | January 8 | John Rosenthal

[AJKauf]

“Many Saw Evil,” the posters for the new Tom Cruise film Valkyrie proclaim, “But They Dared to Stop It.” Or tried, at any rate. The members of what is known in Germany as the “July 20th” plot failed, of course, to kill Hitler and were unable to seize power. If this slight exaggeration amounts to wishful thinking, however, the suggestion that the would-be assassin, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and his co-conspirators “saw evil” in the Nazi regime amounts to an outright distortion of the historical record.

In fact, Stauffenberg served the Nazi regime loyally almost to the very end ...

[meandog]

There were countless good Germans

Okay..."countless good Germans" perhaps. "Countless stupid Germans (and countless more Americans who voted for him) DEFINITELY!

[Wil H]

There were 15 assassination attempts on Hitler. The whole nation can’t have been in lockstep with him..

[RC2]

Be thankful that Hitler was not killed as planned. The German military could have won the war if not for Hitler. That was the reason for trying to kill him.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Of course the July 20th bomb plot had nothing to do with the plight of the Jews being systemically slaughtered in the Holocaust. The plot was lead after all by German military officers gravely concerned about the disastrous collapse of the fronts in both the East and the West. The Final Solution to the Jewish question was a largely a secretive operation carried out by the SS without the common knowlege of the general population and even the Allies were unaware of its scope until the concentration camps were liberated.

That said, there was significant opposition to the regime among the highest levels of the German military high command and the aristocracy. Among the high ranking German officers implicated in the plots against Hitler were the legendary Desert Fox himself, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Field Marshalls von Witzenblen and Gunter von Kluge, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris head of the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, and General Ludwig Beck among many other brave German citizens who opposed the Third Reich.

Some would say that they acted strictly out of self interest and only when it was apparent that the war was lost. To me, it is proof that not all Germans were automotons and mindless sycophants screaming Heil Hitler! at the top of their lungs in stiff arm salute. There were actually brave individuals who did think for themselves and had the bravery to act upon it. The plots ended up costing most of these men their lives and many died a slow torturous death at the end of piano wires in executions filmed to delight the sadistict thrills of the Fuehrer.

[bill1952]

Would there not be tens of millions of “good Americans”, who opposed this totaltitarlan leader — but, were powerless to do anything about it?

The German people were "powerless" in relative terms mainly because they were unarmed.

One of the very first things that the

National
Socialist
Worker's
Party

Did was to outlaw private firearm ownership.
Certainly, if the Jews had weapons, there would have been bloody Hell to pay in merry old Germany.
It may not have been the only aspect, but We are not "powerless" against an oppressive National Socialist Party as long as we remain armed. - Well armed.

[fish hawk]

Maybe that is true but the bottom line is, them, or us, if it happened that way is NO EXCUSE. So, to you , just forgive all that happened because if you and I were there, we would have done the same thing.

[Kitanis]

“And don’t just say it is the Germans. We just elected a man who has very strong ties to terrorists and has supported truly evil abortion practices. Yes we may have elected our own Hitler.” Well I would think that many of the “good germans” came to their senses after seeing what Hitler was doing to their nation. He started a war, and two years later, invoked a second front against Russia. The British were bombing factories and cities by night, and the Americans by day. Fighting was occurring in Tunisa and Italy.. and later in France to the South and and West, and in the East, Russia turned around their retreat and started to push on to Germany. Thousands of Germans were dead.. Is it any wonder, there were Germans who wanted to get rid of Hitler? Obama on the other hand, he will piss everyone off in Economic Terms... I don’t care for him, but I don’t consider him a Hitler. Just a idiot.

[tumblindice]

“Good Germans”
`Eichman in Jerusalem: the Lessons of the Banality of Evil’ (?), Hannah Arendt; and Thomas Sowell addresses this in his book `Black Rednecks, White something something’ with a chapter on `schnitzel-snarfers’.

[hellbender]

Hitler did not win in a landslide. He never even won a majority. When he ran for President, he lost badly to Hindenburg. His National Socialist party never won more than 37% of the vote in parliamentary elections, and never won a majority of seats in parliament (Reichstag).

After a trumped-up crisis over the burning of the Reichstag, Hitler persuaded the Reichstag to grant him emergency powers under an “... 'Enabling Act' which made Hitler dictator of Germany, freed of all legislative and constitutional constraints."

Government is America is already largely free of Constitutional constraints, and 0bama is using a trumped-up economic crisis to demand extraordinary powers which will probably make every citizen subservient to the government, and will destroy political opposition as did the Nazis. That's what we should really be thinking about today.

[Romulus]

the Myth of the "Good German"

They're all the same. Must be in the blood or something.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Few years earlier and farther away..but John Rabe.

[hoosierham]

How can you say the German military would have won?

Why Herr Hitler made a whole series of absolutely brilliant political and military decisions:

Hitler ordered or allowed the murders of millions of his own citizens and surrendered armies and countries,nearly all which could have ,and did for a time,work the fields and factories.

Hitler rejected the use of hundreds of thousands of East European troops who would have fought the Stalinists.

Hitler froze technology in many areas ,and delayed the jet aircraft.

Hitler squandered a 250,00 man army at Stalingrad rather than allow a strategic retreat.

Hitler failed to realize that just because he routinely broke treaties,the British would not ignore their treaty obligation to the Poles.

Hitler wasn't satisfied to rule the largest Germanic empire of modern times,comprising Germany,Austria,Czechoslavakia.

Hitler thought the solution to not winning against Great Britain was to go to war with a vastly larger nation,Soviet Russia,at the same time.

Now how can anyone NOT recognize such genius?

[nodumbblonde]

PFL

[Apercu]

We have a lot of sheeple just like Wermacht Germans in this country too - they voted for the “0ne”.

[ZULU]

Obama is far from an idiot. He may have flawed social and political policies, but he is a dangerous, shrewd and evil person.

His talk about the “Civilian Defense Force” sounds eriely like the SA. His stradegy for getting himself elected smacks suspiciously like Chavez’.

My guess is he will never leave the White House willingly - even after two terms.

[LeonardFMason]

FM Erich Von Manstein called Hitler “Nuts” on three occassions and was dismissed from the Whermacht in 1944 after having never joined the NAZI party. Goring and Himmler were intimidated by him. At his trial, initiated by the Soviets, FM Montgomery and Winston Churchill donated to his defense fund. Although he was the enemy, he could hardly be described as EVIL.

[rod1]

Bonhoffer too I think.

[tumblindice]

Isn’t Manstein the general who trained his dachshund (`teckle’) to give the `Hitler salute’?
Believe he trusted his friends and some subordinates with his real opinions on the war and the Fuehrer.

[Bender2]

There are no 'Good' Germans... as far as I am concerned! And Tom... looks so damn gay in that eye patch and uniform!

[84rules]

There were many Germans who opposed Hitler and paid for it with their lives. Not all of them were in the German military. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer was imprisoned in a concentration camp for preaching against the Nazi regime. Hans and Sophie Scholl were executed for distributing anti-Nazi literature.

These people were not "myths."

As for Count Claus von Stauffenberg the Jewish Virtual Library has this to say about him:

"During Operation Barbarossa, Stauffenberg became appalled by the atrocities committed by the Schutzstaffel (SS), SD and “Security Police” units, particularly the mass murder of the Jews in Russia, but he was equally appalled by the atrocities committed by the German Army against Soviet prisoners-of-war and by the treatment of the civil population in Russia at the hands of the German occupation administration and forces, and Stauffenberg cited these matters to Major Joachim Kuhn in August 1942."

Link: Claus von Stauffenberg