"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 ...

[End Times Sentinel]

Contrary to what the film repeatedly suggests, the fate of the Jews appears to have played little role in their considerations and it was certainly not the trigger that finally moved them to action.

You GOTTA be kidding me!

I rarely watch movies, and this one didn't even begin to grab my interest, but the motive of the plotters is to save the Jews???

You know, some folks, the stupid ones, get their history from movies. I only wonder how many people will have some sort of revelation about this plot that it was based on compassion for the Jews.

Owl_Eagle

“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden

[Badeye]

Many delude themselves into believing Hitler was not elected in a massive landslide.

The fact is he received a vast majority of votes.

About the same margin Hamas won with the Palies, come to think of it.

[Londo Molari]

“I rarely watch movies, and this one didn’t even begin to grab my interest, but the motive of the plotters is to save the Jews???”

No, that was not the motivation in the movie. The motivation for the plot was to not let Europe burn to ashes for a lost war. I was on the look out for that type of Hollywood made up motivation, but it was not there.

[fish hawk]

I was talking about this movie with a friend just the other day and I told him, guess what?, those “good” Germans still let all this happen and still wanted to take over and rule the whole world and didn't see the light until the Allied Army's foot was already entering their ass. I still praise Ike for making those German citizens go into those death camps and sort and bury all those dead bodies. Of course they had “no Idea” what was going on with the ovens etc. Yeah, right!

[JimSEA]

What Stauffenberg and his fellow plotters “saw” was not evil. What they saw — undoubtedly with increasing clarity following the German defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, and with near certainty following the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 — was that Germany was going to lose the war and that the reckoning would be severe when it did.

The Germans, by in large, hated the Jews and wanted them exterminated. After being somewhat dormant for the past sixty years, this hatred is coming to the fore throughout Europe, supported by the hard Left and the Palestinians, disguised by opposition to Israel's efforts at self defense. You see more and more people subscribing to Hamas' "One Palestine" agenda.

America is following the European lead and now there is significant support for Hamas and Hezbollah among non-Muslim "Progressives".

[meandog]

Vee DID NOT know! Vee only followed our awders so don’t tie us mit Der Fuerher! Next, you ville try and say that der pope vas in Nazi youth or somethin like that!

[pgkdan]

I completely agree. Where were these ‘good German Heroes” in 1940,41 or 42. By 1944 even a blind man could read the writing on the wall. Sorry but these guys were out to save their butts before they had to face the Soviets in Germany.

[Shanda]

I think the real lesson of Nazi Germany is that ordinary people are completely capable of supporting truly evil men. Some do not know they are evil, some do know but don’t care as long as they are financially well off, and others are just plain evil themselves.

I recall the story of a French underground fighter who was given a ride by the head of the German Gestapo. He managed to make the trip without incident but it struck me that this German would probably have been a good neighbor and was friendly yet he was also capable of extreme cruelty.

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.

[ml/nj]

I don't know much about this movie, but I would like to say something about the supposed "myth" of the Good German. Using a word like "myth" implies that such people did not exist. (But "Good Muslims" do, of course!)

I am the son of a man born in Berlin. Much of his family fled Germany in the 30s, but some did not. For a while the ones who did not leave sent news to people who did. At some point this apparently became impossible for them, but the news continued for a time supplied by some Christian family that had befriended the people in my family who stayed. Eventually the reports stopped with the news that the regular food drop the Christian family had been making had stopped being retrieved. I do not know the name(s) of that Christian family but I have been to Yad Vashem and seen the names of them or others whose names are known.

Don't tell me that there were no good Germans.

ML/NJ

[fish hawk]

IF you listen carefully you can here the “Four Horsemen” coming just down the road.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

There were doubtless millions of “good Germans” — although, none of them were likely to find themselves in a small room with Hitler.

In Germany, a charismatic, young socialist politician rose to the pinnacle of power; by dint of organizational skills and superior public speaking skills. He was a master of the media of the day — in particular large rallies. He turned ethnic groups against each other; and especially appealed to his own identity group for support. He used a serious financial and economic crisis as a reason to impose direct government control over key industries. He took complete control over the mass media & made propaganda a cabinet-level concern. He confiscated firearms from the civilian populous. He liked dogs.

Imagine, if you can, that such a thing occurred in the U.S. Would there not be tens of millions of “good Americans”, who opposed this totaltitarlan leader — but, were powerless to do anything about it?

[Melas]

There were countless good Germans. Does the name Schindler ring any bells?

[NCC-1701]

“...No, that was not the motivation in the movie....”

The motivation of the flick was to ressurect Tom Cruise’s career and make him more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[alarm rider]

For later reading.

[meandog]

Don't tell me that there were no good Germans.

Yeah, we made certain there were plenty of good ones...Here's a couple below after the Battle of the Bulge:

[Blind Eye Jones]

Is this a Bush is Hitler movie with blatant obvious sub text? I mean an assassination movie of Bush has been done, but has Hollywood given this a big thumbs up to Spielberg to carry on with his leftist leaning films? If this is a Bush is Herr Fuhrer can it compete with Oliver Stone’s movie of Bush as Herr Drunkard? What is Hollywood gone do now that Bush is leaving? What movie will they make? I know! The Denzil Washington is Obama who is also Lincoln, FDR and JFK rolled into one... the ONE, the seventh son one, one for the money two for the show one... that ONE.

[junta]

Just for the record my German gentile immigrant grandfather was to the right of Jabotinsky when it came to jews. But when it comes to German Jews and German gentiles the lines do blur especially in America and in my part of the Midwest or my old hometown it seemed a bit of a mix. Except of course to my grandfather the “damned Bavarians” and their Catholic church. I wonder does the author of this piece trace his closest relatives back to the East of Germany?

[Riodacat]

I was talking about this movie with a friend just the other day and I told him, guess what?, those “good” Germans still let all this happen and still wanted to take over and rule the whole world and didn't see the light until the Allied Army's foot was already entering their ass. I still praise Ike for making those German citizens go into those death camps and sort and bury all those dead bodies. Of course they had “no Idea” what was going on with the ovens etc. Yeah, right!

Would you have been a different type of German had you been born and raised there? I doubt it.
99.9% of us would have done the same as almost all German citizens - supported your country in time of war.

[Melas]

The German story is worthless without recounting Germany’s history from 1920 on. I’ve met a lot of uneducated people who simply didn’t understand why we rebuilt Japan, and to a lesser extent Germany after WWII. Many seemed to think it was misplaced altruism or compassion.

It was neither. We had learned our lesson. Germany was heavily punished at Versailles, and as a result a broken Germany was ripe for a man like Hitler. Desperate people will seek any port in a storm, and they did. They latched on to the first leader who appeared to be able to deliver any level of prosperity and any sense of pride. He just happened to be the epitome of evil.