Codename ‘Valkyrie’ Gecertificeerd

On 20 July 1944 the last assassination attempt against Hitler failed. Leading conspirators behind the attempted coup and thousands of supporters and sympathisers were arrested and executed. First to fall to the vicious Nazi retribution was General Friedrich Olbricht, who had nurtured the plans over three years – codenamed Valkyrie. Olbricht was less glamorous than Stauffenberg, who laid the bomb in Hitler’s bunker, but contributed far more to the overall resistance against Hitler. Helena Schrader traces Olbricht’s transformation into an active conspirator dedicated to removing Hitler from power, showing how his plans might have succeeded had Stauffenberg not failed.