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Codename 'Valkyrie': General Friedrich Olbricht and the Plot Against Hitler

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CODENAME VALKYRIE: GENERAL FRIEDRICH OLBRICHT AND THE PLOT AGAINST HITLER
HELENA SCHRADER
HAYNES PUBLISHING, 2009
HARDCOVER, $39.95, 288 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, INDEX, BIBLIOGRAPHY, GLOSSARY, CHARTS


General Friedrich Olbricht was a member of the opposition to Hitler. The son of a schoolmaster, Olbricht joined the Royal Saxon Army in 1907. He served as a regimental adjutant and as a staff officer during World War I. During the next two decades, he held a variety of command and staff positions, including a long term (1926-1931) in the army's intelligence branch (T-3). Commander of the 24th Division from November, 1938, Olbricht distinguished himself during the invasion of Poland and was among the first to be awarded the newly created Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross from Hitler. Olbricht, however, had long been critical of the Nazi system, and during the war years, he became increasingly active in opposing it. Reassigned to the Army High Command in February, 1940 as head of its general army office, Olbricht used his adminsitrative position to encourage and abet various civilian and military figures plotting Hitler's overthrow. He played a key role, in collaboration with Claus von Stauffenberg (his chief of staff from October, 1943 to June, 1944), in tailoring the VALKYRIE Plan (a scheme originally designed to crush domestic unrest) to the needs of the anti-Nazi plotters. Following Stauffenberg's attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944, Olbricht tried to set off the VALKYRIE measures, but was only partially successful. Along with Stauffenberg and two other officers, Olbricht was shot that evening. He is generally regarded as one of the most principled of the German generals who turned against Hitler during the war. Today, he is honored by a memorial plaque in the Bundeswehr's Army office at Cologne. In CODENAME VALKYRIE: GENERAL FREDRICH OLBRICHT AND THE PLOT AGAINST HITLER now corrects the 'official' history of Operation VALKYRIE. The real hero of the 'German Generals Plot' against Hitler wasn't Stauffenberg but Olbricht. Sadly, his legacy as the architect of the resistance to Hitler has been treated shabbily. His central role in VALKYRIE has been largely written out of the history books and even maligned in the existing literature and movies. Olbricht may have been less glamorous than Stauffenberg, who laid the bomb in the Wolfschanze, but he contributed far more to the overall resistance against Hitler. Author Helena Schrader has written a thrilling narrative of the incredible assassination and the important overlooked role of General Olbricht. Schrader's account is exciting, informative, and ground-breaking history at its best. Highly recommended reading.


Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida