Read It Before You See It! - Valkyrie

Here's a theatrical release that I, for one, am very excited about. I've never been a big Tom Cruise fan, in fact, I've only seen about two, maybe three, of his movies, but I just chanced upon this when I was looking at some of my RSS feeds.

Operation Valkyrie was the name given to secret plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It was planned and carried out by high ranking officers in the German Army. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who will be played by Cruise, was among the main players in this assassination attempt. He carried a small bomb around in his briefcase on several occasions, but something always happened to stop the attempt. It was on 20 July 1944 that Stauffenberg was able to carry out Operation Valkyrie. It happened in East Prussia (now part of Poland) at what was called the Wolf's Lair. The bomb went off, but without the planned damage. Hitler had survived.

It was that same night that Stauffenberg, along with some of his fellow conspirators were executed in the courtyard of the Bender Block (see a satellite image of this courtyard as it is today), a group of office buildings in downtown Berlin. Many other were arrested. Filmmakers were able to get permission from the German government, after initially being turned down, to shoot some of the film in this historic courtyard and the adjacent building. The courtyard, and some of the Bender Block buildings - including Stauffenberg's office, which still includes his old desk - is now part of The German Resistance Memorial. The memorial looks at resistance groups from throughout Germany and has a marvelous collection which includes photographs and and pamphlets produced by many of the resistance groups throughout Germany.

I'm very excited to sew how I like the movie. As an undergrad I researched Valkyrie as part of one of my papers and it was a very exciting chapter of World War II history to read about. We don't have a book in our collection that is specifically about Stauffenberg or Operation Valkyrie, but we have several books that will touch on the events of 20 July 1944. I'll be looking forward to seeing what they do with the story, and hope it's good. I don't know if I can wait!

Elizabeth