Comments on: Von Stauffenberg’s son’s story

By: NeoConScum

NeoConScum — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:51:54 +0000

Always was struck & fascinated with the ‘cosmic coincidence’ of the Event exactly 25-years later: July 20, 1969…The First Moon Landing by Armstrong & Aldrin.

The vengeance exacted by Der Fuehrer was horrific. He specifically ordered the tried & convicted conspirators to be hanged by piano wire from meat hooks–strangled–and filmed for his subsequent entertainment. But, hey, if it had been Stalin, he’d have killed half-a-million innocents in retribution and slept soundly.

By: Maggie's Farm

Maggie's Farm — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:21:59 +0000

Thursday morning links…

Mrs. BD’s pic of central Ohio on Sunday Stormy weather may be headed to the Northeast When humans broke off sex with neanderthals Genome of Mysterious Extinct Human Reveals Brown-Eyed Girl Von Stauffenberg’s son’s story End of the road for Vo…

By: waltj

waltj — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:11:44 +0000

Thanks, David. I read a few of those, and people involved in the resistance seem to fall into several general categories: communists (no surprise); Jews (and there’s a fair amount of overlap with the communists here); liberal politicians; believing Christians; and disillusioned military officers. Von Stauffenberg was of course a Wehrmacht colonel who saw just how badly the war was going, losing an eye and a hand to a strafing Allied fighter in the process. But although it could be argued that he and his fellow conspirators were German patriots more concerned about “saving the Fatherland” than about Hitler’s crimes, it also would appear that he never lost his moral compass. Serving under Rommel, who never had even a whiff of war crimes allegations around him, would make it easier to stay on-course than, say, fighting partisans in the Balkans or Russia. But I have to believe the Church also had a role here.

By: david foster

david foster — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 03:03:08 +0000

German Resistance Memorial Center:

http://www.gdw-berlin.de/en

…includes biographies of dozens of participants in various forms of resistance, also some interesting articles.

By: waltj

waltj — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:22:58 +0000

One of the aspects I find interesting about the von Stauffenberg story is that he was a practicing Catholic, as is his son. My completely non-scientific survey of the German non-communist anti-Nazi movement during the time of the Third Reich seems to show that an active commitment to Christianity–Catholic or Protestant–was often a common denominator. Perhaps the belief that there was a higher purpose than mere politics to resisting the evil that the Nazi regime represented inspired the sacrifices and hardships these brave people endured. It’s not that their resistance was particularly effective; it wasn’t, and the Gestapo was ruthlessly efficient at rounding up these “traitors”. But that a resistance existed at all under these conditions I find remarkable. While the Pope may have made his own accommodations with Hitler and Mussolini for the purpose of taking as much heat off the Church and its flock as possible, that clearly wasn’t good enough for other Catholics like von Stauffenberg.

By: Ed Bonderenka

Ed Bonderenka — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 01:53:49 +0000

At this point, in American history, it’s interesting to contemplate such a resolution to evil in high political places.

By: rickl

rickl — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:57:30 +0000

Off topic, but this could get interesting for those of us on the East Coast. It bears watching.

By: Oldflyer

Oldflyer — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:04:04 +0000

Fascinating story Neo. I was casually familiar with the story, but found it very interesting to read the son’s perspective.

Berthold would be about a year older than I, and it is intriguing to compare experiences of WWII. Although my father went to war, and the neighbor “boy” next door and the one across the street, both fighter pilots, were killed, my war experience could not compare to the children where the war was actually fought. In fact this story brings home that most Americans really have never experienced war.

Von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators were incredibly brave and dedicated. I have not seen the Cruise movie, but I doubt that he did them justice.

By: david foster

david foster — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:21:56 +0000

It is unfortunate that the movie “Valkyrie” did not begin at an earlier point in time and give full credit to some of the other individuals involved in the anti-Nazi plot, particularly Colonel (later General) Hans Oster, who fully grasped the evil of Hitler and began putting together action plans while many of the other eventual conspiracy members were still more or less under Hitler’s spell. It would have been hard to do this under the time constraints of a feature film, of course, but an excellent mini-series on the conspiracy was and still is possible.

One very objectionable aspect of the “Valkyrie” film is its unfair and historically-inaccurate treatment of Erich Fellgiebel, who commanded Army communications. Whereas the real Fellgiebel was a courageous and early opponent of Hitler, the movie makes it appear as if he had to be blackmailed into participation in the conspiracy. There’s not much excuse for treating real individuals like this.

My review of the film here:

http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/6576.html

By: effess

effess — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:27:54 +0000

Interesting story, wasn’t prepared, however, to read “with incredible chutzpah” in the text.

The failure of the bomb to do its job is one of the too many “what if”s in history.