–What, in your opinion, was the object of the members of the Resistance? In other words, against what were they resisting?
–What means did the Resistance members use and what did they have at their disposal?

In response to these questions I noted that the Germans wanted their national pride restored, Hitler’s vision of strong Germany did that. However when people saw Hitler’s true hateful nature they Resisted by joining political and military offices to sabotage Hitler’s regime from within. They traveled under the government guise to seek foreign allies and met secretly to plan.

Our teacher asked us to think about what an Oath is and how serious it’s implications are. He asked us to create a meaningful oath that reflected the Germans possibly rethinking their previous Oath to their Furher, Hitler. I have included a short Oath below showing the Resistance’s stance:

“I do solemnly swear to resist Adolf Hitler in every way permissible. The Nazi party has used fear to imprison Germany and must be stopped. I will stand by my God and country to restore our Sacred Germany.”

1. The goals of the civilian resistance
2. The goals of the military resistance
3. Obstacles faced by both
4. Results – to what extent did they fail and to what extent did they succeed?

My responses to these questions are below

1.) The goals of the civilian resistance were to survive the Nazi era. Many believed in Hitler’s goals for Germany. Those who resisted either refused to join the Nazi party or joined with the intention of sabotaging the Nazi regime from within.
2.) The military sought to arrest or assassinate Hitler with a seamless transition and trap him politically and make him a public spectacle so there would be no question about Germany losing the war or falling because Hitler was unjustly taken out of power. But the Europeans appeased Hitler and multiple attempts failed and no outright killings occurred because during times of war a country stands behind its leader whether good or bad.
3.) Both faced challenges in manpower, communication and overall support. Many countries did not trust Germans after World War 1 and many Germans were not willing to risk their family’s lives for a cause they did not think was possible or appropriate for them to carry out, like a coup.
4.) The resistance planned how to establish a future government after Hitler. They did this very well amongst private circles, but they failed to look past their personal backgrounds, class and post war goals so when the time came to actually deal with Hitler they were unorganized and were easily picked off by the Nazis. But after the war their legacies continue to live on and remind Germans that Hitler was not met without resistance and Germany was before and after Hitler a country with resolve, not unquestioning puppets.

Originally I saw this movie in high school and like many other people was surprised to learn that there was such a strong opposition to Hitler’s reign during World War Two. Operation Valkyrie was a well-paced movie that never seemed slow on the action. However as an American the movie initially seemed to me as the only attempt to take Hitler down. After having studied the assassination plot more in depth I realize the movie leaves out a lot of background information that is crucial to the non- German perspective. First off, the repressive nature of the Nazi regime made communication and organization seem impossible. The movie depicts these crucial elements almost as an afterthought when in reality the next meeting was always a risk and a potential threat to each person and their families. Then the movie fails to depict the great divide between the Bundeswehr and SS. The whole success of the plot centers around the SS seizing power after Hitler is declared dead, but why do we as the audience care? The stark contrast in mindsets between the jealous SS and the Wehrmacht fighting for power is assumed for the audience to already have known. So unless this divide is properly outlined the unstudied audience is left wondering who they are and why they matter. The movie overall I believe is a good representation of their single attempt but lacks vital background details to get a foreign audience to truly sympathize with the German Resistors obstacles and the great feats they overcame to get that far.

Helmuth James Von Moltke essay 2 GR331x

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