Merkwurdigliebe, you’re very kind, but I’ve done very little reading about the German resistance specifically. (And I also love watching Bill Nighy… have you seen his performance as a burned-out rocker with stagefright, in Strange Fruit?) Most of my info comes from Wikipedia and such. I’ve read some histories of various aspects of the German war in Europe, though, so that helped provide a basic background. Most of the info that follows I’ve pulled from the short chapter on the German resistance movement in Days of Infamy: Military Blunders of the 20th Century by Michael Coffey, rounded out with some info from Wiki.
Re. the German resistance and its depiction in the film Valkyrie, the greatest authority and moral figurehead of the resistance in general, and of the particular cell (which the Gestapo had code-named the Black Orchestra) featured in Valkyrie, was General Ludwig Beck [ret.]. Beck [portrayed by Terence Stamp in the film] had been the Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht [army] in the 1930’s, until he resigned in protest prior to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 – firing off a final memo to his fellow senior commanders explaining his motives.
I think it’s safe to assume that Beck’s disapproval of Hitler was well known to the Gestapo, and that he was protected by his prestige and continued ties to Wehrmacht leaders. (I also suspect the Gestapo’s handling of Beck reflected his unknowing exposure of fellow conspirators to Gestapo surveillance, given his prominence, by his participation in the cell.) Hints of ongoing Gestapo surveillance of at least a couple of the July 20 plotters would’ve considerably heightened the claustrophobic feel of the film and racheted up the suspense, while underscoring the heroism of the plotters, and probably would’ve been true enough to the historical facts of the story. It also would’ve been nice if the filmmakers had found a way to flesh out Beck’s back story, but it would’ve been difficult to pull that off without resorting to clunkily expository dialogue or informational text at the beginning of the film, and either would’ve hindered the pace or diluted the focus of the story.
Beck’s successor in the army was the like-minded Franz Halder, who, along with Colonel Hans Oster and General Erwin von Witzleben, initiated plotting to kill Hitler – also prior to the invasion of Czechoslovakia. That plot was abandoned when the Munich Agreement (which Neville Chamberlain declared achieved “peace in our time”) was reached in September of 1938.
A largely civilian and communist-affiliated group, dubbed the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo, emerged in 1939 but lost its cohesiveness and commitment to action after the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August, 1939.
Plotting was stilled within the military in the wake of the successful invasion of Poland, but when Hitler announced plans for invading countries in western Europe, the plotting resumed, centered around Admiral [and head of Armed Forces Intelligence] Wilhelm Canaris, Army Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch, and some of Canaris’ top staffers. Canaris [who would be executed in the wake of the July ‘44 plot; his diary candidly detailing his conspiratorial activities and contacts was used to condemn a number of others] and von Brauchitsch tried to delay these invasions; the cell of Canaris’ staff cooked up a bomb plot of their own.
Other cells were forming at this time, but none of them were coordinated with each other or with the Canaris group.
The first actual assassination attempt occurred on Nov. 8, 1939 [the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch], when a bomb was planted in a beer hall where Hitler was scheduled to deliver a speech. Hitler survived by giving a very short speech and leaving unexpectedly early. In the wake of this attempt his security was tightened and the government cracked down even more harshly on political dissenters. Conspirators were further demoralized by the military victories of the next three years, during which time relatively few attempts were made on Hitler’s life (although Valkyrie depicts a serious one, the bomb planted on Hitler’s plane in 1942 by General Olbricht and Maj.-Gen. von Tresckow).
The military [and conspiratorial] turning point was the Battle of Stalingrad, in the winter of '42-Jan. '43. It was at this point that many plotters resumed their activities in earnest, and the “Black Orchestra” group coalesced around the key figures of Beck, von Tresckow, Olbricht, von Witzleben [ret.], Adm. Canaris, and, eventually, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg; and the civilians Carl Goerdeler [the former Mayor of Leipzig and the cell’s pick for Chancellor of Germany], Ulrich von Hassell (former German ambassador to Rome), and the Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (founder of the dissenting Confessing Church). These July 20 plotters were loosely affiliated with two other conspiratorial cells, one of young diplomats in the German foreign office, and the other led by Helmut von Moltke, the great-grandnephew of the German national hero and military icon Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke.
In the lengthy period prior to July '44, the plotters sent out many feelers throughout the military to line up as much support as possible. The film depicts some of the plotter’s successes in recruiting, as well as their failure to secure a reliable ally in Gen. Fromm [head of the Reserve Army]; other failed contacts not shown in the film included the Field Marshals von Rundstedt [who would head the military courts-martial of the officers], von Kluge [who would commit suicide under duress in the wake of the July 20 plot], Rommel [whose fate echoed that of von Kluge’s], and von Manstein. It appears that none of these men turned the conspirators in and thus all shared the crime of complicity [to treason] – even von Rundstedt, who headed the military “Court of Military Honor” trying the officers involved (condemning some, but stripping others of their military affiliation only to be sent off to be condemned by the civilian Nazi kangaroo Volksgerichtshof [People’s Court], presided by the rabid ideologue Roland Freisler).
The case of Erwin Rommel is the focus of much interest, given the his enduring cult as a military genius and martyr. Rommel was affiliated with, but not an advocate of or participant in, the July 20 plot. He was more active in pursuing diplomatic feelers with American OSS and other contacts in the U.K.; his goal was to save Germany via a separate peace with the western allies. He specifically disapproved of assassination plots if only because he viewed them as likely to lead to a second round of postwar conspiracy theorizing of a self-defeating “stab in the back,” fueling a lingering nostalgia for Nazi policies and leaders and a similarly enduring, reactionary xenophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. [I happen to share his view on the long-term political and cultural downside of a successful Hitler assassination.] Unfortunately for Rommel, however, he was incriminated by the private notes of Dr. Goerdeler, who had short-listed him as a possible future Reichspresident, and his enemies on the Court of Military Honor voted he be stripped of his military affiliation… and be thrown to the mercies of the People’s Court. His suicide under duress followed shortly.
I think it’s debatable whether the July 20 plot could ever have succeeded, tweaking any variables you’d like, given the failure of the plotters to secure these army commanders as allies.
As for the execution of the July 20 plot, the film depicts an earlier aborted attempt (jettisoned in the difficulties of obtaining the “go ahead” from enough parties before the meeting ended); actually, however, von Stauffenberg carried the briefcase bomb on three prior unconsummated attempts before committing to detonation on July 20. The film could’ve covered all these attempts in the service of historical completeness, but I’m guessing that was considered undesirable due to pacing/editing concerns or for being overly confusing to the audience. (It certainly would’ve racheted up the tension, though!)
Finally, I have two final quibbles with the film. The closing postscripts failed to offer a historical overview of the scope of the conspiracy and of the Gestapo roundup. Depending on who you read, the final tally of arrests directly or indirectly motivated by the July 20 Plot ranges from around 5000 to as many as 7000, with about 200 people executed. The executed included many diplomats, college professors, jurists and lawyers, along with other educators, theologians, businessmen, a couple of farmers, an architect and his wife… all unacknowleged in any specific way in the film. I think a line offering the raw numbers would’ve illuminated the true scope of these proceedings for most of the viewers, especially since the film only alludes to about a dozen top conspirators being executed.
Most of the conspiracy leaders (and others condemned for complicity) were dealt with by one of three outcomes: a first group was executed by firing squad at Bendlerblock on the night of July 20-21 on orders of Gen. Fromm (four suffered this fate, as shown in the film); several others committed suicide to avoid a worse fate (Beck, von Tresckow, von Kluge, Rommel, and a few others); and most of the other plot leaders got piano wire (at Hitler’s insistence), with the bulk of the condemned plotters being hanged normally or shot by firing squad. I can understand, for reasons of delicacy and MPAA board ratings, why director Bryan Singer soft-pedalled the visceral details and the sheer extent of the executions, but I do think he should have depicted a final insult humiliating these men – namely, an SS flunky (or perhaps Goebbels himself, I don’t know how it went down exactly) setting up a film camera to document the hangings, a breach of decency which actually happened. In fact, Hitler is reported to have greatly enjoyed watching the snuff film that Goebbels prepared of the piano-wire hangings…
