Definition of Operation Valkyrie

From 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945, Adolf Hitler remained in power in Germany. The majority of the German people supported Hitler in his expansionist zeal and in his ideals of supremacy of the Aryan race. However, some Nazi officials did not agree with the extermination of the Jews and the strategy Hitler's military.

When the defeat of Germany in 1944 seemed imminent, a group of officers organized a plan to end his life. The plan became known as Operation Valkyrie.

Operation Valkyrie was one of several failed plots to kill Hitler

The planning of the attack to end the tyrant was the participation of senior officials of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces. The day chosen for the assassination was July 20, 1944 and the place "the wolf's den", the furher's headquarters.

After a bomb explosion, several officers around the president were killed, but he was unharmed with some minor bruises. The failure of Operation Valkyrie had immediate consequences: those most responsible were arrested and executed.

The main conspirator of the plot, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, was sentenced to death for high treason and finally shot before a firing squad (moments before he died he addressed his executioners shouting "Long live our sacred Germany").

Some facts about Operation Valkyrie

Sixty-four years after the failed attack on Hitler, actor Tom Cruise played the character of Claus von Stauffenberg in the movie "Valkyrie."

The plot to kill Hitler failed for several reasons:

1) the distribution of the Nazi leaders in the wolf's den room was not adequate,

2) the location of the pump was under a table wood that served as Hitler's protective element,

3) due to a failure in the execution of the plan it was not possible for a second pump to be activated and

4) at the last moment it was decided to move the officers' meeting to another continuous room and this circumstance considerably reduced the force of impact of the bomb.

Hours after the attack, Hitler held a meeting with Mussolini and showed him the place of the totally destroyed explosion. At that meeting, Hitler claimed that he had been saved by the intervention of divine providence.

The failed Operation Valkyrie generated a great distrust in Hitler and in the following months a purge was organized against the officers of the Wehrmacht.

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