Codename 'Valkyrie': General Friedrich Olbricht and the Plot Against Hitler

On 20 July 1944, the last in a series of assassination attempts against Hitler failed. In the aftermath, leading conspirators and thousands of supporters and sympathizers were arrested and executed. First to fall to the vicious Nazi retribution was the man who had nurtured the coup d’état plans over three years, codenamed ‘Valkyrie’ – General Friedrich Olbricht. Helena Schrader traces the transformation of a highly decorated and senior German officer into an active conspirator dedicated to removing the Führer from power. She shows how Olbricht’s coup plans might well have succeeded if Stauffenberg had not failed at several key junctures.

Helena Schrader PhD is a consular official in the US Diplomatic Service. She holds a doctorate from the University of Hamburg and is a fluent German speaker, having lived in Berlin for 20 years. Helena is the author of Blockade Breakers: The Berlin Airlift, due for publication in 2009 by Sutton. She currently lives and works in Oslo, Norway, but will soon take up a new consular posting in Lagos, Nigeria.