Behind Valkyrie

About this book

While the "Valkyrie" plot by Nazi officers to kill Adolf Hitler is the best known instance of German opposition to his dictatorship, there were many other significant acts of resistance. Behind Valkyrie collects documents, letters, and testimonies of Germans who fought Hitler from within, making many of them available in their entirety and in English for the first time. Peter Hoffmann assembles the words of citizens protesting the National Socialists' dismantling of the first democratic German republic, socialists and conservatives arguing for civil liberties, and dissatisfied senior military officials. Behind Valkyrie's first-hand accounts of reactions to crimes by the SS, mistreatment of millions of Soviet prisoners of war, mass murder of Jews, and the mismanagement of military campaigns show that attempts to maintain freedom, justice, and human rights often came from unexpected sources. While not free of the prejudices of their time, these nearly forgotten voices help provide a more complete understanding of the range of dissent during one of history's most disturbing epochs. - Publisher.