The Film ' Valkyrie '

Herbert concentrates on the seemingly strange view held by both working-class and middle-class German citizens that the years during the Second World War were not actually bad. He asserts that most people in Germany did not associate the Third Reich with murder and terrorism, as is typical for people outside of Germany. Instead, these citizens saw the regime as being beneficial, it provided steady work and a sense of structure and stability that had been lacking in the years immediately following the

The vital element in maintaining Hitler’s regime remains one of the most controversial arguments amongst historians. There are many considerable factors. Historians such as Jaques Delarue and Hans Rothfels argue that terror was the main component to sustain control, whilst David Crew and Dick Geary believe it was propaganda that made it possible. However, there are other factors that are supported, for instance, contextual condition was backed by Ralph Flenly and Hans Rothfels and the people’s consent, as A.J.P. Taylor proposes, was the imperative constituent. Most historians have the same problem evaluating as they have different definitions for people’s consent. “Silent opposition” is the term used for the people who passively opposed.

The ethnic cleansing of the United States has been a topic of discussion in Germany for more than a century. Authors like Karl May and James Fenimore Cooper popularized western fiction. Adolf Hitler discovered May at the time he entered realshule and Cooper at the time he entered volksschule. After the Munich putsch of 1923, Karl Haushofer taught Hitler of lebensraum, the idea of Manifest Destiny in the United States transposed to a German-defining East in Poland and Russia. Inspired by the stories of May and lebensraum, Hitler repeatedly compared Manifest Destiny in the United States and a German-defining East in Poland and Russia. To what extent did western fiction influence the political landscape and Hitler’s War in East Europe?

In the book Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich by Alison Owings, we are provided with plenty of women who describe their lives before, during and after Hitler received power. This book provides us with different views of the time era and as well as how the impact of Hitler affected every woman differently through social class, age, marital status and etc. This paper will explore the lives of three German women who seem to be in the Grey area during the over control of Hitler but mostly with the killings of the Jews. This paper will further explore the complicity and the different levels of resistance that these three women had during this time era which is 1933-1945. The three women that will be discussed in this paper are Margarete (Margrit) Fischer, Ellen Frey, and Christine (Tini) Weihs. When looking into the lives of all three women these women it seems as though women didn’t have much of a responsibility for the events that were happening around them. Although these women seemed to be complaint to a certain degree with the events there were going on around them. These women would have been complaint due to the fear of what happened to Germans when they stood against the events that took part.

As this primary source originated from an Australian it excludes what the speaker would foresee as ‘irrelevant’ information from the perspective of how Hitler saw his actions and believed he was doing a great good to the world rather than evil. Menzies biased views cloud this source from being completely accurate. For instance this source does not describe that happenings of what is occurring in Germany or the reason why Germany invaded Poland. Therefore this source could be classified as trustworthy only to an extent, because of the biased views of Prime Minister Gordon Menzies.

German narratives on the holocaust have changed since 1945 propelled by debates during that time along with political developments and distance from historical events. The German population tends to focus on their fate as to idolize their society’s behavior during the holocaust era. Germany’s students have trouble connecting German history to the holocaust.

Matthias Schmidt, a man who worked as an associate professor at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute for Historical Research in West Berlin. Gitta Sereny, The author of the critically acclaimed novel, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth. Rudolf Wolters, a Government official and German architect who acted as an assistant to Speer. Dan van der Vat, a survivor of occupied Holland and recent whistle blower for the Wolters Chronik. A. Bullock, who was the author of one of the most celebrated books on Adolf Hitler and Speer, ‘Hitler, A Study in Tyranny’. Joachim Fest, a leading figure in the debate among German historians about the Nazi period, and Albert Speer himself in his own published memoirs and books. In addition, the essay will uncover the links and history behind the various authors as to further explain any bias in their work as well as why their opinion of a ‘Good Nazi and Bad Nazi’ exist, and how the view of the time has been passed between Speer and any other actors involved in the event. To legitimise and reinforce each author’s perspective, all statements from their books or works that depict their opinion will be cross examined alongside an opposing book of the same time

“A conspiracy that can deceive us about 6,000,000 deaths can deceive us about anything, and then it takes a great leap of faith for Holocaust Revisionists to believe World War II happened at all, or that Franklin Roosevelt did serve as President from 1933 to 1945, or that Marilyn Monroe was more ‘real’ than King Kong or Donald Duck” (Basham 98).

The question of whether the Holocaust could have been predicted or prevented goes well beyond determining the guilt or innocence of the German people during the 1930s and 40s. The question matters because understanding how the Holocaust was able to happen and what presaged its occurrence is the only way to prevent similar atrocities in the future. A popular answer to this question depends on absolving the German population of any sort of collective guilt, on the assumption that they simply could not have predicted the scope of Hitler's plans. Walter Laqueur argues that "there was no precedent in recent European history for the murderous character of German National Socialism," and as such it would be "ahistorical" to suggest "that everyone should have known what would happen once Fascism came to power" (Laqueur 233). However, Laqueur's own approach is ahistorical, because he implies somehow that Naziism sprung up out of uniquely novel circumstances, and that its ideology had no precedent in Europe. In reality, as author Daniel Goldhagen argues, the precedent for the actions of Hitler and the Nazis can be found in "ideas about Jews that were pervasive in Germany, and had been for decades" (Goldhagen 9). When considered in the context of the historical treatment of Jews, as well as other periods in history when radical ideologies went unchallenged, it becomes clear that the Holocaust was not an unpredictable, anomalous event, but rather the naturally and entirely-expected

Conspiracy Theories have always played a deceptive role in history. Conspiracy theorists have skewed proper historical inquiry in order to back up their political agenda. One famous conspiracy theorist, David Irving, known for his holocaust denial conspiracy theorist is no stranger to this phenomenon. Irving’s famous works such as, The Destruction of Dresden and the infamous case that surrounded it show how Irving’s thinking in terms of using facts and material from the past are used in order to fit his agenda of denying the holocaust and promoting his neo-Nazism. Due to his methods of historical inquiry through his works over the years, Irving does not contribute to the established scholarly works in the field of holocaust research.

“A fanatically hysteric romantic with a brutal will,” this is how Karl Alexander von Muller, described the personality of Adolf Hitler. Throughout Hitler’s reign, people close to him had the same outlook towards him, like von Muller, and many officers and generals plotted to kill the dictator. The plot that came closest to succeeding was “Project Valkyrie,” which was the subject of the 2010 film “Valkyrie”. The film incorporated many aspects that are historically accurate, despite a number of minor historical flaws. However, there are some instances where poor concepts are shown in the film as well. The historical accuracy of the film can be demonstrated by showing its plot, setting and characters.

The rise and subsequent take-over of power in Germany by Hitler and the Nazi Party in the early 1930s was the culmination and continuation not of Enlightenment thought from the 18th and 19th century but the logical conclusion of unstable and cultural conditions that pre-existed in Germany. Hitler’s Nazi Party’s clear manipulation of the weak state of the Weimar Republic through its continued failure economically and socially, plus its undermining of popular support through the signing the Treaty of Versailles all lead to the creation of a Nazi dictatorship under the cult of personality of Hitler. This clear take-over of power and subsequent destruction of any

Women in Nazi Germany is based upon the Nazi regime’s attitudes, policies, and ideologies concerning the role of women in the public and private sphere. Stephenson argues that the women of Nazi Germany should be studied in depth, including the support they gave to the regime, the treatment they received, and the different roles they played. However, she argues they should not be studied separately from the other happenings at the time, but instead, they should be incorporated into the history just as the men are. This book reviews their roles, functions, and how they were controlled by the Nazi leadership, and also their lives in pre-Nazi Germany.

It seems, at least according to Richard Bessel, historians “have come to doubt the importance of neither the orders given by the Nazi leadership nor the institutional context in which these orders were given and carried out.” More important than functionalism or intentionalism, Bessel argues, are arguments of a moral nature. However, these historiographical sides had somewhat fought for moral superiority, with intentionalists accusing functionalists of focusing on “underlying logic, embedded in processes of decision-making… was to ignore individual human responsibility-and, in the case of the monstrous crimes of Nazism, in effect to be guilty of a dereliction of one's moral duty.” This battle for the high ground, he claims, saved these

Therefore, this film is not only a testimony about the German past but also the German present. It displays the irrational annihilation of six young Germans at the end of WWII, summoning up a very agonizing recollection of Nazi Germany’s futile effort to turn back the Allied invasion by hurling teenage boys into the