A right and a duty

Just read Soldiers' Revolt, by Hans Hellmut Kirst, a fictionalised account of the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and the implementation of Operation Valkyrie (popularised by a movie with Tom Cruise), starring authentic members of the resistance: Claus von Stauffenberg, Friedrich Olbricht, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg-Tressow (depicted in the novel as Count von Brackwede), and others.

Kirst used well-researched data to construct the novel, including historical documentation, and interviews with von der Schulenburg's family.

The novel is best summed up by the following quotations:

"If a nation falls as a result of abuse of power, then the rebellion of each member of this nation is not only a right but a duty." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

and

"We took upon ourselves this deed to protect Germany from a nameless misery. It is clear to me that I shall be hanged for it, but I do not rue my deed and hope that another, in a luckier moment, will undertake it." Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg at his mock trial.