Valkyrie Revisited​: Stauffenberg and Tresckow, Consciences in Revolt

[mountaineer]

Valkyrie Revisited​: Stauffenberg and Tresckow, Consciences in Revolt
By Marc LiVecche on August 2, 2019


Last month marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the failed bombing intended to assassinate the German Führer Adolf Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair field headquarters in what is now GierÅ‚oż, Poland. The anniversary offers the opportunity to reflect not only on the nature of courage in dark times, but on the character and limits of Christian resistance to political evil.   ...

The July 20 plot was the last of 15 known attempts to kill Adolf Hitler. The legacy of those involved in such plots remains the subject of much controversy.

None can reasonably question the conspirator’s courage. Most Germans—if not actively Nazi supporters—were primarily concerned, reasonably enough, with their own survival or the safekeeping of their families. Nazism, like any totalitarian regime, intentionally employed terror to maintain control. Active dissent was dangerous to cultivate, at any level. At various periods, even mentioning the crimes being committed against the Jews could result in imprisonment or death. Listening to foreign radio stations, reading foreign newspapers, criticizing the war or Nazi policy, or spreading rumors unsympathetic to German rulers were equally verboten. Military personnel believed to dissent could find themselves on the eastern front. The July 20 conspirators were fully cognizant of both the risks they faced and to which they exposed their loved ones, as well as their general lack of internal and external support. Their physical grit cannot be gainsaid.

Their moral courage, on the other hand, is often questioned. How much were the conspirators themselves complicit in the Nazis crimes they now so adamantly opposed? Some have called the July 20 plotters every bit as monstrous as any ardent follower of the führer. The charge is not entirely without possible merit.  ...

What I do know is that ours is an odd age in which moral purity—or more often its caricature—has become the enemy of the morally good. We demand our heroes be saints—at least in accordance with our own definition of holiness. We oughtn’t.  ...

Read more at Providence Mag

[TomSea]

BKMRK

Fascinating.