STAUFFENBERG'S NOBLE FOLLY

There are more streets in Germany named after Col. Claus von Stauffenberg than any other person. Beethoven comes in second. Stauffenberg was, of course, the Army officer who unsuccessfully tried to kill Adolf Hitler with a bomb on July 20, 1944 and who was shot for his efforts on July 21, 1944.

Approximately 5,000 individuals were executed in an orgy of retaliation and witch-hunting by the Nazis in response to the plot. One of these victims was revered Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was permitted to commit suicide as an alternative to his family being killed. It also avoided a trial for him in hanging judge Roland Freisler's kangaroo court followed by strangulation with piano wire--a fate suffered by many of the other conspirators. Surprisingly enough, although Staffenberg's widow was sent to a concentration camp, she and her children survived the war, and she died in 2006.

The 2008 film, Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, does a decent job portraying the assassination plot and its unfortunate resolution. It is worth watching.

For further information about Col. Stauffenberg, click here.