Luck of the Devil: The Story of Operation Valkyrie

by Ian Kershaw

'It is now time that something was done. But the man who has the courage to do something must do it in the knowledge that he will go down in German history as a traitor. If he does not, however, he will be a traitor to his own conscience' - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, July 1944. The July 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler was a desperate attempt by a group of senior officers to redeem Germany's honour and end the Second World War. They were heroic because they knew their chances of success were slight and that the result of their failure would undoubtedly be a terrible death.They wanted to leave a message for later that there were Germans who understood the evils of Nazism and were willing to act against it. This extraordinary story is the basis for Bryan Singer's major new film "Valkyrie", due to be released in February 2009. Published for the first time as a separate book, "Luck of the Devil" is taken from Ian Kershaw's bestselling "Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" and is a brilliant account of just what happened in those fateful days at Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters, when his opponents came so astonishingly close to assassinating what is one of the modern era's most terrible figures.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, European History, War

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ian Kershaw is a British historian, noted for his biographies of Adolf Hitler.
Ian Kershaw studied at Liverpool (BA) and Oxford (D. Phil). He was a lecturer first in medieval, then in modern, history at the University of Manchester. In 1983-4 he was Visiting Professor of Modern History at the Ruhr University in Bochum, West Germany. From 1987 to 1989 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Nottingham, and since 1989 has been Professor of Modern History at Sheffield. He is a fellow of the British Academy, of the Royal Historical Society, of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn. He retired from academic life in the autumn semester of 2008.

Reviews

[Adam Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an extract from Ian Kershaw's bigger biography of Hitler and is slightly disappointing. It contains lists of the people who were involved in the plot to kill Hitler in June 1944 but no biographical detail or background of each character. The most famous of the plotters, the one who delivered the bomb was Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and it would have been nice to understand his background and motives and what lead to his final belief that Hitler should be destroyed even at serious risk to his own life, but this is left unclear. The full horror and vicious retaliation against the alleged conspirators, including their farcical show trials and executions (5,000 people were arrested in connection with the plot including families and relations of the plotters) is not conveyed with any vividness or vitality nor are the final numbers of those executed revealed. There are also memos from various Nazi party grandees and Hitler's speech to the nation on his survival included but all in all this is a rather dry and unmoving book.

[Luh]

Este livro foi uma inspiração para o filme de Bryan Singer, Valquíria, e isso nota-se na sua fase inicial. No final, na parte em que a operação corre mal, mostra-nos o depois daquilo que aconteceu ao povo alemão e ao III Reich.

Podemos ter pensado que esta operação correu mal, mas na verdade foi "um sinal claro de que o fim estava a chegar" e realmente após vermos que Hitler saiu ileso do desastre, mesmo com alguns ferimentos, o povo sentiu uma 'alegria' por este não ter morrido, tal como pretendiam...
Mas apesar disto, ao longo dos seus discursos pós desastre, o povo começou a notar que algo não estava bem... Tudo com medo do bolchevismo...

Isto leva a que o povo alemão comece a deixar a saudação alemã 'Heil Hitler' por um simples bom dia ou "Grüb Gott".

Isto tudo no final de uma boa história contada por Ian Kershaw, vai ser fundamentada com documentos reais. Mostrando que tudo o que foi dito anteriormente era real.

[António · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ian Kershaw conta a História como se contasse uma história: com clareza e limpidez. Não precisa de adjectivar para nos mostrar toda a selvajaria de Hitler e dos seus sequazes ou o arrependimento e o remorso que levou alguns ao desespero de tentar ver-se livres dele pondo em risco a própria vida. Um documento Formidável. Tradução satisfatória.

[Tony Styles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predictable but thoroughly absorbing…

An excellent short read from perhaps an unsurpassed authority. A revealing page turner that shows that despite all the ‘alleged’ desire to remove Hitler, no one had the courage to sacrifice themselves in the attempts; which tells you of the fickleness of the German High Command. Recommended.

[Matthew Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucky for Hitler, and no-one else Master historian Ian Kershaw concludes. How much the casualty rate would have been reduced by, nobody can ever say but an enraged Hitler upped the ante considerably after 20.07.44. They would, and did, fight to the last man...

[Adam Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great chapter, but not a book in and of itself. This is simply an extract from Kershaw's biography of Hitler, and is really an attempt at cashing in on his reputation as expert on the Third Reich while taking advantage of the media-hype surrounding the release of the recent Tom Cruise film. For anyone with a passing interest in Operation Valkyrie, this is a good short account. Generally I would say buy the full two-part biography though; it is well worth it.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a brief, but reasonably detailed, description of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. A number of previous attempts on Hitler's life are outlined.

Quite interesting with a reasonable amount of detail but it didn’t provide any real understanding of the motives of those involved and it didn’t mention what happened to their families (at least in the edition I read).

[James Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would echo some other reviews of this in that it's just a chapter of Kershaw's Hitler biography repackaged as its own book. It's still good but short and I would definitely recommend the biography itself instead.