What If? Hitler Assassinated (Operation Valkyrie)

Listen to this episode from The Armchair Historian on Spotify. On a scorching July day in 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb meant to kill Adolf Hitler. In our reality, Hitler survived. But what if he hadn’t? In this episode, we explore three alternate timelines branching from a successful assassination. Drawing from real history, documents, and expert research, this is a chilling look at how one explosion might have reshaped the 20th century.Sign up for Armchair History TV today! https://armchairhistory.tv/supporters/videosMerchandise available at https://armchairhistory.tv/collections/allAndroid App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fourthwall.wla.armchairhistoryIOS App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/armchair-history-tv/id6471108801Wishlist our next video game! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2878450/Master_of_Command_Seven_Years_War/Discord: https://discord.gg/thearmchairhistorianTwitter: https://twitter.com/ArmchairHistSources:Baranowski, Shirley. "Consent and Dissent: The Confessing Church and Conservative Opposition to National Socialism." The Journal of Modern History 59, no. 1 (March 1987): 53-78. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1880377.Breitman, Richard, “Himmler and the ‘Terrible Secret’ among the Executioners,” Journal of Contemporary History 26, no. 3/4 (1991): 1842–43, https://www.jstor.org/stable/260654Douglas, Niles, and Michael Dobson. Fox on the Rhine. Forge: 2000. GDHI. “Telex Message by the Conspiratorial Stauffenberg Group to the Holders of Executive Power (July 20, 1944).” Last accessed November 11, 2024. https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1518.Heinemann, Winfried. Operation “Valkyrie”: A Military History of the 20 July 1944 plot. De Gruyter, 2021.Hohenzollern, Louis Ferdinand von (Prince of Prussia). The Rebel Prince: Memoirs. H. Regnery, 1952.Jones, Michael. After Hitler: The Last Days of the Second World War in Europe. John Murray Publishers, 2015.Klausa, Ekkehard. "The German Resistance to Hitler and Its Constitutional Legacy for the Federal Republic of Germany." Pakistan Horizon 42, no. 2 (April 1989): 33-46.https://www.jstor.org/stable/41393355.Mastny, Vojtech. “Stalin and the Prospects of a Separate Peace in World War II.” The American Historical Review 77, no. 5 (1972): 1365-1388. Mommsen, Hans. Alternatives to Hitler: German Resistance Under the Third Reich. Princeton University Press, 2003. The National Archives. “Operation Unthinkable.” Last accessed November 11, 2024. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/cold-war-on-file/operation-unthinkable/.Schlie, Ulrich. “Today’s View of the Third Reich and the Second World War in German Historiographical Discourse,” The Historical Journal 43, no. 2 (2000): 543-564, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3021041.Stargardt, Nicholas. German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-45. VINT, 2016.Tourlamain, Guy. “Völkisch Writers and National Socialism: A Study of Right-Wing Political Culture in Germany, 1890-1960.” Peter Lang AG, 2014.Armchair Team Credits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sYjrtdKP67bvEH4UWOv-24_dwJGxZ395ZuczyKOUFNw/edit?usp=sharing