In a sweltering room in July 1944, a man with one eye, no right hand, and three fingers used modified pliers to crush an acid ampoule inside a briefcase bomb meant for Adolf Hitler. This episode looks past the Hollywood version of Claus von Stauffenberg to the historical figure: born in a Bavarian castle in 1907, shaped by Stefan George's poetic circle and a strict Catholic code, and initially supportive of authoritarian rule and the colonization of Poland. We follow his gradual break with the regime, the paralyzing weight of the personal oath to Hitler, and the summer of 1942 in Vinnytsia where the mass shootings of Jews became undeniable to him.

Maimed in Tunisia in 1943, Stauffenberg turned a desk job in the Replacement Army into leverage by rewriting Operation Valkyrie into a coup blueprint. His late 1943 peace demands, including German ...