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German Resistance to Hitler

Helena Schrader earned her PhD in History cum laude from the University of Hamburg with research on the German Resistance to Hitler.  Her Dissertation demonstrated the central role played by General Friedrich Olbricht and revised many previous assumptions about the contributions of other participants. In particular her analysis of the events of July, 1944 represented "an analytical masterpiece, which eliminates many of the absurdities of the popular description of events." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

She was the first Western historian to gain access to the military and municipal archives of the GDR (East Germany), doing research prior to German Reunification. In addition, the National Archives in Washington, DC provided access to original documents of the German Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, OSS and the US Department of State. General Olbricht's widow and son-in-law put all surviving personal documents at her disposal, and interviews were conducted with more than 35 individuals who had personally known General Olbricht.

The dissertation was published in German (under her maiden name, Helena P. Page) by Bouvier Verlag, Bonn, in 1992 (2nd ed. 1994), under the title: General Olbricht: Ein Mann des 20. Juli.

 

An Obsolete Honour

This novel traces the gradual transformation of a loyal - albeit critical - German General Staff Officer into a traitor and assassin-candidate. The novel opens at Christmas 1938, when Hitler was at the height of his popularity, and ends with the assassination and coup attempt of July 20, 1944.

The novel is currently being translated into German.