Abraham Lincoln often stated that the Weems book on George Washington was his favorite book next to the Bible. Well, this is definitely my favorite book in the whole world, next to the Bible. I believe the motivations of the author and many others in this book are best expressed by the forward in another book from the same crisis, The White Rose. The forward in one its publications by a sister of one of the members of the White Rose expressed the general sentiment of that group. They had to do something even if it was hopeless, so that other countries and future generations would know that there were people in Germany who had true compassion for the innocent and were not themselves animals like the Nazis! A warning about reading this book: If you are anything like the author, Count Von Stauffenber, or a relative handful of others from Hitler's Germany, this will be a terribly hard book to read emotionly. I venture to say that it aged me ten years in the days that I obsorbed it (or was obsorbed by it, reading is definitey too shallow a term). If you can stand by and see the innocent put to death by the guilty and not be overwelmed by righteous indignation then don't waste the time on this book! I would like to add some more detail to this review at some point when I get some more time. I pray that with this short testimonial I have given the true heros of America who see this a hunger to pour themselves into this work of extreme pathos!