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During World War II, Berlin was heavily bombed by Allied planes, yet remnants of Nazi architecture still stand as a menacing reminder that Hitler and his jack-booted Nazis once presided over these fortress-like buildings.

One afternoon a few years ago I was walking beside a Nazi-era building in Berlin. I noticed a plaque near its entrance and bouquet of flowers beneath the plaque. My German is poor, but I managed to make out the inscription. The plaque honored Claus von Stauffenberg, the army colonel who led the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.

The plot failed, of course, but of the 15 known attempts to kill Hitler, it came closest to succeeding. It did not change the course of the war nor speed Hitler's death. He lived another nine months and died from suicide in his bunker. But the assassination attempt, despite its failure, required tough moral choices and immense courage.

The movie, "Valkyrie," now playing at local theaters, tells the story of the July 20th plot. It is not a perfect film but well worth seeing. It refreshes your memory about a chapter in World War II history and compels you to confront a question that Stauffenberg had to answer: How do you respond to evil? With silence or action?

Tom Cruise portrays von Stauffenberg, an aristocrat, Roman Catholic and career soldier. As the war wore on, as atrocities against the Jews became known to the high-ranking officers, as slaughter on the Eastern Front intensified, many army officers grew disgusted with Hitler and the shame he was inflicting on Germany.

They met secretly to decide how to respond. One conspirator naively suggested they simply tell Hitler to resign for Germany's sake. Another suggested they await the Allies who'd landed in Normandy and probably defeat Hitler. Both options were rejected, and assassination was chosen.

Stauffenberg had access to Hitler. He also had guts. But he'd been gravely wounded while fighting in North Africa, losing his left eye, right hand and several fingers from his left hand. Yet he volunteered to be the assassin.

On July 20 he carried a briefcase containing explosives, a detonator and a timer to Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in Eastern Prussia. There, Hitler would be holding a meeting with army officers. Stauffenberg placed the briefcase under the table near Hitler and left the room.

The bomb exploded, demolished the conference room and killed four people. Thinking the bomb had killed Hitler, Stauffenberg phoned co-conspirators in Berlin to say that Hitler was dead and a new regime would rule Germany. But Hitler suffered only minor injuries and later addressed the nation. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were arrested and executed.

But the story doesn't end there. A furious Hitler exclaimed that Stauffenberg's name must be erased from German history. Nina von Stauffenberg, pregnant with the couple's fifth child, was arrested and sent to a Ravensbruck concentration camp. The four Stauffenberg children were dispatched to an orphanage. The Nazis planned to change their names and have them adopted by loyal Nazi families. Finally the war in Europe ended in May 1945, and mother and children were miraculously reunited.

Stauffenberg had predicted what might follow. Shortly before the assassination attempt, he wrote: "... The man who dares to (kill Hitler) must be aware that he will mostly likely go down in German history as a traitor. Yet if he does not do it, he will be a traitor to his own conscience.''

After the war, the Stauffenberg family continued to suffer. Many Germans, reeling from defeat, indeed regarded Stauffenberg as a traitor. Nina and the children were not permitted to reclaim their home in Bamberg until 1953.

Public opinion eventually changed after Hitler's atrocities were openly aired. In 1994, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl led his nation in commemoration of the plot to kill Hitler by Col. von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators.

In times of crisis, people are confronted with hard moral choices. Stauffenberg's son, Berthold, later became an army officer and told an interviewer he hoped he would have made the same choice as his father. Like his father, he knew that evil succeeds if it's met with silence and inaction.

Rosemary Roberts writes a Friday column. E-mail: rmroberts@triad.rr.com