During the Third Reich, numerous attempts were made to assassinate the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. The most well-known was the one which took place on July 20, 1944 and was part of a plot called Operation Valkyrie.

More than 200 people were involved, chiefly the German army officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. But along with him and his fellow military officers, civilian women were also involved, such as Erika von Tresckow, the wife of Henning von Tresckow, who had a major role in the plot. She supported the plans by delivering messages to coordinate military and civilian resistance groups as well as by helping to type up clean copies of the draft commands for Operation Valkyrie.

When the assassination plot failed, Henning von Tresckow died by suicide. Erika was later arrested by the Gestapo, but successfully feigned having no knowledge of the plans and was later released.

Erika von Tresckow is one of 260 women whose stories are currently being told at Berlin's German Resistance Memorial Center in the special exhibition "Women in Resistance Against National Socialism." It's the result of years of special research, funded by the German Bundestag, into the role of women in anti-Nazi activities during the Third Reich.

The stories illustrate various forms of........

© Deutsche Welle