Valkyrie [2008]:

It only matters that we act, now, before we lose the war. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler's Germany. And we have to show the world that not all of us were like him.

...

You know, God promised Abraham he would not destroy Sodom if he could find just ten righteous men. I have a feeling that, for Germany, it may come down to one.

– Kenneth Branagh, as Henning von Tresckow,

in Valkyrie [2008].

Kenneth Branagh commands this powerful scene from Valkyrie [2008], played with no dialogue from the lead actors:

THE GERMAN EASTERN FRONT.

SMOLENSK, RUSSIA.

13 MARCH, 1943.

A small fleet of planes land.

As they do, Major General Henning von Tresckow [Kenneth Branagh] tenses, preparing to meet his Führer, the madman he is part of a conspiracy to assassinate.

 

Adolf Hitler [David Bamber] alights from one of the planes, surrounded by his entourage and personal guard.

In the mess tents, they wait to attention as Hitler is seated and served first.

As Hitler proceeds to dine on his plate of vegetables, Tresckow watches him eat.

Tresckow’s combined feelings of hate and revulsion are evident in his cold gaze as he stares at Hitler and his plate of food.

Finally, Tresckow gasps and has to turn away.

Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally:

At first, Oskar Schindler seems an unlikely hero: egotistical, hedonistic and adulterous. As an industrialist, the outbreak of World War II appears to him as mostly an opportunity for commerce and financial gain by whatever means. He’s a member of the Nazi party, but only because it opens doors for him to make further contacts and exploit them.
In this we see the best qualities emerging from what at first seems a mercenary and selfish man whose primary motivation is money and profit.
This novel weaves fiction to tie together facts given from the testimonies of the Schindler juden (Schindler's Jews).
At first Schindler has but one aim: to make more money than any one man can spend in a lifetime. And, by ways of slave labor and profiteering, he succeeds. But witnessing first-hand the horror and atrocities of the SS, under the command of the murderous Amon Goeth, he is forced to search his conscience and he finds himself at a moral crossroads: he can take his fortune and go as far away from everything as he can get, or he can use his talents and assets to help others. In the midst of evil and aided by his factory manager and accountant, Itzhak Stern, Schindler sets on a mission: to save the Jewish employees in his factory.
Originally titled Schindler’s Ark, this historical novel is one of the most thorough and comprehensive retellings of a specific and profound event during the Holocaust, one of the darkest periods in mankind’s history.
Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 movie adaptation is a devastating experience.
Like the diary of Anne Frank and The Girl in the Red Coat, by Roma Ligocka, this is a book everyone should read at least once.
As Itzak Stern said: “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Also recommended:

The Mothman Prophecies, by John A. Keel:

The book came my way after I saw the movie, starring Richard Gere. I’m including both versions in this review as I feel the movie’s the better of the two: a sharper and more focused retelling of the accounts leading up to and including the Silver Bridge tragedy on the Ohio River, between Gallipolis, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1967.
How much readers believe of the mystery surrounding the Mothman encounters and sightings depends on how open-minded they are.
The book is a catalogue of various sightings and experiences of not only the Mothman, but also a wide variety of paranormal phenomena, including angels, demons, alien visitations, mutilated animals, accounts of UFO sightings, testimonies from witnesses, including several who have been approached by the “Men in Black” – among them the enigmatic and indefinable Indrid Cold. Several witness were afflicted by a strange conjunctivitis, having seen “something” and been exposed to an energy that left them injured. Many of the Mothman witnesses share a mindset in common: what they saw frightened them, they don’t feel privileged to have seen it and they hope they never see it again.
The fact that people witnessed and experienced this phenomenon can’t be repudiated; there are similar accounts from all over the world and at different times throughout history.
The movie is fabulously intense, eerie and atmospheric with excellent performances from all the actors. It’s a mesmerizing story about the blurring of our perception of the natural and supernatural world, where the “sensitive” among us may glimpse things not usually apparent to the majority. One explanation I like is that this phenomenon has been around us all the time and they are a form of natural energy.
In the end, a lot comes down to faith. Many are simply frightened by what they don’t understand, or what doesn’t fit into their view of what constitutes “normality”. It’s easy to be sceptical, particularly when knowledge often comes marred in sound-bites, information overload and disinformation, but we live in a big world, surrounded by a vast, infinite universe.
How much of that is still mystery?
We have a need to know. But maybe it’s as the character Alexander Leek in the movie, played by Alan Bates, points out: we’re not allowed to know!

The Onion Field, by Joseph Wambaugh:

This reads like a novel, but is in fact a true story. The tragedy of this account is that justice was never really served to the perpetrators.
It happened on a Saturday night shift, in Los Angeles, California, March 9, 1963. Two cops, Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, during routine patrol, pull over two career criminals for what was a minor traffic violation.
The criminals: psychopath, Gregory Powell and his side-kick, Jimmy Smith, had a lot to be on edge about – they’d just pulled a robbery.
They kidnapped the cops and, held them both at gunpoint, and forced Campbell to drive them to an isolated, moonlit onion field.
Powell had his facts wrong about the state law on kidnapping. He mistakenly believed that all kidnapping cases, not only the ones where the hostages were killed, were classed as capital crimes.
Powell forced the two cops to stand side-by-side with their hands in the air and asked Campbell: “We told you we were going to let you go … but have you ever heard of the Little Lindbergh Law?”
When Campbell replied: “Yes.” Powell shot him dead.
Hettinger managed to scramble to safety, but in the weeks, months and years that followed, he suffered survivor’s guilt, which led to shop-lifting and a descent into alcoholism.
Powell didn’t just kill a police officer that night, the consequences of his crime led to the destruction of several others lives.
One of the stand-out elements of this account is the potential life-threatening risk that every police officer takes when they go out on duty. They put themselves on the line for the safety of others, which makes them, like those in the military and emergency services, the true heroes in this world.
The Onion Field is a stark, tragic example of crime and its ramifications, which will have readers enraged against the injustice of the system that allowed the perpetrators to play it for their own gain.
When a crime is committed, those who suffer longest are the victims who survivor the ordeal, and their families.
There is no such thing as victimless crime.