Book Reviews
Valkyrie
A firsthand account of the plot to assassinate Hitler, written by its last survivor.
By Dan Fritz | July 6, 2009 edition
7/6/09 Monitor Books podcast.
What if Hitler could have been eliminated and his tyranny stopped short? Anyone who has ever wondered will be fascinated by Valkyrie, the posthumous memoir by Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, the longest surviving member of the assassination plot against Hitler. (Von Boeselager died last May.)
In von Boeselager’s concise account, every sentence contributes to one of two goals: either to educate readers about one of the most important resistance movements of our time or to deepen the understanding of the human lives at the heart of the story.
There are other histories of the conspiracy against Hitler that offer greater detail of the events in which von Boeselager wasn’t directly involved. But in his memoir, with precise language, concrete memory, and impressive metacognitive skill, von Boeselager adds an invaluable element of personal perspective.
The first seven chapters are devoted to background on von Boeselager and his closest brother, Georg. The brothers grew up, joined the Army, and served in France and Russia, even as Nazism was undermining the Germany that their family had loved for generations. Von Boeselager defends German patriotism and separates it from Hitler’s agenda. “We had no more cause to be ashamed of wanting to restore Germany,” he writes, “than had the French who, in 1914, wanted to return Alsace and Lorraine to France.”
Only gradually did von Boeselager become convinced of the need to rebel, he writes. The news of Kristallnacht reached him as a young cavalryman, in his “hermetically sealed” training camp. But this one incident did not indicate to him or his comrades the extent of the criminality taking over their country.
In this respect, von Boeselager insists, he is telling the story of the majority of Germans, who did not “let” Hitler come to power, but who, rather, failed to comprehend the unimaginable in time to stop it. None of von Boeselager’s colleagues were Nazi sympathizers. His interactions with Nazis were always with high-ranking officials and each sped him to the conclusion that Hitler must be assassinated.
A “combination” of experiences led to the difficult decision to commit treason. When von Boeselager was wounded in Russia, he barely survived a deplorable three-week transport to hospital, and was left with “very pessimistic conclusions” about the competence of the military leadership. Finally he met with Nazi officer Erich van dem Bach-Zelewski, who told him of the intentional nature of atrocities carried out by the SS.
Previously, von Boeselager writes, he had imagined these were tragic mistakes made in the confusion of battle. Now he became convinced that the Nazi regime was committing genocide, in addition to killing German soldiers with its hubris and military ignorance. It had to be stopped.
The covertly rebellious von Boeselager was lucky to find himself among like-minded officers in Army Group Center, far from Berlin, on the Russian front. Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow, who organized the resistance and drafted the plan called Valkyrie – the system of orders that were to take effect after Hitler’s death – brought Boeselager into the conspiracy and is described with much admiration.
The great achievement of “Valkyrie” is to render a portrait of moral justice within the ranks of the 1940s German Army. Contrary to the common association of the Army with an inhuman regime, “Valkyrie” defends the honor of German military men. Even late in the war, when the military situation portended Germany’s defeat, Tresckow asserted the importance of the plot.
“The assassination has to take place, whatever the cost,” von Boeselager recalls Tresckow saying, “even if it doesn’t succeed, we have to try … to show the whole world, and history, that the German resistance movement dared to gamble everything, even at the risk of its own life.”
The world’s longing to turn back time on Hitler’s reign of terror is only natural, and it is piqued by the nearness of project Valkyrie’s success – “Valkyrie” reminds us that Hitler was thrice in the presence of bombs designed to kill him, the last of which only missed its mark by a few feet.
But Boeselager’s book doesn’t tarry in the realm of might-have-been. Instead, it explores reality – the importance of making accessible to future generations the full truth of history.
Dan Fritz is a marketing coordinator for the Monitor.
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Comments
2. Jackie Logans | 07.06.09
Contrary to Mr. Boeselager’s attempt to put a positive spin on the regular German Army, authors such as Antony Beevor (Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943, and The Fall of Berlin 1945) point out that it was not just the Waffen SS who committed atrocities and engaged in barbarism on the Eastern Front; the Wehrmacht actively partitipated.
3. TJP | 07.06.09
One irony that should cause a pause in this historical event was that in post-war Germany is took many years for many Germans to accept that the individuals who executed the July 20, 1944 plot as heroic. Hitler, despite the wealth of factual information on his role still was looked upon with a degree of fondness by a fairly large segment of post war Germans who lived through the Third Reich. Such fondness of course reflects the degree of loss experienced during the war. Those who resisted the regime were not warmly remembered by this generation of Germans. It was a sense of treason that made many Germans from that generation rather ambivalent about the moral courage these people were willing to act upon to save Germany from itself. It should also be understood that many members of the resistance were greatly motivated by anti-Soviet motives and hoped to save Germany from Stalin’s domination.
4. Speculator | 07.06.09
What if? I’ve been wondering recently, about several other what ifs such as this one. What if, when the Jews were considering where to locate after WWII, they had chosen the alternate to Palestine, the Congo. Yes, and how that would have precluded the mess and misery of the last six decades for those dispossessed from their lands and homes, and the consequences, to the Mideast and muslim world. What if they had gone to the Congo and used their zeal and talents to bring order and law to that whole area, while perhaps utilizing the natural riches of that area for building up civic structures and stability for all. What if the US, which had been neutral regarding the jews, had not had Truman, who succumbed to the Zionists pressures, and sent the US on the path to the present Israeli mess.
What if General MacArthur finally on a winning streak in So.Korea, had not been blocked by Truman, and pressed on to take No. Korea also. No starvation, but prosperity for the whole of Korea. No dictators, and nuclear grandstanding.
I wonder if we learn from mistakes, or just go on repeating them.
5. Henry Wong | 07.07.09
What if, is like any effort to predict the next moment. One can always be wrong. Hitler before Czechoslovakia could have been Germany’s new Bismarck and become man of the decade. But like an investment heavily committed to, many hold on as it begins to slide south hoping for a turn around. Poor judgement is sometimes lack of ruthlesssness and decisiveness.
6. Patrick W. Mackay | 07.08.09
Difficult is history.
And history is difficult.
Second guessing it is even more difficult.
But, even the worst do some good in history.
Witness the Volkswagen.
But now, the “innovators” have managed to ruin even that.
The VW had large diameter wheels. In even bad roads, it got through.
Today, amongst the “continuous improvement” geniuses, we now have downweighted wheels that are damaged by rolling over small street markers that are uplifted.
The attrocities everywhere, large and minor, can not be ignored they affect everybody.
More bombs have been dropped since the end of the Second World War than during it.
And they have been dropped on human beings by human beings.
pwmackay
7. scout1026 | 07.26.09
A reply to Speculator:
“What if General MacArthur finally on a winning streak in So.Korea, had not been blocked by Truman, and pressed on to take No. Korea also. No starvation, but prosperity for the whole of Korea. No dictators, and nuclear grandstanding.”
Interesting, but you do realize that Mac WAS given permission to drive north into NK, and that in doing so, widened the war, right? The drive into NK brought the active intervention of newly communist China, and led to the UN (US) being thrown back into SK, and the war drug on for 2 1/2 more years.
8. scout1026 | 07.26.09
Reply to Jackie Logans:
“… it was not just the Waffen SS who committed atrocities and engaged in barbarism on the Eastern Front; the Wehrmacht actively partitipated.”
That is correct, but let us do please put this into a bit of perspective. ALL of the German armed forces swore an oath to Hitler, and followed the orders of the German command (starting at the top, Hitler). So all were guilty, but the degree of guilt is an enormous gulf. The Einsatzgruppen were SS thugs and the locals that they were able to enlist in massive crimes of murder. The Heer had occasional participation (or knowledge of), which is not the same thing.
Just wanted to be sure the subtleties were at least mentioned.
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1. SkysoldierReconLRS | 07.06.09
We were better off leaving Hitler alone. He did more to win the war for the allies than ANYONE. Sieg Hiel???? LOL!!!!