Book Review: Valkyrie The Plot To Kill Hitler by Philipp von Boeselager

Along with his brother Georg, Philipp von Boeselager joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. In 'Valkyrie' he shares the story of his audacious attempt to influence the course of history.

My Review: 
As soon as I found out that there had been various attemps on Hitler's life by his own disgruntled officers and soldiers, I became fascinated by this. There has always been a debate about Germans all being bad back then, but I never subscribed to that theory. I always felt that most young men conscripted either thought they were doing the right thing for their country or were only there because they were forced-and that most were scared rigid of what they endured. Even amongst those in the Nazi Party it wasn't so straightforward. There were the evil men like the SS and Gestapo who tortured and murdered millions. Then there were those like Oskar Schindler who saved his workers from the death camps, and the brave men in this book who risked their own lives to try and stop Hitler.

Philipp and Georg like so many other young German men, set off for war and a bit of adventure in the cavalry units. They were initially stationed along the borders with Luxembourg and France before being sent out to the Russian Front where they endured horrific conditions and winter weather along with the savage fighting. Philipp was working as an aide for Marshall Kluge when he came into regular contact with rebel Achim Oster, who had been trying to bring Generals together since 1938 in a coup. Word reaches Philipp that jews and other races deemed undesirable are being executed by troops, something that horrifies him and his brother Georg is also coming to the same conclusion about Hitler's plans. They both join the rebellion which has thirty odd members, their identities changing as some were moved around or died in combat.

The plan is to assassinate Hitler and Himmler together, to stop the SS taking over overall command of the country. Several attempts were to be made and all failed, including an attempt by Philipp to blow up the plane that Hitler was travelling on. His group also attempted a suicide bombing when Hitler came to visit their base and a plan to shoot Hitler and Himmler as they dined with the men. At the same time, Georg was constructing his part of the plan for his cavalry units to seize control of the major buildings in Germany as soon as word came that Hitler was dead. The new plan involved a suitcase of explosives prepared by Philipp, which was eventually used in the plot made famous in the Tom Cruise film, where Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg used it as a bomb to try and assassinate Hitler. I found this part of the book to be fascinating and I certainly want to read more books on the subject.

When you read a book like this you can't help wondering 'what if' and think about all the lives saved if they had killed him. An earlier end to the war in Europe and so many lives saved on both sides would have been great, and allowed the Allies to concentrate on Japan and end that quicker. Sadly it wasn't meant to be and the war continued. I greatly admire the men who were prepared to step up and risk their lives to try to put an end to the evil that Hitler was doing. I really enjoyed the Valkyrie film and look forward to finding out more about all the plotters.

Read June 2019
4 stars