I just completed this book and I should admit that I was pretty disappointed. The book titles Valkyrie, the plot to kill Hitler, but makes just a passing reference to this plot. No details have been provided on the plot and the book clearly fails to meet the expectations in that front.
The book is in fact the memoirs of Philipp V.Boeselager and in itself a good read to understand the conditions from a German WW2 soldier. The bravery of the soldiers waging a losing war in inhuman conditions, fighting against a Red army who had no scruples sacrificing their civilians to exhaust opposition's ammunition, the bravery of captured soldiers not spilling the beans and revealing co-conspirators even in the face of severe Gestapo torture -- the book is replete with such touching episodes.
On the plot to kill Hitler and the role played by the author and his friends, I tend to fully agree with the assessment this article. In particular, I agree that one gets a felling that a lot of details have been willingly left out of the book, thereby reducing its 'authenticity' value. In addition, the high moral value and claims by the author seem a bit superficial. For example, the author keeps mentioning that he was not well informed about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the early 1940's and that his focus was only on carrying out his military responsibilities. This is a pretty difficult argument to buy. In short, I do feel that the moral claims in this book are questionable -- one gets a feeling that something is amiss and theory pretty unconvincing.
In summary, this book is a decent read as long as the expectations are set correct - the reader should not expect to get details on the Valkyrie plot, but should just read it as memoirs of an German soldier in WW2 and leave it at that.
The book is in fact the memoirs of Philipp V.Boeselager and in itself a good read to understand the conditions from a German WW2 soldier. The bravery of the soldiers waging a losing war in inhuman conditions, fighting against a Red army who had no scruples sacrificing their civilians to exhaust opposition's ammunition, the bravery of captured soldiers not spilling the beans and revealing co-conspirators even in the face of severe Gestapo torture -- the book is replete with such touching episodes.
On the plot to kill Hitler and the role played by the author and his friends, I tend to fully agree with the assessment this article. In particular, I agree that one gets a felling that a lot of details have been willingly left out of the book, thereby reducing its 'authenticity' value. In addition, the high moral value and claims by the author seem a bit superficial. For example, the author keeps mentioning that he was not well informed about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the early 1940's and that his focus was only on carrying out his military responsibilities. This is a pretty difficult argument to buy. In short, I do feel that the moral claims in this book are questionable -- one gets a feeling that something is amiss and theory pretty unconvincing.
In summary, this book is a decent read as long as the expectations are set correct - the reader should not expect to get details on the Valkyrie plot, but should just read it as memoirs of an German soldier in WW2 and leave it at that.
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