Audiobook4 hours
Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member
Written by Florence Fehrenbach, Jerome Fehrenbach and Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager
Narrated by Michael Prichard
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
When World War II erupted, Philipp von Boeselager, son of an aristocratic Catholic family, fought enthusiastically for his country as a cavalry lieutenant. But in the summer of 1942, when he witnessed the regime's criminal brutality toward Jews and Gypsies, his patriotism quickly turned to disgust, and he joined a group of officers intent on killing Hitler.
After one aborted attempt-in which Boeselager was assigned to shoot both Hitler and Heinrich Himmler-it was decided that a bomb would be used to assassinate the FUhrer. Boeselager delivered the explosives and then led his unwitting men toward Berlin in order to carry out the coup d'etat. When the bomb failed to kill Hitler, the SS launched a terrifying purge of senior army officers. Boeselager managed to return his units to the front before, one by one, the other conspirators were rounded up, tortured, and executed. None of them betrayed Boeselager.
In his unvarnished, harrowing testimony, Philipp von Boeselager-who died on May 1, 2008-gives eloquent voice to the courageous spirit of these men whose profound sense of honor could not be dimmed by the diabolical propaganda of the Third Reich.
After one aborted attempt-in which Boeselager was assigned to shoot both Hitler and Heinrich Himmler-it was decided that a bomb would be used to assassinate the FUhrer. Boeselager delivered the explosives and then led his unwitting men toward Berlin in order to carry out the coup d'etat. When the bomb failed to kill Hitler, the SS launched a terrifying purge of senior army officers. Boeselager managed to return his units to the front before, one by one, the other conspirators were rounded up, tortured, and executed. None of them betrayed Boeselager.
In his unvarnished, harrowing testimony, Philipp von Boeselager-who died on May 1, 2008-gives eloquent voice to the courageous spirit of these men whose profound sense of honor could not be dimmed by the diabolical propaganda of the Third Reich.
Related to Valkyrie
Related audiobooks
On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fur Volk and Fuhrer: The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Broad Daylight: The Secret Procedures behind the Holocaust by Bullets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the Heart of the Reich: The Secret Diary of Hitler’s Army Adjutant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Berlin at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sabotage: The Mission to Destroy Hitler's Atomic Bomb (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51939: Countdown to War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nazi Hunters, The: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eight Days in May: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51941: The Year Germany Lost the War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's Secret Army: A Hidden History of Spies, Saboteurs, and Traitors in World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the Nazi War Machine: How Three Generals Unleashed Hitler's Blitzkrieg Upon the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Public Enemies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Biographies For You
The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Years a Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Duchess Countess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Bondage and My Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A. Lincoln: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Valkyrie
Rating: 3.944444380952381 out of 5 stars
4/5
63 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a work of history, biography and fiction combined; no mean achievement in such a small volume. It is a history of Germany prior to, and during the Second World War. It is a biography of the Von Boeselager family, and it is fiction in its selection of facts.Ostensively, this is the story of the attempt by army officers to assassinate their Führer, Adolf Hitler, when it became apparent that his fanatical proclivities would not win the Second World War. A war, it should be remembered, started by Germany, and fought overwhelmingly by the German army, and not by the Waffen SS (10% of the army), Gestapo or any other of extreme group conjured up by an insane dictator.As history, it introduces the reader to the world of privilege and luxury in pre-war Germany. We get a good idea what it was like to be born into the nobility, and the trials and tribulations of hunting shooting and fishing, and the extension of that bucolic existence into the army of the 1930’s.As a biography; and that is essentially, what the book is, we learn about Von Boeselager’s elder brother Georg. Boeselager confers almost god-like status on this sibling, and based on this information it would be justified. When he was not riding off into the woods destroying wildlife, he was busy riding the Russian steppes destroying Russians. He was wounded, and ultimately killed by themBoeselager himself was no shrinking violet when it came to fighting, he was wounded five times and lived to tell the tale until he was ninety. The infusion of shot and shell did nothing to prejudice his longevity, and he has been able to relate his story to Florence and Jerome Fehrenbach whose prose has been admirably translated by Steven Rendall. This work was originally published in Germany in 2008 as ‘We Wanted To Kill Hitler’, or something close to that in German. Someone had the great idea of bringing it to the USA to coincide with the release of Tom Cruse’s movie ‘Valkyrie’, so they did, and changed the name. I do not know if the idea worked. I am inclined to hope that it did not, as the two stories are very different. The 60 or so years, which have passed since the occurrences referred to, have taken their toll on the authors memory. This fact is very convenient as it enables Boeselager to distance himself by omission from the unpleasant activities occasioned by the German army in their relentless blitz-krieg of Western and Eastern Europe. We are all soft and gullible these days, but it stretches credulity to its limits to suggest that these fine upstanding army officers were unaware of the atrocities meted out daily upon hundreds of thousands of people. The book refers only to the murder of five Gypsies. According to Boeselager, when the war was over and they were thoroughly beaten, his regiment strolled back to Paderborn and amused themselves with equestrian pursuits until America put their country back together.A thorough investigation into Operation Valkyrie this book is not, but it is a good read nonetheless. I enjoyed reading it and would read it again.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a Brave Man to be among 200 (!) Hitler Assassins!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Surprisingly, this story had very little to do with what I had already known about the failed operation. It was interesting to see a personal viewpoint to the historic events.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better than the Movie, But Still Lacking Having watched Tom Cruise's attempt at showcasing the German resistance, I picked up this book, "Valkyrie" by Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager who was the longest living conspirator in the plot to assassinate Hitler, in order to find out more about the motivations of the group.The book is more than just about the plot. It is a semi-autobiographical memoir of Boeselager and his family. The lead up to the war is discussed and we get a glimpse into his aristocratic upbringing. The early military incursions are also briefly touched on, the blitzkrieg through France, and the failed attempt to invade the USSR.While not much else is exposed about the plot that we didn't learn from the movie, Boeselager does give a glimpse -- if still too brief -- into the motivations and reasons behind the conspiracy. Unfortunately, there remains much ambiguity on this subject. For example, Boeselager is dismissive of Kristelnacht but claims to be morally outraged when he learns of the early slaughter of Jews in Gypsies prior to the actual Holocaust. What appears to have motivated them more was the need to save German lives, to align with the western allies in a combined effort to resist a Soviet invasion.Ultimately, we are left still wondering if the conspiracy was mostly patriotic or moral in inspiration. My feeling is that they were patriotic and the moral indignation was a result of the guilt factor after the fact.Overall, I do recommend reading the book either as a standalone or a companion text to the movie. There remains much that is still unknown about this historical event.