“Certain incidents led me to enter the conspiracy. In retrospect, compared with the horror of war and the magnitude of the Nazi’s crimes, these incidents seem minor. Another person might have reacted coolly to these experiences, and not been affected by them. But for me, served as a catalyst. It is time to tell about them.”

Each person living in Germany right before and during World War II made decisions based on the information they were presented. Not every citizen knew what we all know now about what the government was doing. For one soldier, he was fighting for his country for a while before hearing an inkling of mass murder, and that is because he was higher ranking. Many of his soldiers never knew about anything going on except what was right in front of them – the enemy.

I have been interested in reading more about the Valkyrie plot for a while – probably since the movie came out years ago. I have not seen the movie yet, but found a book written by a person involved in the plot at a discount bookstore. There are many books written about the plots to kill Hitler, but this one caught my attention because it is the story of one of the few who escaped to tell the true tale.

Phillip Freiherr von Boeselager was raised in a family that had morals. When he heard about some of the activities the SS were doing back home, he carefully found others who shared the same opinion. Those people eventually worked together, but as separately as possible, with the goal of taking Hitler out of power. They knew they needed to get Himmler as well and many good opportunities to take out Hitler were lost because Himmler wasn’t within reach, too. Only certain people knew certain parts of the plot at any time. They tried a few times, but ultimately failed.

I read this book slower than I read most books because it was fascinating to hear a first-hand account of someone who wanted to get Hitler out of power and plotted to do it and attempted to do it. He explains how he came to side with the Hitler opposition and how he felt about his country and soldiers. I would recommend this to any adult who loves history. It is a fascinating account and gives great insight into what German soldiers knew and didn’t know. If you do read this, please let me know. I would love to talk to you about it!

Buy the book here (affiliate link).