Some persons have complained that yesterday's post was alarmist, depressing. Fine. I'm more than willing to lighten things up. No more doomed-Japan talk for awhile. Instead let's talk about Hitler.
Valkyrie by Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
The subtitle of this book reads
You're not going to find any blood or monsters here. Even Hitler is rather minor to the whole thing -- just the distant, shadowy essence of a menace which is losing the war and ruining Germany.
Growing up on a Rhineland estate (canals, moats, corner towers, acres of wilderness), Von Boeselager's childhood is made up of enlightened Christianity, a classical but liberal education and hunting. Lots of hunting. And this hunting, the practice and idea of which Von Boeselager returns to again and again in his story, is that aristocratic kind of hunting with trained and trusted dogs, done at dawn, in crisp forests and with a crystalline mind. He is not so much hunting as being a hunter. This is an aesthetic and intellectual exercise.
Give him a British title and change his name to Edgar and you get the idea.
Of course he joins the cavalry: the army is separate and apart, its own culture, and within that the cavalry is like a talented nobility. Its officers are apolitical. The Nazis won't last anyway. Kristallnacht is distasteful. The generals will act. In the meantime, there is jumping, dressage and the racecourse to attend to. War comes. The fall of France is a grand adventure! The invasion of the Soviet Union is even greater. Too great, in fact. Only the cavalry can be depended upon over these immense distances, especially during winter. Because winter is a horror. Reconnaissance becomes attack becomes constant defense. The Soviets are rallying. Terrible things are happening in the rear areas. The war is being lost. Russia is a vast, intractable problem. Everybody, including Von Boeselager, gets wounded. He is assigned to the staff of Army Group Centre. The plots begin. Assassination attempts are delayed, cancelled. Explosives fail to explode. Finally, Stauffenberg pulls it off. Only he doesn't. Then everybody gets arrested and dies. Von Boeselager is lucky and escapes detection. At the end of the war he manages to get his beloved cavalry away from the Russian front. Then they go hunting.
This could very well be a book for young adults; it tells its history like one of the Imperial Guard reminiscing about Waterloo. You can almost smell the pipe smoke.
Valkyrie by Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
The subtitle of this book reads
THE STORY OF THE PLOT TO KILL HITLER BY ITS LAST MEMBERwhen it could just as well read
THE STORY OF A GERMAN OFFICER OF GOOD BREEDING AND NOBLE INTENTIONS WHO HAPPENED TO JOIN SOME OTHER FINE GENTLEMEN IN THEIR EFFORTS TO RID GERMANY OF A DISHONOURABLE, RUINOUS TYRANTand you'd pretty much have the book.
You're not going to find any blood or monsters here. Even Hitler is rather minor to the whole thing -- just the distant, shadowy essence of a menace which is losing the war and ruining Germany.
Growing up on a Rhineland estate (canals, moats, corner towers, acres of wilderness), Von Boeselager's childhood is made up of enlightened Christianity, a classical but liberal education and hunting. Lots of hunting. And this hunting, the practice and idea of which Von Boeselager returns to again and again in his story, is that aristocratic kind of hunting with trained and trusted dogs, done at dawn, in crisp forests and with a crystalline mind. He is not so much hunting as being a hunter. This is an aesthetic and intellectual exercise.
Give him a British title and change his name to Edgar and you get the idea.
Of course he joins the cavalry: the army is separate and apart, its own culture, and within that the cavalry is like a talented nobility. Its officers are apolitical. The Nazis won't last anyway. Kristallnacht is distasteful. The generals will act. In the meantime, there is jumping, dressage and the racecourse to attend to. War comes. The fall of France is a grand adventure! The invasion of the Soviet Union is even greater. Too great, in fact. Only the cavalry can be depended upon over these immense distances, especially during winter. Because winter is a horror. Reconnaissance becomes attack becomes constant defense. The Soviets are rallying. Terrible things are happening in the rear areas. The war is being lost. Russia is a vast, intractable problem. Everybody, including Von Boeselager, gets wounded. He is assigned to the staff of Army Group Centre. The plots begin. Assassination attempts are delayed, cancelled. Explosives fail to explode. Finally, Stauffenberg pulls it off. Only he doesn't. Then everybody gets arrested and dies. Von Boeselager is lucky and escapes detection. At the end of the war he manages to get his beloved cavalry away from the Russian front. Then they go hunting.
This could very well be a book for young adults; it tells its history like one of the Imperial Guard reminiscing about Waterloo. You can almost smell the pipe smoke.
well I didn't see the movie..because I couldn't imagine Tom Cruise as the lead in a movie about that era (do you think his last name is really Cruise?) and probably will not read the book! If the elite like Von Boeselager had not followed along blindly possibly Hitler would have been the Palin of their times. Now before the tea partyers get up in arms..look at the latest statistics of the Republican party and see that they are no longer considering Palin as a serious political figure for 2012 or ever. I am only comparing her to the inappropriateness of her politics..not calling her a Nazi. Hitler was a mistake that no one should ever forget about. I have little feelings of sympathy for a people who allow their country to go into the hands of maniacs before it becomes too late to stand up and be heard..Libya anyone? So before my day gets too ranty (a word I just made up)about politics I know that we all need to look to ourselves to rout out the complacency in ourselves. I mean we did vote GW in...well not me but you get my drift.
ReplyDeleteKay: It's a strange little book -- this fellow never really confronts any of the when's or why's of what happened. It's almost like a bedtime story. Which is what happens when the populace is asleep, I guess.
ReplyDeleteso about Japan.. since I am from Portland.. my mother calls me and tells me to run to the nearest vitamin store to pick up potassium and kelp pills because that protects from radiation. think it will work :)
ReplyDelete