The Second World War was one of the most extreme and terrible wars that occurred in history with estimated death tolls as high as 60 million. Officially beginning on September 1st, 1939 with the invasion of Poland and ending on September 2nd, 1945 with the surrender of Japan, World War II devastated Europe and the Pacific sector for a seemingly never ending six years. Over 60 cities were completely or mostly destroyed with more than 2.5 million tons of bombs dropped. It was a global crisis, but to an extent that most do not know. In fact, 61 countries were involved and 1.7 billion people participated in one way or another, three quarter’s of the world’s population!
    Heroism, a characteristic most commonly associated with soldiers and wars, was not solely based on being on the ‘good side’ during the war. It was not just battle for defense and it was not just the fulfillment of military duty for one’s country. War has absolutely no humane side or no right justification, yet heroism is doing the good, the right, or whatever is moral, even though it might go against authority. Thus, even if a person was forced to fight for a cause they didn’t believe, the simple action of resistance proved them to be heroes. These people used logic to clearly see what was right. They stood from a judicious point of view and strived for the good.
Ultimately, heroism is not defined by the end success, but by the attempt at putting morality and lives of others above danger, which is exactly what Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager did. In his book, Valkyrie, Philipp uses chronological progression and personal experiences/examples to portray his message: morality above danger. As a commander and soldier himself, he explains what these dangers were and how the risks affected him, but, more importantly, Philipp tells the reader of why it was important to continue the resistance and why morality did, indeed, need to stand above danger.
   Valkyrie is not the typical war story. It is a historical autobiography written about the plot to kill Hitler and the surrounding events of the plan. More interestingly, it is written by the plot’s last surviving member, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager. Philipp was born in Germany in 1917, when World War I was still taking place. However, both his parents were at home taking care of him and eight other children. Financial troubles were never a problem for Philipp’s family was rich, primarily due to the acquired wealth of their Catholic ancestors. Therefore, it seems ironic that with such a status Philipp would enter the army and go on to being part of a resistance, yet that is what he did. In 1938 he enlisted and, as war broke out a year later, he quickly advanced to a commanding lieutenant, joining the resistance in 1941.
   In his book, Philipp wisely uses the chronological aspect of a progressing war to develop his message. Initially, he enters the army, specifically the cavalry unit, to serve his country. He already revealed what is going on at this time with the Nazi political party through the advice his grandfather gave him: “My boy, in diplomacy, it’s not always good to tell the whole truth; but with Nazis you’d have to simply lie. No, that wouldn’t be suitable for you! Choose the army instead; was is coming.” (17) This stating that the Nazis do not have a good agenda in mind, Philipp believes that the army will be separate from the government and he will be free of the turmoil erupting in the political world. Philipp noticed that “the first months of the war passed rather peacefully,” (26) but as he finds out later, the Nazis are in full control of the entire state. This means peace would not last long. Developing battles, unnecessary loss of life, cruel treatment, and many other factors soon add up and Philipp finally realizes: the war is gruesome, and immoral. Hitler implements policies and strategies that are so inhumane, that Philipp reveals to the reader that his dislike and hatred grows daily. This occurs until Philipp is taken over the edge, at which point he joins the resistance, the only choice he believes he has for the sake of morality.
   As these events unraveled in the story and as Philipp wrote the book, a process formed. It was a process of change. He came into the army, believing that he would be serving his country, justly completing his duty, but the process of war changed his mind. He came to understand he was not fighting for his country. He was fighting for Hitler, a dictator, which was unacceptable. The process helped him form his new opinion. What was moral, right, or just would become his decision, not the decision made by higher authority through propaganda and a brainwashing effect. To bring forth process in the writing and to develop his new thought Philipp successfully narrated significant personal experiences and examples, which also turned this book into a very strong, and emotional narrative.
   One of Philipp’s most significant experiences and examples can be considered the climax of the book. This event was so dramatic, that Philipp stated himself, “This incident changed my view of the war.” (81) In fact, it wasn’t even the real event, but rather Bach-Zelewski’s admittance to it happening. Erick von dem Bach-Zelewski was a commandant of the police and SS. One day, he sent a dispatch about a rear zone pertaining to partisan activity and it was Philipp’s job to read the dispatch and summarize it to his marshal. However, he encountered a difficulty with this particular one, for it ended with a troubling sentence: “Special treatment for five Gypsies.” (76) Unable to understand the meaning of it, he went to Kluge, his marshal. It turned out that a meeting was to take place in a few days. Bach-Zelewski’s explained, “We shot them!… All the Jews and Gypsies we pick up are liquidated -- shot!” (79) This single statement about a doctrine of extermination as being natural defined all of Nazism. (80) As Kluge grew in anger, “he protested in the name of the Geneva convention, the laws of war, and even the interest of the German armies.” (80) This war had turned to brutal savagery. “The state, as a whole, was riddled with vice and criminality.” (82) Philipp, disgusted with what he observed that day, changed forever.
   To illustrate how difficult is was to put morality above danger, Philipp narrated the dangers of not only the war, but also the risks of forming and being part of a conspiracy.  In the beginning, Philipp called the war a “Phony War” because the skirmishes here and there didn’t seem like the war he had imagined (25) In fact, many times the French simply retreated. Yet, this was most certainly not the case as the war developed and as soldiers moved to fulfill the Schlieffen Plan, the plan that created a war on two fronts. Philipp’s experiences of hardship can be summarized in his observation on July 27, 1941, a month after the offensive against the Soviet Union began: “The Sixth Battalion had covered a thousand kilometers by forced march. The exhausted infantrymen’s feet were bleeding, despite the efforts of the physicians, who distributed large quantities of talcum powder and ointment.” (39) Climate, as well, proved to be a life threatening factor. “On December 24, the temperature fell to -50° F.” (50) In these conditions, frostbite was inevitable.
   The problem with these were that they were not even the dangers of real fighting. They were simply environmental factors that contributed to the loss of life. Philipp’s recount of an assault later in the offensive against the Soviet Union shows how dangerous the battles were:
Mortar shells fell all around us…. The Russians’ aim was     accurate: a whole  group of my men was cut down, or rather pulverized, as soon as they took up  positions on the summit…. I was wounded, but still remained on the battlefield for  some time…. Our losses were too great, and the attacks were unrelenting. Several  of the battalion’s units had suffered 95 percent casualties, killed or wounded. At  nightfall, the few dozen remaining able-bodied men were preparing to abandon the  hill when Russian patrols attacked the lines, broke through the defenses, and began  to surround our troops. (135)
Including the one from this attack Philipp sustained four other injuries during the period of the war, the most life threatening of which was on December 10, 1941. That day, Philipp got shot in the abdomen, in the leg, and on the journey to a hospital shrapnel from aerial attacks got lodged into his right knee and left tibia. The abdomen wound was so dangerous, in fact, that “ to have any chance of surviving, [Philipp could not] eat anything for the next several days. Absolutely nothing!” (55)
   These dangers were happening at war, yet Philipp encountered many political risks as well. His participation in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler was a constant threat towards him, for treason was publishable only by death. All the conspirators either chose suicide or were tortured and hung by the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany. Even worse, when Philipp’s brother, Georg, died in combat, “[Philipp] was the only one still carrying the secret, without anyone to confide in.” (175) This left and enormous weight on him and him alone.
   Despite the dangers, Philipp demonstrated how important it was to put morality above all early on in the war. The influence of his family and the behaviors taught to him as a child would show through when it came to decisions he needed to make in the war. Georg became a great model from the very beginning in the campaign to take France. Taking another country’s freedom is not just or right, but at least his “military tactics and behavior inclined him to avoid unnecessary fighting and to save lives.” (30). Philipp, in pursuit of morality, tried to do the same. For example, when faced with a colonel who was going to give an attack order even though there was a cease-fire, Philipp took out his pistol and said, “If you give this order I will have to shoot you.” (33) Understanding fully the potential consequences of this action, Philipp still carried it out and prevented a great loss of life, which showed his true character.
   Yet, grander importance of morality and the existence of the resistance lay in the discussion between its members. The reply to Philipp’s question of pursuing the assassination plans sounded as follows: “Gentleman, everyday we are assassinating nearly sixteen thousand additional victims. We have no choice.” (104) The basis was that the war had to end and it seemed the only way to attempt the end was by eliminating the biggest threat to peace, Hitler himself. Later, a similar question appeared again, except this time it was because the military situation suggested the dictatorship would end in a few months. The answer thoroughly explained the significance of the resistance:
The assassination has to take place, whatever the cost. Even if it doesn’t succeed,  we have to try. Now it is no longer the object of the assassination that matters, but  rather to show the whole world, and history, that the German resistance movement  dared to gamble everything, even at the risk of its own life. All the rest, in the end,  is merely secondary. (160)
And thus, the resistance movement embodied the definition of heroism. It did not matter if success would be achieved or not. The members risked their own lives to prove to the world that, indeed, there were people that weren’t afraid to do what was right, even if it meant challenging the authority.
   Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, along with his message, supported three rules: keeping one’s political conscience awake, responding to the call, and knowing how to say no. (186) Through these rules he became a hero. He tried to minimize loss of life and knew how to say no to Nazism. Being a hero also meant being brave. The dangers of war were summed up in the symbolic meaning of the cyanide capsule in the collar of his uniform. As he threw it into the river, it signified the end of the war, “the painful end of [his] youth, of those years of bitterness and dread, of unspoken fears.” (180) As his suffering came to an end, he finally finished setting an example of how to oppose immoral government, and to do what is good for the people. After all, that is what heroes do.