Nein!: Standing up to Hitler 1935–1944
From the bestselling and prize-winning author Paddy Ashdown, a revelatory new history of German opposition to Hitler from 1935 – 1944In his last days, Adolf Hitler raged in his bunker that he had been betrayed by his own people, defeated from the inside. In part, he was right. By 1945, his armies were being crushed on all fronts, his regime collapsing with many fleeing retribution for their crimes. Yet, even before the war started, there were Germans very high in Hitler’s command committed to bringing about his death and defeat.Paddy Ashdown tells, for the first time, the story of those at the very top of Hitler’s Germany who tried first to prevent the Second World War and then to deny Hitler victory. Based on newly released files, the repeated attempts of the plotters to warn the Allies about Hitler’s plans are revealed. Key strands to the book’s narrative lie with the actions of Abwehr head Admiral Wilhelm Canaris to frustrate Hitler’s policies once the war had started; the plots to kill Hitler and, finally the systematic passage of key German military secrets to London, Washington and Moscow through MI6, the OSS (fore-runner to the CIA) and the “Lucy Ring” Russian spy network based in Switzerland. From 1943 onwards, concerted efforts were made to strike a separate peace with the West to shorten the war and prevent eastern Europe falling under the Soviet yoke.What is revealed is that the anti-Hitler bomb plots, which have received so much attention are, in fact only a small part of a much wider story; one in which those at the highest levels of the German state used every means possible – conspiracy, assassination, espionage – to ensure that, for the sake of the long-term reputation of their country and the survival of liberal and democratic values, Hitler could not be allowed to win the war. It is a matter of record that the European Union we have today and the nature and central position of Germany within it, is, in very large measure, the future envisaged by the plotters and for which they gave their lives.
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William Collins
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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018
Copyright © Paddy and Jane Ashdown Partnership 2018
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780008257040
Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008257057
Version: 2018-08-28
To Hans Oster, preux chevalier
Contents
Map: Berlin’s administrative district
5 Germany in the Shadow of War
22 Mistake, Misjudgement, Misfire
27 Disappointment, Disruption, Desperation
Carl Goerdeler. (Papers of Arthur Primrose Young, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick: MSS.242/X/GO/3)
Wilhelm Canaris. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
Ludwig Beck. (Ullstein bild Dtl: Getty Images)
Henning von Tresckow. (Ullstein bild Dtl: Getty Images)
Hans Oster. (AfZ: NL Hans Bernd Gisevius/6.7)
Erwin von Lahousen. (ÖNB)
Hans Bernd Gisevius. (SZ Photo/Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Robert Vansittart. (Scherl/Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo)
Stewart Menzies and his wife Pamela. (Evening Standard/Stringer/Hulton Archive: Getty Images)
Neville Chamberlain on his return from Munich, September 1938. (Keystone/Stringer/Hulton Archive: Getty Images)
Paul Thümmel, Agent A54. (UtCon Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)
Madeleine Bihet-Richou.
Ursula Hamburger (‘Sonja’).
Ursula with her children, Nina, Micha and Peter Beurton. (Courtesy of Michael Hamburger and Peter Beurton)
Leon ‘Len’ Beurton. (Courtesy of Peter Beurton)
Halina Szymańska. (Courtesy of Marysia Akehurst)
Alexander Foote. (CRIA/Jay Robert Nash Collection)
Rachel Duebendorfer. (The National Archives, ref. KV2/1619)
Allen Dulles. (NARA 306-PS-59-17740)
Rudolf Roessler. (CRIA/Jay Robert Nash Collection)
Sándor Radó with his Geopress staff.
Sándor and Helene Radó with their two sons, June 1941. (Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde)
‘De Favoriet’, the Jelineks’ shop in The Hague, c. 1939.
Bernhard Mayr von Baldegg, Alfred Rosenberg and Max Waibel.
The Wolfsschanze map room after Stauffenberg’s failed assassination attempt, 20 July 1944. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group: Getty Images)
Stauffenberg, Puttkamer, Bodenschatz, Hitler, Keitel, 15 July 1944. (Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)
Goerdeler on trial. (Keystone/Hulton Archive: Getty Images)
The Tirpitzufer, c.1939.
‘La Taupinière’, c. 1937.
Alexander Foote’s flat in Lausanne.
Halina Szymańska’s fake French passport.
Foote’s radio.
Station Maude, Olga and Edmond Hamel’s radio.
Halina Szymańska’s false passport. (Courtesy of Marysia Akehurst)
The Radó family’s apartment building at 113, rue de Lausanne in Geneva. (Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde)
The Hamels’ radio shop in the Geneva suburb of Carouge, c.1939. (Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde)
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
From W.H. Auden, ‘September 1, 1939’
‘The only salvation for the honest man is the conviction that the wicked are prepared for any evil … It is worse than blindness to trust a man who has hell in his heart and chaos in his head. If nothing awaits you but disaster and suffering, at least make the choice that is noble and honourable and that will provide some consolation and comfort if things turn out poorly.’
Baron vom Stein, urging Friedrich Wilhelm III to oppose Napoleon in 1808
This book is about those at the very top of Hitler’s Germany who tried to prevent the Second World War, made repeated attempts to kill him, did all they could to ensure his defeat, worked for an early peace with the Western Allies, and ultimately died terribly for their cause.
