Nein Standing Up To Hitler 19351944

From bestselling and prizewinning author Paddy Ashdown a revelatory new history of German opposition to Hitler. Ashdown has a great gift for narrative history. He unearths little known stories and places them in context with great dexterity. His new book throws fresh and important light on a crucial topic. JONATHAN DIMBLEBY In 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 Hitlers 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 Hitlers 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 Hitlers plans are revealed. What is revealed is that the antiHitler 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 longterm 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.