Defying Hitler: the Germans who resisted Nazi rule

This carefully researched book challenges the myth that the German people were virtually unanimous in support of Hitler. An interlocking network of anti-Hitler groups and individuals spent years trying to undermine the regime, surreptitiously distributing literature and plotting sabotage and even assassination attempts. By doing so, they risked dire consequences: beatings, imprisonment, death. While the identities of some of these resisters are now widely known, especially in Germany, many of various political stripes have remained anonymous. The late Thomas and coauthor Lewis have meticulously gathered information about all those who defied Hitler and memorialize them here. They include siblings Sophie and Robert Scholl; Arvid Harnack and his wife, the American Mildred Fish-Harnack; clergy such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Herbert Baum and his circle of Jews and non-Jews; and military officials such as Hans Oster, Harro Schulze-Boysen, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and Claus von Stauffenberg, who organized the nearly successful attempt on Hitler's life. The most chilling portrait here is that of committed anti-Nazi Kurt Gerstein. His deliberately chosen role as a gestapo officer forces him to take part in mass exterminations, described in horrifying specificity, which he attempts futilely to delay or avoid. Defying Hitler is filled with almost unbearable suspense and drama. It demonstrates the truth of the book's epigraph, from the poet Albrecht Haushofer: There are times when madness reigns, and then it is the best who hang. --Mark Levine Copyright 2010 Booklist

Journalists Thomas and Lewis (Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE) provide an engrossing and accessible history of Germans who risked, and mostly lost, their lives opposing the Nazi regime, effectively countering the idea that "the German people followed Hitler as if one mass." The authors interweave stories of heroic acts of defiance by academics, blue-collar workers, and military service members, beginning their protagonists' stories before WWII, as with Mildred Fish, a Wisconsin teacher who married visiting German student Arvid Harnack; she helped organize an anti-fascist underground in Berlin, while he became a senior official at the German Ministry of Economics who leaked information about the Nazis to the Americans. Readers familiar with movements such as the White Rose and the various conspiracies to assassinate Hitler will appreciate having them placed in a broader context. The authors rely on both primary and secondary sources, although their sourcing, as when they reconstruct the thoughts of White Rose leader Sophie Scholl, is not consistently robust. Despite a paucity of insight into what led a few Germans to oppose the Nazis when the vast majority of their countrymen did not, this volume is an informative counterpoint to accounts of widespread German complicity with the Holocaust. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lewis (Shadow Warriors of World War II) and the late Thomas (Gideon's Spies) have crafted a well-researched volume that drills into the darkness to examine the lives of those within Third Reich who actively defied Hitler's orders from 1933 to 1945, chronicling the major resistance movements such as the White Rose movement and Valkyrie plots as well as lesser-known subversions within the military intelligence circles. The resistance came from all circles of German life and ideological bends and this volume highlights the connections among those resistors, many of whom knew that the end of the Third Reich meant Germany's destruction. VERDICT Highly recommended for those wishing to comprehend life in Nazi Germany and what courage it took not to surrender to authority. This masterful work will best serve general audiences and historians alike. [See Prepub Alert, 10/15/18.]-Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Stirring portraits of a motley assortment of unlikely heroes in the fight against the Nazis.Recently deceased investigative reporter and author Thomas and documentary filmmaker and journalist Lewis (co-authors: Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE, 2017) plunge readers directly into the action, offering an entertaining account of the diverse group of people who managed to subvert the Nazi intentions in some way. The authors move chronologically, from Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship in early 1933 and the first demonstrations of brutal Nazi tactics to the cataclysmic end of the war. The public burning of books alarmed American-born academic Mildred Fish-Harnack, who was married to a senior German economics official, Arvid Harnack. With her friends, they galvanized sympathetic colleagues against the regime, providing secrets to the Americans and to the Soviets in the form of the Rote Kapelle group. The authors note that 45 people connected to that group were "sentenced to death," and Mildred was "the first and only American woman executed on the order of Hitler." Within the official Nazi apparatus, Gen. Hans Oster was working against the grain, with ambivalent Adm. Wilhelm Canaris looking the other way. In a very strange case, Kurt Gerstein reluctantly joined the SS and became one of the first to reveal the horrific inner workings of the concentration camps. Most poignantly, the authors delineate the courageous work of the young Munich students Hans and Sophie Scholl and others, whose White Rose group prevailed at least for a short time. The authors also recount the valiant, failed attempt by the group led by Col. Henning von Tresckow and Col. Claus von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler. All paid dearly for their brave defiance.A deeply researched work that passionately challenges the popular myth that "the German people followed Hitler as if as one mass, mesmerized like the children of Hamelin by the Pied Piper." Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* This carefully researched book challenges the myth that the German people were virtually unanimous in support of Hitler. An interlocking network of anti-Hitler groups and individuals spent years trying to undermine the regime, surreptitiously distributing literature and plotting sabotage and even assassination attempts. By doing so, they risked dire consequences: beatings, imprisonment, death. While the identities of some of these resisters are now widely known, especially in Germany, many—of various political stripes—have remained anonymous. The late Thomas and coauthor Lewis have meticulously gathered information about all those who defied Hitler and memorialize them here. They include siblings Sophie and Robert Scholl; Arvid Harnack and his wife, the American Mildred Fish-Harnack; clergy such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Herbert Baum and his circle of Jews and non-Jews; and military officials such as Hans Oster, Harro Schulze-Boysen, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and Claus von Stauffenberg, who organized the nearly successful attempt on Hitler's life. The most chilling portrait here is that of committed anti-Nazi Kurt Gerstein. His deliberately chosen role as a gestapo officer forces him to take part in mass exterminations, described in horrifying specificity, which he attempts futilely to delay or avoid. Defying Hitler is filled with almost unbearable suspense and drama. It demonstrates the truth of the book's epigraph, from the poet Albrecht Haushofer: "There are times when madness reigns, and then it is the best who hang." Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Lewis (Shadow Warriors of World War II) and the late Thomas (Gideon's Spies) have crafted a well-researched volume that drills into the darkness to examine the lives of those within Third Reich who actively defied Hitler's orders from 1933 to 1945, chronicling the major resistance movements such as the White Rose movement and Valkyrie plots as well as lesser-known subversions within the military intelligence circles. The resistance came from all circles of German life and ideological bends and this volume highlights the connections among those resistors, many of whom knew that the end of the Third Reich meant Germany's destruction. VERDICT Highly recommended for those wishing to comprehend life in Nazi Germany and what courage it took not to surrender to authority. This masterful work will best serve general audiences and historians alike. [See Prepub Alert, 10/15/18.]—Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Journalists Thomas and Lewis (Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE) provide an engrossing and accessible history of Germans who risked, and mostly lost, their lives opposing the Nazi regime, effectively countering the idea that "the German people followed Hitler as if one mass." The authors interweave stories of heroic acts of defiance by academics, blue-collar workers, and military service members, beginning their protagonists' stories before WWII, as with Mildred Fish, a Wisconsin teacher who married visiting German student Arvid Harnack; she helped organize an anti-fascist underground in Berlin, while he became a senior official at the German Ministry of Economics who leaked information about the Nazis to the Americans. Readers familiar with movements such as the White Rose and the various conspiracies to assassinate Hitler will appreciate having them placed in a broader context. The authors rely on both primary and secondary sources, although their sourcing, as when they reconstruct the thoughts of White Rose leader Sophie Scholl, is not consistently robust. Despite a paucity of insight into what led a few Germans to oppose the Nazis when the vast majority of their countrymen did not, this volume is an informative counterpoint to accounts of widespread German complicity with the Holocaust. (Apr.)