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Coffee with Hitler

The British Amateurs Who Tried to Civilize the Nazis

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Coffee with Hitler

By: Charles Spicer
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

The fascinating story of how an eccentric group of intelligence agents used amateur diplomacy to penetrate the Nazi high command in an effort to prevent the start of World War II

How might the British have handled Hitler differently remains one of history’s greatest “what ifs.’’

Coffee with Hitler tells the astounding story of how a handful of amateur British intelligence agents wined, dined, and befriended the leading National Socialists between the wars. With support from royalty, aristocracy, politicians, and businessmen, they hoped to use the recently founded Anglo-German Fellowship as a vehicle to civilize and enlighten the Nazis.

At the heart of the story are a pacifist Welsh historian, a World War I flying ace, and a butterfly-collecting businessman who together offered the British government better intelligence on the horrifying rise of the Nazis than any other agents. Though they were only minor players in the terrible drama of Europe’s descent into its second twentieth-century war, these three protagonists operated within the British establishment. They infiltrated the Nazi high command deeper than any other spies, relaying accurate intelligence to both their government and to its anti-appeasing critics.

Straddling the porous border between hard and soft diplomacy, their activities fueled tensions between the amateur and the professional diplomats in both London and Berlin. Having established a personal rapport with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, they delivered intelligence to him directly, too, paving the way for American military support for Great Britain against the Nazi threat.

The settings for their public efforts ranged from tea parties in Downing Street, banquets at London’s best hotels, and the Coronation of George VI to coffee and cake at Hitler’s Bavarian mountain home, champagne galas at the Berlin Olympics, and afternoon receptions at the Nuremberg rallies. More private encounters between the elites of both powers were nurtured by shooting weekends at English country homes, whisky-drinking sessions at German estates, discreet meetings in London apartments, and whispered exchanges in the corridors of embassies and foreign ministries.

©2022 by Charles Spicer (P)2022 by Blackston Publishing
Germany Great Britain Military War Imperialism Royalty England King Winston Churchill Franklin D Roosevelt Interwar Period

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Interesting and thought-provoking

This is a fascinating and sympathetic look at the efforts of a small group of English men, well-intentioned amateurs, to prevent WWII. Were they noble men or traitors? Blind idealists or dupes? Promoters of peace or (to borrow a term from another conflict) 'useful idiots'? It is interesting to see how this group, genuinely dedicated to peace between England and Germany and working tirelessly to establish and maintain contacts with like-minded people in Germany, became vilified. It is hard to imagine that anyone in the immediate period following the horrors of WWI would have disagreed with them, but over time and especially after Hitler's rise to power when war began to look increasingly likely, anyone advocating peace was labelled 'appeaser' - a word which to this day remains a pejorative. The book is well researched and very readable. Simon Vance is, as always, an excellent narrator with an appealing voice, clear diction, and no mispronunciations.

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