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Nein!

Standing up to Hitler 1935–1944

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Nein!

By: Paddy Ashdown
Narrated by: Paddy Ashdown
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About this listen

From the best-selling and prize-winning author Paddy Ashdown, a revelatory new history of German opposition to Hitler from 1935-1944.

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 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 (forerunner 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.

©2018 Paddy Ashdown (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Europe Military War Espionage Imperialism Interwar Period

Critic Reviews

"Paddy Ashdown has sifted the facts from the myths to write a fascinating and very personal account." (Independent)

"A fine account." (Daily Telegraph)

"No doubt many more books will be written about the war, but I hope this becomes a model for them since, though the heroism of our boys is stirring stuff, history only makes real sense if you can see it from all sides." (Daily Telegraph)

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An extraordinary book

This is an extraordinary historical volume by a brave former soldier and politician. Paddy Ashdown examines the various plots to kill Hitler from 1935 to 1944. He asks two questi0ns. First, could the second world war have been prevented if Chamgberlain had taken a tougher approach in 1938. Second, the the west’s policy of a total surrender of Germany lewad in part to the enslavement of estern Europe for 40 years? I agree with him that both questions deserve a positive answer of “Yes”. Paddy has just passed away. Rest in piece.

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