American Intelligence And The German Resistance To Hitler: A Documentary History (Widerstand, Dissent and Resistance in the Third Reich) [Hardcover]

Jurgen Heideking (Author), Christoph Mauch (Author), EDITOR * (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813326877 | ISBN-13: 978-0813326870 | Publication Date: February 8, 1996 | Edition: Hardcover

Even paranoids have enemies. Hitler’s most powerful foes were the Allied powers, but he also feared internal conspiracies bent on overthrowing his malevolent regime. In fact, there was a small but significant internal resistance to the Nazi regime, and it did receive help from the outside world. Through recently declassified intelligence documents, this book reveals for the first time the complete story of America’s wartime knowledge about, encouragement of, and secret collaboration with the German resistance to Hitler—including the famous July 20th plot to assassinate the Fuehrer.The U.S. government’s secret contacts with the anti-Nazi resistance were conducted by the OSS, the World War II predecessor to the CIA. Highly sensitive intelligence reports recently released by the CIA make it evident that the U.S. government had vast knowledge of what was going on inside the Third Reich. For example, a capitulation offer to the western Allies under consideration by Count von Moltke in 1943 was thoroughly discussed within the U.S. government. And Allen Dulles, who was later to become head of the CIA, was well informed about the legendary plot of July 20th. In fact, these secret reports from inside Germany provide a well-rounded picture of German society, revealing the pro- or anti-Nazi attitudes of different social groups (workers, churches, the military, etc.). The newly released documents also show that scholars in the OSS, many of them recruited from ivy-league universities, looked for anti-Nazi movements and leaders to help create a democratic Germany after the war.Such intelligence gathering was a major task of the OSS. However, OSS director “Wild Bill” Donovan and others favored subversive operations, spreading disinformation, and issuing propaganda. Unorthodox and often dangerous schemes were developed, including bogus “resistance newspapers,” anti-Nazi letters and postcards distributed through the German postal service, sabotage, and fake radio broadcasts from “German generals” calling for uprisings against the regime.This is much more than a documentary collection. Explanatory footnotes supply a wealth of background information for the reader, and a comprehensive introduction puts the documents into their wider historical perspective. Arranged in chronological order, these intelligence reports provide a fascinating new perspective on the story of the German resistance to Hitler and reveal an intriguing and previously unexplored aspect of America’s war with Hitler.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This compendium of recently declassified documents, assembled by two German historians, conveys the extent of the U.S. government's knowledge of German opposition to the Nazi regime, its reaction to peace feelers from resistance circles, and psychological tactics devised by the Office of Strategic Services to undermine German morale. The papers, several of which confirm OSS foreknowledge of the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Hitler, include the initial report on the attempt by future CIA chief Allen Dulles to OSS director William J. Donovan, and OSS adviser William Langer's memo outlining his belief that the event was faked ("...the attempt on Hitler's life was staged by himself"). Other documents are OSS guidelines for recruiting German agents; studies of pro- and anti-Nazi attitudes of German workers, soldiers, churchmen, women and students; and a report by Dulles on a consultation with psychologist C.G. Jung on the state of Hitler's mind. Organized chronologically, this valuable collection of primary source material will be of interest to scholars for its revelation of internal resistance in Germany as seen through American eyes.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

With the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Roosevelt Institute, German historians Heideking and Mauch have plunged into the OSS records the Central Intelligence Agency recently transferred to the National Archives, screening more than a thousand documents to arrive at more than 100 chronologically arranged memorandums, reports, telegrams, and letters that together represent the U.S. intelligence community's analysis of the German resistance from 1942 through the early months of the postwar occupation. The editors sought documents that reveal what the OSS knew about German resistance to Nazism, how the U.S. government viewed this movement and its potential, and how the OSS dealt with it--both positively and negatively. In addition to data on the attitudes toward Nazism of various groups within Germany (as refracted through the OSS prism), these 50-year-old materials demonstrate that competition between intelligence-gathering and covert action--here including bogus "resistance newspapers" and a radio broadcast featuring a dead general--is an enduring theme in the U.S. intelligence establishment. A fascinating collection, appropriate for larger libraries. Mary Carroll

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; Hardcover edition (February 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813326877
• ISBN-13: 978-0813326870
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,132,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)