Hitler's Traitor : Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich [Hardcover]

Louis Kilzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2000

From deep inside Moscow's infamous Center, the Soviet Union directed an espionage network of unprecedented size and sophistication.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Red Orchestra" (Rote Kapelle) is the label given to spy networks operated in Germany and Europe by the Red Army during WWII. Many of these operations were very successful, particularly the "Lucy" net, which targeted the highest German command circles. Kilzer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, revisits this arena with an entertaining synthesis of evidence about the activities of these spies, extensive accounts of relevant military history, and informed speculations about causes and effects, motives and behaviors. He offers some startling conclusions, based on declassified U.S. archival material and published disclosures and analyses accumulated over 50 years. While Kilzer shows that most of Hitler's senior compatriots were traitors in some sense, still subservient to Hitler but devoted to their own views of German interests, Kilzer reasons that two of the highest placed officials must have also functioned as Red Army agents: Martin Bormann, secretary and second in command to Hitler and head of the Nazi chancellery, and Heinrich M?ller, commandant of the Gestapo. The book's title encapsulates Kilzer's claim that Bormann was the chief informant whose existence has been posited for some time, but whose identity has been a mystery. The text is fluent, comprehensive and annotated, but not without a few disappointments: occasional lapses into hyperbole, and inattention to sorting the hypothetical from the demonstrable when sourcing conclusions. The narrative is multidimensional, however, showing the under-appreciated significance of Rote Kapelle and winningly conveying the author's fascination with a challenging historical puzzle. Illus. not seen by PW. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891417109
• ISBN-13: 978-0891417101
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,255,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Stalin's Nazi Martyr, October 17, 2000

By 

John Barry Kenyon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitler's Traitor : Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich (Hardcover)

It's an interesting, even gripping, read but the real point is whether it is true. The notion that Martin Bormann was a Russian spy, codenamed Werther, has been around a long time, but this book has to be considered the definitive case for the prosecution. At best, the evidence is hazy. The author stresses that Bormann had unrestricted access to the minutes of Hitler's military meetings once his (Bormann's) stenographers started to take the minutes in 1942. There is speculation on Bormann's address book which, it is claimed, has one curious entry perhaps relating to Red Army spy 'Lucy'. Much of the book is devoted to German reverses on the eastern front, so maybe battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk were influenced by the fact that the Russians knew what the Germans were going to do next. On the other hand, there are some factual errors in the book, on Zhukov for example, and Bormann's actual role and importance in the nazi hierarchy are surprisingly patchy. If Bormann's remains had never been found in Berlin, it might be easier to argue Kilzer's thesis which would work better if the henchman had actually escaped or disappeared without trace. As it is, one is reluctantly drawn to the conclusion the case is not proven. Neither for that matter was he whisked out of Berlin in 1945 by British secret agents to spend his retirement in South Coast tearooms, nor endure his post war years in South America before succombing to liver cancer as argued in other accounts. We need to remember that Bormann was a drunkard by the mid war years. To place him at the center of a complex communist conspiracy, for whatever reason, is a tremendous claim. In fact, the pill is just too big to swallow.

31 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Historical Sensationalism, July 12, 2000

By 

paul blanchard - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitler's Traitor : Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich (Hardcover)

The premise of Martin Bormann as a 'Soviet Deep Plant Spy' within the Nazi government belongs with the 'Flat Earth Society', 'Earth as Center of Universe', and 'Crop Circles as Alien Evidence' mode of conspiracy 'thinkers?' While Mr. Kilzer presents a credible set of credentials as a writer, it doesn't cover his assertions of an 'Inner Circle of Hitler' spy ring fiction. His main support that Hitler's own 'Party Secretary' was a devastating Soviet spy 'Werther' is drawn mainly from an utterance decades ago by an ex-Nazi intelligence, (then working for NATO, Intelligence Officer) Reinhard Gehlen. Who believed, without giving any supporting evidence that the 'hated Bormann' had to be the spy of the millennium. Mr. Kilzer seems to ignore the voluminous post-war testimony's and interviews with the actual surviving members of the "Rote Kapelle" spy ring who never mention Bormann, but talk about other anti-Nazi spies within OKW who supplied the military secrets under the 'code name Werther' for Army intelligence and 'code name Olga' for Luftwaffe intelligence.

As I have previously have reviewed Kilzer's lack of historical accuracy involving "Hitler's Traitor" in regards to "Eastern Front military history" he (Kilzer) makes wild assumptions and outright 'personal speculations' involving the spy ring within Hitler's Germany. Least of all, given the hatred of Bormann within the 'Nazi ruling circle' and his "distasteful personality" why would he stay around to the end in Berlin? Certainly Bormann had the means and opportunity to escape to the Allies and save his own skin, with the certain defeat of Germany apparent to all within the "inner circle" by January 45'. Why would he die for a régime and a cause he contributed so much to, for its destruction?

For the readers who wish to read an accurate accounting of this vast spy and espionage organization try "The Red Orchestra" by V.E. Tarrant. While "Hitler's Traitor" is an interesting and readable 'fictional' account of a story, as a non-fictional document it is utterly worthless.

17 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It wasn't Martin>, June 18, 2001

By 

Gregory Short (Ehrenberg, Az USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hitler's Traitor : Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich (Hardcover)

Actually, from my intensive reading about the subject, I believe the spy behind the Nazis down fall was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Head of the Abwehr (Germany's CIA), he not only hated Nazism and Hitler, but he also intentionally recruited people for his organization who felt the same way. In fact, I dont believe the British broke the Germans code (Ultra & Enigma). I believe Wilhelm gave it to them. Furthermore, Bormann was way too personally loyal to Hitler to even dream of [messing with] him. It just didn't fit his psychological makeup.