Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This is a great book, and once again I must disagree respectfully with the average reviewer in the case of one of Louis Kilzer's books! Incidentally, I don't know Mr. Kilzer personally, but I do know of his journalistic accomplishments and salute him for this and for writing yet another very remarkable book!Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany

I believe some reviewers did not pay careful attention to his evidence and the suspenseful details in the narrative. I believe that in the zeitgeist of our times, Mr. Kilzer simply did not demonize Adolf Hitler enough, as is expected of all writers discussing any details in the life of the German Chancellor. We can objectively discuss Stalin's industrialization record, Five-Year Plans, and military record, but not so Hitler's. It is not politically correct!

And for the record, let me categorically state that Hitler was a monster, yes a monster, but no worse than Joseph Stalin, who, at least quantitatively in the number of atrocities and murders of innocent victims, vastly outmatched Hitler, in both war or peacetime perversity.

That said, Mr. Klizer does provide evidence, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Martin Bormann was indeed the spy-traitor, "Werther," spying from deep inside the Third Reich. He was the only person that was able to attend all the meetings in question, or if not, to have his informants and official stenographers record in minute details the German High Command's top secret transactions and military plans. Thus he was capable of relaying information to the Russians, even before the German generals were able to review and put them into action! Not even Ultra, the secret decoding of the German Enigma code, Winston Churchill's secret weapon at Bletchley Park, was able to provide this information and feedback!

Werther was not only able to have secret German military plans radioed to Moscow Center via the Lucy spy ring in Switzerland immediately after Wehrmacht conferences were over, but also let Stalin know who attended the conference and what each of the conferees stated. Werther was even capable of answering specific questions posed by Moscow center (i.e., "Gisela," the young, attractive, secretive, Jewish, Russian Spymaster, Maria Poliakova). Kilzer shows that only one man was in the key (and only position), where he was able to do so, and that man could have only been Martin Bormann, the Fuhrer's trusted secretary!

Hitler was ruthless, but despite what we may have been led to believe, unlike Stalin, he was not a paranoid individual, and he allowed treasonous activity to thrive within the military (e.g., Generals Ludwig Beck and Georg Thomas), the police (e.g., Heinrich Muller, left-wing, head of the Gestapo and creator of the funkspiel, radio playback messages to Moscow), and even German military Intelligence (e.g., the official Hans Bernd Gisevius, General Hans Oster, and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr).

It was not until this serious attempt on his life by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg at the Wolf's Lair on July 10, 1944, that Hitler struck back with a vengeance against the conspirators. Only then (and as the Third Reich rapidly crumbled) did he become sadistically vindictive and unforgiving against his opponents within the German military. And yet, he never distrusted Martin Bormann, the "faithful" secretary, "who could get things done." On April 30, 1945, as he prepared for death, Hitler made Bormann the executor of his will and praised him as his "most faithful party comrade."

But Admiral Canaris, himself an honorary member of the Black Orchestra, suspected Bormann, the "Brown Bolshevik." One of Bormann's mistresses was a communist operative in the German resistance, but that was not then known, and he was not suspected. Some of the surviving top Nazis did come to suspect Bormann's betrayal to the Russians--- but only as the piece meal revelations came to light at the Nuremberg war crime trials, as they were being prosecuted. On the stand, when the prosecutor asked if he believed Bormann was dead, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring replied, "... I hope he is frying in hell. But I don't know."

What information did the spy-traitor, Werther, provide to Moscow Center that was so vital to the Soviets? No less than very detailed and specific military intelligence that led to the defeat of the Wehrmacht at the pivotal Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43 and the decisive Battle of Kursk (i.e., the largest tank battle in history) during the spring and early summer of 1943, from which the Third Reich did not recover the initiative in the Eastern front.

The only question remaining for this reviewer is this: Why did Bormann not seek a timely escape route to communist Russia before the final collapse of the Reich? That is the 64 million dollar question. He might have been guarding his identity even from the Soviets. To escape, he attempted, but to surrender, he probably thought, would be futile! He had interpreted and carried out the Fuhrer's order of genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust and the elimination of the Ukrainians during the Wehrmacht drive to the east. And his betrayal was ideological, but we will probably never have all the answers.

Thumbs up! This non-fiction, suspense thriller is recommended for both history buffs and spy aficionados, as a book that merits reading in the realm of Soviet-Nazi World War II espionage, for those with an ear for the deadly symphonies of betrayal played by the Red and Black Orchestras.

Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. is the author of Cuba in Revolution: Escape From a Lost Paradise (2002)

I just finished this book and found it to be missing what should have been its most basic premise: WHY would Bormann turn traitor on Hitler?

Kilzer summed it up in about one page -- ONE PAGE -- at the end of his book. He theorized that since nazism was basically a form of socialism, and communism was basically a form of socialism, then Bormann wouldn't have cared which side won. Well then...why not at least stick with the side you're already on? Where you're virtually the second-to-the-top?!

To make this theory -- and the book -- work, Kilzer needed to do a "biography" of Bormann, providing a psychological profile and background (if his motive was political or personal), maybe tracing a money trail (if his motive was profit), or explaining how he could have planned a better escape (c'mon -- rushing out of the bunker with your hands up? Into the middle of low-ranking Soviet infantry who wouldn't know you were on their side?! If the Third Reich wasn't "onto him," then surely someone as high-ranking as Bormann could have arranged a safer and more clandestine escape than that.)

Instead, Kilzer spent at least half of the book just rehashing the battles of Operation Barbarossa and the Eastern Front. Which, as other reviewers here have already noted, wasn't done entirely accurate anyway (note: maybe this was all just "filler" for the book since he didn't/couldn't research Bormann's profile and motives?). Indeed, this material would have been better left to more credentialed and accurate sources.

I bought this book used for $2. And I STILL feel ripped off !

Interesting book that looks at the Second World War from a different angle. If you read previous reviews from mainly British/American readers it hardly surprises to see them raising a doubtful brow, as it is clearly evident that this book does reduce effective contribution of the Western Powers to the collective Allied war effort and finally their part in achieving victory close to nil. Moreover it exposes the politics of the then crumbling British Empire as vicious and deceptive and the US, then ascending to a major superpower, as ruthless and scheming, something that will hardly ever going to be popular in the English speaking world. Nevertheless it doesn't seem important if the well presented facts of this book are true or fiction. It's major truth is the possibillity of a clouded past that leaves one standing and marvelling anew at the meaning of those famous words quoted by the Roman Livy: "Vae victis" - "woe to the vanquished", and its consequences for the assessment of the German nation after this massive defeat conferred upon it by Stalinist Russia.

I found that the author did little to explain Bormann's motivation for undermining the Third Reich. The explanations of the strategic issues facing Germany will shallow and weak. The section on Russia leans heavily on Manstein's and Von Mellenthin's books so I suggest anyone interested in this topic read it straight for the horses mouth. All in all an unconvincing, unsatisfying book.

This is mostly about the Lucy Ring in Switzerland with some speculation about Martin Bormann. I found it very interesting, as it linked the battles on the eastern front with Lucy reports. Very fascinating. The theory that M.B. was the source agent is difficult to fathom. M.B. would have had to be very perverse, not impossible but I would have expected a master spy to have an escape route ready. Still a fascinating read about some wonderful FEMALE spies.

I think there is one very important reason why some reviwers are trashing this book, apart from its journalistic style and some factual errors. In the last chapter Kilzer makes an allusion (p.265) "Who in the late 1940s ... wanted to say that the man most responsible for the Holocasust after Hitler was an agent of Joseph Stalin" Anyone who was an agent of Stalin took orders from Stalin. If Boormann planned and carried out the H then Stalin was as much in the frame as Hitler for the killings. And Stalin had a much more definite track record for mass murder...

It is a possibility that desrves some consideration, despite the naysayers...

In my opinion none of the other reviewers who unfavorably reviewed the book read it carefully. In any case, they didn't address the problem posed by Mr. Kilzer, namely who had daily and intimate access to the discussions carried on in Hitler's HQ for more than 3 years? Only Bormann with his stenographers qualifies. Are they afraid of the implications of the revelation that Stalin may have a hand in the Holocaust?