Customer Reviews

Operation Cicero

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Ludwig Moyzisch tells his true story almost like a novel for reality here surpasses fiction. From October 28, 1943 until April 1944, Nazi Germany did get from the spy "Cicero" an inside view of the series of Allied conferences. These conference were sealing Nazi Germany's fate and the one of its leaders at Moscow (Cordell Hull, Anthony Eden, Molotov), in Cairo (F. D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill, Chiang kai-Shek), and in Tehran (F. D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill, Stalin). They were also sealing the fate of millions of human beings trying to prevent them of sliding in the communist iron fist which had already started enslaving and killing more innocent people than the nazis themselves ever would.

Cicero was personally handled by the author of the book, an attache at the German Embassy in Ankara (Turkey), who was paying the photos rolls (of documents from the British Ambassador's safe) for enormous sums.. in counterfeit Sterling Pounds. Contrary to the author's opinion, Cicero's photostats were taken very seriously in Berlin as, in December 1943, Hitler entered a conference with some of them stating that he knew for sure that the Allies would land in France by the end of the spring. He even knew the codename Overlord. Fortunately he didn't know the details.

Moyzisch is trying to hide that he was not a diplomatic public servant but an employee of Walter Schellenberg the young star of the Amt VI of the nazi RSHA (head office of the Gestapo: its Amt IV) heading German political espionage and personally advising Himmler, the architect of the genocide of Jewish people. The facts however are otherwise delivered in a very lively manner, making a thriller of the book. Actually the story is so fascinating that, in 1952, Mankiewicz shot it in a film called "5 fingers", starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux. It was a huge success and received several awards.

Historians who tend to explain everything by the use of Ultra and Magic (the first deciphering computers) should realize that these fantastic tools, which actually helped win the war, didn't report the Allies anything about this fantastic spy case eventhough, for months, the Nazis exchanged cables after cables on the subject. For precious that these tools demonstrated to be, they didn't win the war: men sacrificing their lives did. Technology was a precious tool, but only a tool.
It should also teach humility to all the historic spy-story writers, who tend to be conceited former officers of Allied secret services: the ennemy was not as stupid as they present it (or the war would not have costed so many lives) and our MI5, MI6 and COI/OSS had its share of naive high-ranking idiots, whose stupidity costed many precious lives as well.

The book is short enough to remain pleasant all along, and is fascinating even for the ones who are not prone to study World War II history. For historians it is just a basic must.

Good, but the semi-ficionalized movie from back in the 50's is better. It fleshes out the story nicely. The book is good reading, but spotty in the description of the actual Cicero character. Cicero's revelations to the Germans could have changed the outcome of WWII, but, without confirmation, the Germans didn't believe what they were seeing. Good thing for us.

Herr Moyzisch,self portrayed gentleman in a scheming world, or
cunning diplomat in a scheming world?
I suspect a bit of both, with a healthy dose of self preservation
to boot.
Written in German,translated into English, the tension expressed
is remarkable on its own.
"Kaltenbrunner gave me a piercing vicious look.Every muscle of his heavily scarred face was tense.
I would not,at that moment,have fancied him as an enemy.
"When did that signal leave Ankara?"
He almost shouted the question." pg 89
Its 1943 ,your a lowly Attache, and your getting quizzed by
a man dressed in black leather,head to jackboot.And its no dream!
Yea,Herr Moyzisch was packing bricks,nooo doubt!
So find out how this man receives potential Axis victory information,how the German Highcommand dont use it,and what those
guys are really like when it all goes to custard.
And the best thing.Its all true!