Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany

by Louis C. Kilzer

Argues that Churchill tricked Hitler into invading Russia by setting up a phony peace between Germany and Britain

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II, Germany, British Literature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1994

Reviews

[William Shep · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is yet another revisionist 'history' examining Winston Churchill's crucial role in the Second World War. Kilzer's conclusions are thought provoking but also controversial. He presents a host of 'revelations' at a frenetic pace, with an overstated, if not flawed premise that needs to rehabilitate Hitler's "distorted" reputation while Churchill has become "a god." (p. 78) Thus, he argues that both Hitler and Deputy Leader Rudolf Hess were profound Anglophiles who wanted to share power with the British Empire while destroying the hated Communist Soviet Union. Unfortunately, according to Kilzer, Churchill's egotism, militarism, and hatred of Germany caused him to play a dangerous political game that nullified the British peace party, lured Hess into captivity, induced Hitler to a fatal Russian venture, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to decisive military intervention; all of which resulted in mass genocide in Europe and the eventual collapse of the British Empire! Such premeditated planing, and the power to put it into effect, is difficult to imagine from the embattled head of a tottering empire. Also, the author's reliance on works by questionable anti-Churchill 'historians' such as David Irving or the diaries of noted Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels and Walter Schnellenberg is not credible. The errors regarding military history and strategy do not inspire confidence, especially references such as the British assault at Verdun in 1916 (p. 139), which is obviously meant to be the Somme; blaming Churchill solely for the Dardanelles Disaster in 1915, a very old red herring; or that the Royal Navy, still the world's foremost naval power, was powerless to resist a German invasion in 1940. The great strategic import assigned to the Iraqi Revolt of 1941, in actuality little more than a sideshow, is quite amusing. Overall, this book is not the worst example of the revisionist excesses regarding the Second World War, Churchill's reputation, or the Holocaust, that now abound, nor is it as vitriolic as Irving and some others, but it has some real problems with credibility.

[Mike McClanahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A riveting look inside the politics that drove some of the major events of WWII and a look at the two dominant personalities of the war in Europe. The Hess mission has been studied extensively, but the reasons behind it are open to discussion, and they are analyzed with an informed, contemporary eye in this book. Far from being an apologist for Hitler, Kilzer suggests the reasons he wanted to avoid a two-front war and the motives Churchill had for denying those wishes. It portrays both men as clever strategists whose goals were not always those commonly presumed in history. The Hess mission is central to understanding them, and Kilzer's speculation about its outcome, backed up by information previously inaccessible, raises some fascinating questions about what was previously assumed.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes -- I know from the title that it sounds like this book will be duller than dishwater. It's actually quite entertaining. You do need to know a little about the main events of WWII in order to get it.

Unfortunately, I do not know how historically accurate this book is. Kilzer does mention his sources -- and even when he disagrees with the sources. But accurate or not, it's a good look at WWII with a different angle.

[Christopher White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the description explains how Churchill lured Hitler into invading the Soviet Union to distract him from the West, as I read it I got the impression that Churchill was manipulating Roosevelt into joining the war on Britain's behalf, by exaggerating Britain's vulnerability...a high-stakes gamble that failed, because the US only joined the war as a result of Pearl Harbor. Other reviewers have criticized this work as revisionist history...I tend to agree.

[Ionut Dobrinescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The other exceptional Simon and Schuster book by Louis Kilzer, unsurprisingly out of print. Picked this up from this online reference https://www.henrymakow.com/000369.html