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An Epic of the Gestapo
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 20, 2023
Published in 1940, this is an interesting combination of memoir and mystery based on the author's own on-site investigation into the death of a prominent Czech business man who was attempting to flee Czechoslovakia in April 1939. Written in a first person style that is similar to 'Red Dusk and the Morrow', the book is somewhat slow-paced but holds one's interest throughout. As might be expected in a work by Paul Dukes, the book also includes the author's views on authoritarianism, the National Socialist movement in Germany, the Gestapo and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Fans of Paul Dukes might enjoy this one... even though it's not a page-turner.
July 5, 2022
Extraordinary true account of the author's investigation in 1939 of the disappearance of Alfred Obry (not his real name), a Czechoslovakian businessman attempting to flee Prague after falling out with the occupying Nazis. The extraordinary aspect of the story is the way in which the author both cooperates with and threatens the Gestapo in seeking access to information and evidence about Obry's ultimate fate. This is not the Gestapo of post war films or comedy programmes but the real everyday intelligence service implementing a brutal regime in an occupied country. Gestapo officials are presented as human beings with the normal vanities and also redeeming features and yet the sense of terror and menace is everywhere.
The story itself is interesting and takes us through Prague, Vienna, Berlin and London in the immediate pre war months showing something of public attitudes and fear of the Nazis. We hear about the economic controls and the limits on personal freedom. We hear something of German attitudes to the English.
The bigger story told in the book is about what it's like to live in a totalitarian society with control and surveillance everywhere. That Russian State Communism and Nazism are just two routes to the same totalitarian type of society is a recurring theme, emphasised by the agreement of the German-Russian Pact which takes everyone by surprise and opens the way to Germany's invasion of Poland.
The book is sub-titled "The Story of a Strange Search" and it certainly is! Well worth reading.
The story itself is interesting and takes us through Prague, Vienna, Berlin and London in the immediate pre war months showing something of public attitudes and fear of the Nazis. We hear about the economic controls and the limits on personal freedom. We hear something of German attitudes to the English.
The bigger story told in the book is about what it's like to live in a totalitarian society with control and surveillance everywhere. That Russian State Communism and Nazism are just two routes to the same totalitarian type of society is a recurring theme, emphasised by the agreement of the German-Russian Pact which takes everyone by surprise and opens the way to Germany's invasion of Poland.
The book is sub-titled "The Story of a Strange Search" and it certainly is! Well worth reading.
June 25, 2025
Thank you, Mary, for this:
I doubt there are words to adequately describe this man's integrity. This 'adventure' 'dangerous undertaking' happened years on from his time in Russia during the revolution; a time for which he was knighted (the only man ever knighted for his efforts on behalf of the intelligence services), I must point you to:
Red Dusk and the Morrow (Paul's account of that time). It really is worth reading before you read this; not that this is too easy to get your hands on.
Safely stationed in London, Sir Paul Dukes is approached by the parents of a young man who it seems has disappeared whilst in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. Sit quietly with the thought of that for a brief moment: would you put your life on the line and undertake an incredibly risky foray for people you have never met just so they might get some closure on the fate of their boy?
I don't feel I need to say anymore; I am in awe of this man. I have his framed picture on my bedside table.
I doubt there are words to adequately describe this man's integrity. This 'adventure' 'dangerous undertaking' happened years on from his time in Russia during the revolution; a time for which he was knighted (the only man ever knighted for his efforts on behalf of the intelligence services), I must point you to:
Red Dusk and the Morrow (Paul's account of that time). It really is worth reading before you read this; not that this is too easy to get your hands on.
Safely stationed in London, Sir Paul Dukes is approached by the parents of a young man who it seems has disappeared whilst in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. Sit quietly with the thought of that for a brief moment: would you put your life on the line and undertake an incredibly risky foray for people you have never met just so they might get some closure on the fate of their boy?
I don't feel I need to say anymore; I am in awe of this man. I have his framed picture on my bedside table.
March 31, 2025
If you read of the escapades of Sir Paul Dukes in post-revolutionary Russia, it would be easy to believe that he has embellished his account. I doubt that.
Here, again, he has shown bravery above and beyond, cunning, compassion, clarity and wit to out fox the Nazis.
I imagine that few know of the man. For me is a true hero of Britain.
Here, again, he has shown bravery above and beyond, cunning, compassion, clarity and wit to out fox the Nazis.
I imagine that few know of the man. For me is a true hero of Britain.
October 3, 2024
Again, Sir Paul Dukes steps forward. As we should all expect, not for his own profit but to help out. After all he faced and suffered in Russia - I refer you to Red Dusk and the Morrow (Abbi's review says it all). This book is now whisking its way back to the UK and Mary (my dear GR friend) will hand this to Abbi (another GR friend). Abby is smitten with Sir Paul Dukes (one cannot blame her).
Someone goes missing whilst in Czechoslovakia in the months before WWII and under house arrest by the Gestapo. His parents ask Sir Paul (his abilities in his former work were still on the lips of many within the Foreign Office. Not at all shy of running the gauntlet one more time. Under his own name, unlike the many, the man of one-hundred faces used in Russia, Sir Paul Dukes sets sail. Needless to say, the intrepid agent for the good makes his investigations and finds the truth. The risks to his life don't compare to that he faced in Russia but his account of his investigations still take my breath.
Descriptive, well-balanced and once more a humbling to read. If I could get my hands on a copy, this would be a keeper.
Someone goes missing whilst in Czechoslovakia in the months before WWII and under house arrest by the Gestapo. His parents ask Sir Paul (his abilities in his former work were still on the lips of many within the Foreign Office. Not at all shy of running the gauntlet one more time. Under his own name, unlike the many, the man of one-hundred faces used in Russia, Sir Paul Dukes sets sail. Needless to say, the intrepid agent for the good makes his investigations and finds the truth. The risks to his life don't compare to that he faced in Russia but his account of his investigations still take my breath.
Descriptive, well-balanced and once more a humbling to read. If I could get my hands on a copy, this would be a keeper.
September 12, 2023
One would have thought that having survived St Petersburg (Petrograd) post 'The Revolution', Sir Paul Dukes would be done with adventuring, deceit, double dealing and pitting his wits against a murderous regime, but no, having 'taken instructions' from 'the family', Sir Paul Dukes ventures to Europe in the hope of discovering the fate of a wealthy Czechoslovakian industrialist.
As with his memoir of Petrograd [Red Dusk and the Morrow or The Adventures of ST 25], this is his account of pitting his wits against another totalitarian regime; this time in the form of the Gestapo in order to uncover the truth.
It's every bit as nerve-jangling as his exploits in Russia and a thoroughly good read.
As with his memoir of Petrograd [Red Dusk and the Morrow or The Adventures of ST 25], this is his account of pitting his wits against another totalitarian regime; this time in the form of the Gestapo in order to uncover the truth.
It's every bit as nerve-jangling as his exploits in Russia and a thoroughly good read.
October 26, 2024
You couldn't make this up. He puts his neck on the block, for no other reason than to help out parents (parents he's never met before) who are worried as they've not heard from their son who is somewhere in Nazi occupied Europe.
Comes out of it unscathed. Gets nothing in return. Get this: WANTS NOTHING IN RETURN. Content with the knowledge that he has given closure to the parents.
You couldn't make this up.
Before I read of this adventure, I wanted to be transported back in time to hang off Paul Dukes arm for the rest of my life.
I have to send this book back to its owner. I will hunt down a copy,I don't care how long it takes. I want him under my pillow.
Comes out of it unscathed. Gets nothing in return. Get this: WANTS NOTHING IN RETURN. Content with the knowledge that he has given closure to the parents.
You couldn't make this up.
Before I read of this adventure, I wanted to be transported back in time to hang off Paul Dukes arm for the rest of my life.
I have to send this book back to its owner. I will hunt down a copy,I don't care how long it takes. I want him under my pillow.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews