Offiziere gegen Hitler (Deutscher Widerstand 1933-1945)

by Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Walter Bußmann (Contributor)

German

Genres: History

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

Reviews

[Anna-Lena]

Das war richtig cool, weil der Autor ein Zeitzeuge war

[ariane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This oft-cited yet difficult-to-find memoir is required reading for anyone interested in the German Resistance. It may be a shorty (only 150 pages), but Schlabrendorff's stories of his compatriots in the movement are invaluable portraits of these men as individuals. Most of the books on the Resistance in English that I have read are primarily concerned with untangling the messes that were assassination plots and July 20th. From this book I got an idea of who men like Tresckow and Bonhoeffer were as people. Even Fromm, if you can be bothered to care. Also interesting, it provides a fox's-eye view of what went down, before decades of scholarship, basement digging, and personal testaments made sense of it all (see Hoffmann on the the signals crap). That said, it's fairly dispassionate compared to Valkyrie or Hostage of the Third Reich. But there's still valuable insight in here, and its worth it to track down a copy. Let's hear it for that ceiling beam, yeah?

[Where Is My review · Rating 1 out of 5]

What drove the conspirators against Hitler?

It seems like a fairy tale that any offensive could have succeeded given this level of betrayal. After all: so many undertakings, so much betrayal, be it in Poland, France,...
What tremendous power must have been within this Germany that it even managed to transcend its borders...
Dr. Peter Kleist on February 14, 1959 in the weekly magazine: Das Neue Reich.

Preventing Hitler's success under all circumstances and by all means, even at the cost of a severe defeat for the Third Reich, was our most urgent task.
Fabian von Schlabrendorff: Officers Against Hitler. Europa-Verlag, Zurich, 1946 edition, p. 38.

Sefton Delmer, an employee of a secret British propaganda department, wrote in his postwar biography:

I did my best to promote, in this way, the oldest goal of our psychological warfare: to set Germans against Germans.
Sefton Delmer: The Germans and I, 1962, p. 617.

Despicable traitors

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracked down a 1947 copy of this through some university library; the title of that book was "They Almost Killed Hitler: Based on the Personal Account of Fabian von Schlabrendorff," but it's the same thing. Fabian von S. was partially involved in various plans to kill Hitler -- including but not limited to the 7/20/44 plot/attempt. Very straightforward and brief (150 pages). Maybe worth 3.5 stars.