Heinz HöhneCritiques

Riveting subject matter (5-star) but the book is either very poorly written (2-star) in a disjointed journalistic style or poorly translated or both.

See what happens when an entire civilized country goes berserk and the wildest conspiracy theory you could ever come up with turns out to be true.

What could be more interesting than Nazi death squads, storm troopers, death camps, medical experiments, entire Death's Head army divisions not even under the control of the military? How could they avoid creeping themselves out?

So next time you say it can't happen here, host a tea party.

Soviet spy ring in Germany in WWII

I know there are many who feel uncomfortable when they see this black tunic; we understand that and do not expect to be beloved by many people' HEINRICH HIMMLER
The true story of Hitler's SS is strange and, at times, absurd. It is the story of an organization that was not directed by some devilishly efficient system but was the product of accident, inevitability and the grouping together of criminals, social climbers and romantics. The SS was the terror of Europe. Swearing eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler, it infiltrated every aspect of German life and murdered millions. In charge of the police and the secret service, the SS also occupied key positions in agriculture and the health service while maintaining a powerful influence over racial policy and scientific affairs. The sentries at the Reich Chancellery and the guards in the death camps were hand-picked from their deadly ranks. The Order of the Death,s Head cuts through the myth of the efficient German machine and exposes the rivalries, infighting and bizarre customs of the most macabre élite in recent history.
Above all this book describes, in fascinating detail, the chaotic politica! conditions following the First World War which allowed the SS to assume and exercise unaccountable power from 1930 to its demise fifteen years later in the rubble of the Third Reich.

Workman like but not especially interesting.

A detailed, well-written biography of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was killed on Hitler's orders due to his implication in plots to bring down the Nazi government. Unfortunately, the book is marred by the author's conventional leftist bent. Höhne not only fails to credit Canaris as a man of conscience--his antipathy drives the author to underrate Canaris' effectiveness as intelligence chief. Canaris comes off as a slack-witted fool, and clearly no "master spy". One must ask how a fool could have survived so long in the Nazi hierarchy--without ever cozying up to Hitler.

Briefly put, Höhne cannot understand that a man can be both an arch-conservative and anti-Nazi. This is a common failing of the intellectual elite of today: they must believe that a man of the right is necessarily an enemy. Yet, as historian John Lukacs has noted, the strongest opposition Hitler faced came not from the left, but the right. Consider Churchill: hardly a liberal, he was the Nazis' most implacable enemy. Just so with Canaris: the German spy chief might best be described as "arch-conservative", even "imperialist" (in the sense of desiring a return to the old Imperial government), but he nurtured the core of military resistance against Hitler; a resistance that twice would try to kill Hitler during the war, and that would have killed him before the war started--had they not been paralyzed by Chamberlain's astounding trip to Munich.

Still, this book shows abundant scholarship, and should be read (critically) on that account.

historically interesting, written very long-winded, took me forever to read. maybe it would have been easier in german.½

An huge and exhaustive look at the bizarre organisation that was at the heart of the Nazi regime. This book exposes almost every detail, including the political infighting, weird rituals and strange personalities that went into the development of this organisation. Not nearly as organised as generally fabled to be, the SS at times survied despite itself.

Not really aimed at a general reader, this book is more a specialist publication, however it would be of use to anyone trying to research the Nazis or specifically the SS.