Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death

by Roger Moorhouse

Book Overview

For the first time in one enthralling book, here is the incredible true story of the numerous attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler and change the course of history. Disraeli once declared that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553803697
• ISBN13: 9780553803693
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Gripping Accounts of Attempted Hitler Assassinations and Much More

Although I was aware of some attempts on Hitler's life, I did not know that there were so many and from so many different sources - both within Hitler's entourage as well as far away from it. The author has provided well-researched and reasoned renderings of a subset of these attempts - the most fascinating and surprising ones. But in addition to discussing these various attempts in detail, the author has also presented much valuable information on the background history and evolving politics of Germany from the end of World War I to the end of World War II. The brutality of the Nazi regime is also amply discussed. As expected, particular attention has been paid to the instigation, structure and evolution of Hitler's security organization. The book's writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative and very engaging. It should be most relished by history buffs that have a penchant for the Second World War.

Well Written Story of the Major Plots and Attempts on Hitler

Well written, readable account of the major plots and attempts to kill Hitler over the course of his political ascension to his final self demise. Impressive telling from young Georg Elser's early attempt to kill Hitler in 1939 with an ingenious self made bomb that exploded on time but after Hitler prematurely left the podium to his military enemies the British who initially found the task undesirable. The telling of these grand and individual plots parallels the rise and fall of the Third Reich. The detail is quite refreshing discussing how initially vulnerable to assassination Hitler was partially due to his grandiose perception that he was supernaturally protected from death. Aside from external and internal plots within the military, the author explains in impressive detail how the various heroic undergrounds were successful in killing numerous Nazis while suffering great and shocking reprisals for their success particularly in Poland and Czechoslovakia. An ultimate example is the Czechs pulling off a major assassination with the killing of Heydrich. Impressive is the author's documentation of the various anti-Hitler networks involving such prominent military men such as Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Oster who both suffer once exposed. The highlight of the book of course is the great attempt that almost kills Hitler, the bomb planted by war hero Stauffenberg in the Rastenburg map room. The author also tells why the assassination failed that is an interesting and new revelation. Another interested party is Hitler's favorite architect and armories coordinator, Albert Speer, who the author recognizes as potentially self serving at Nuremberg but the author also recognized Speers' desire not to have Germany destroyed as Hitler wished at the end. The book also includes an excellent collection of photographs of the collaborators and other fascinating photos such as Goring inspecting the destroyed map room to a startling picture of the extraordinary intense gaze of British Colonel Noel Mason-McFarland during a pre-war German military review. Mason-McFarland emphatically stated before the war that a sniper could easily dispatch Hitler and save Europe.

Brilliant and fun

In this innovative book th story of those who failed to kill Hitler are brought to life. Most of us are familiar with the famous 1944 bombing of a staf meeting in which Hitler had been present and only narrowly escaped death. This book however iluminates the shear volume of attempts of Hitler's life. Most fascinating it is revealed the many sources of resistance to Hitler not hitherto well known. For instance there is the Catholic assasin who desires to kill Hitler due to the suppression of the church, quite the opposite of what we have read in other places, and there are the assasins led by the British, Polish and Russians. Of the greatest interest are the assasins who emerged from the regime itself. The book illuminates the role of Albert Speer but more so the gigantic resistance movement within the Abwher and Werhmacht are revealed, perhaps for the first time in one place. Here we see the deeds of the early anti-Nazis such as Canaris and those among the old Prussian aristocracy, a literal catalouge of 'Vons' who turned against Nazism due to the evils of the campaign in Russia. Here, for the first time, we are given insight into the moral character of old conservative Germany and its last gasp to prevent disaster in 1944. In the end thousands paid with their lives for attempting the life of Hitler, but those thousands, the cream of the old German army, dared to try and stop the greatest mass murder in history. Seth J. Frantzman

What Might Have Been

Adolf Hitler was a lucky guy. There were as many as forty-two documented assassination attempts on him (possibly far many more unknown ones), and in the end, he wound up doing the job himself, only under duress. Some of these attempts were poorly thought out while many were intricately plotted. Attempts in both categories were abandoned or executed, with the result turning out to be the same. They are reviewed in _Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death_ (Bantam) by historian Roger Moorhouse. The accounts make for exciting reading, even if it is obvious that each attempt will eventually fail. The chapters are divided into categories by the source of the attempt, such as the German military, German military intelligence, Poland, Russia, and Britain, and in each case, Moorhouse has provided substantial background history so that his book is far more than just a tally of assassination failures but a review of historical forces at play in each one. In November 1939, Georg Elser placed an intricate clockwork bomb in a Munich beer cellar. The bomb went off at the exact right time, and the interior of the hall was completely destroyed as planned. Hitler, however, had unexpectedly cut his harangue short and had left fifteen minutes before. Elser was caught at the Swiss border. Interrogated under pressure, he finally explained what he had done, but no interrogation could make him rat out his accomplices because he had none. The interrogators could not believe this, and the German propaganda machine simply named some, blaming British agents and thus using the assassination attempt to increase popular wrath against the British. The famous attempt by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is examined here, of course, as well as other plans. Assassination was part of Soviet life; Trotsky, for instance, was eliminated in 1940. Stalin approved of plans to put agents into regions where they might get a shot at Hitler, or for bombers to attack towns or headquarters where he might be. Once Stalin saw the war swing in his own favor, as in the German defeat at Stalingrad, he shelved such plans. He thought that an assassination would possibly revitalize the German military or lead to a separate peace with other nations, forcing the USSR to fight alone. Before the war, British espionage officers were shocked at proposals of assassination rather than diplomacy, and the word condemning such assassination plans was "unsportsmanlike". Once the war started, such proposals were taken seriously again, but in Operation Foxley of 1944, a feasibility study of Hitler's assassination, the disadvantages of assassination were emphasized. Chiefly, the staff wrote, "Hitler should remain in control of German strategy, having regard to the blunders that he has made." Poland had astonishing espionage successes and some near-misses in killing Hitler, but many Polish attempts may never be known. After the war, Poland was occupied by the U

A Masterful Approach to a Sensitive Subject

In Killing Hitler, author Roger Moorhouse does more than outline the several assassinations attempted during the dictator's career. He fills each chapter with detailed historical accounts from the period surrounding the attempts, focusing not on names and dates but on the stories of the individuals involved. He studies how each event unfurls, the motivations behind the would-be assassins, and their place amid the greater events of the rise and fall of the Hitler. The wealth of resources, the masterful prose, and a sensitivity not only to the historical context but to the individuals themselves makes this one of the finest accounts I've had the pleasure to read.