Imagine that, when Hitler moved to occupy and remilitarize
the Rhineland in 1936, Britain and France had known that a secret order had
been issued that the Wehrmacht was to immediately and peacefully withdraw to
the frontier of the demilitarized zone, should there be any opposition from
these two “Western” powers. This order was at the insistence of the Wehrmacht
high command, who were opposed to this act of military aggression, because the
rearmament of Germany had only just begun, and the German military would have
easily been routed by quite a small force sent against it by either Britain or
France.
The premise
of this novel is that what, in fact, happened was that the knowledge of this
secret order was leaked to the British Government, who shared it with the
leadership of France, so that, knowing that Hitler was bluffing, they stood up
to his action, and forced the retreat of the German army. The consequence of
this was that the Nazi regime fell, and the Third Reich ended then.
This novel
tells the story of how this came about. It details the life of a major actor in
the betrayal of the order to the Western powers. This was a German Leutnant,
Karl von Haydenreich, who was in the Abwehr, the German Army’s Intelligence
Service, who gave the coded messages to Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, serving as
a military attaché to the US Embassy in Berlin (and was Karl’s “god-father”)
who then passed them on to an intelligence officer at the British Embassy. Von
Haydenreich was receiving the information he passed on from General Kurt von
Hammerstein Equord, Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht (formerly the
Reichswehr).
The book is
very interestingly plotted and the narration proceeds by means of a series of
extracts from various sources: Autobiographies, and books, written by leading
military men, a journal kept by Karl von Heydenreich, a book by Eisenhower, and
various histories and accounts written by historians and others, as well as
letter-extracts, and file notes. The extracts purportedly from historical characters
are all fictional pieces.
The period covered is from before
the birth of Karl, his upbringing and education in both Germany and, for a
period, in a private school in England, his desire to study music and become a
composer, and his eventual entry into the Reichswehr as an officer, and
commission in the Abwehr. Through these devices, the reader learns about the
motivations behind Karl von Heydenreich’s actions, and the influences upon him
that led him to do what he did.
The book
also outlines the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and gives a sense of what
it was like to live in Nazi Germany. It also details such things as the casual
racism, and anti-Semitic attitudes that existed in Germany even prior to the
rise of Hitler. It profiles both Karl’s father, and his step-mother who had a
major influence on him during his childhood and upbringing.
In a note
at the end of the book, Wurtenbaugh (the pen-name of Frank Dudley Berry) states
that “the antics of Adolf Hitler described in the story, no matter how
apparently excessive or bizarre, are all drawn from actual behaviors that he
exhibited at various moments during his career.” (482). Whether the extreme and
childish behaviour that is described at the climax of the story actually
happened (in real life) is difficult to imagine. Hitler was certainly given to
ranting and raving, and could work himself up into a frenzy. But he was also an
actor, who could put on a show for effect: whether he would do something likely
to demean himself in the eyes of others is questionable, although he did feel
himself to be a “man of destiny” and considered himself so much in command of
situations and other people that he probably felt immune from criticism or
scorn.
This book
is also interesting from the point-of-view of the way in which it provides an
insight into this period of history from various standpoints, and perspectives.
It shows not only opposition to Nazi Germany but also support for it. It
details the perils and difficulties of taking political decisions that are not
popular because the reasons for them are not understood or known by the general
populace.
This is a
work of historical fiction, and as the author says, also of “alternative
historical fiction”. Where there are actual, historical figures appearing,
their careers have been “significantly re-imagined” (ix). It is a book that
captures something of the essence of what it must have been like to have lived
through the early years of Nazi Germany (and, in some senses, what it was like
throughout the period of the Third Reich).
(Novel self-published by Frank Dudley Berry, Jr. in 2017)
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