Ian Sayer Book order

In April 1945, as Germany faced imminent defeat, Hitler devised a plan to gather the Third Reich's most valuable prisoners to his "Alpine Fortress," intending to use them as human shields against the advancing Allies. This group included European leaders, military generals, British secret agents, anti-Nazi clerics, and those connected to the failed July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler, along with their families. The SS received orders that if the military situation worsened, all 139 prisoners were to be executed. This set off a tense and deadly drama, with some prisoners plotting escape while others resigned themselves to their fate. The SS guards, increasingly volatile and intoxicated, posed a significant threat as defeat loomed. A dramatic standoff between the SS and the Wehrmacht put the hostages in peril, while the US Army initiated a desperate rescue mission to save them before tragedy struck. Drawing from previously unpublished sources, this account reveals the harrowing ordeal of the prisoners, from their initial capture to their eventual rescue, presenting one of World War II's most gripping and overlooked episodes in a thrilling narrative.

A fascinating reassessment of the life of the twentieth century's most notorious person examines Hitler through the eyes of the women in his life, revealing a complex portrait of a man of power tormented by inadequacies and brutality. Original.

This account, first published in 1984 and updated for this edition, details the fate of the 'Nazi gold' and other valuables that vanished during the final days of the Third Reich. The dispersal began with a raid on Berlin on February 3, 1945, when nearly a thousand bombers struck, causing significant damage to the Reichsbank. Following this, around 100 tons of gold reserves were moved to a deep mine in Merkers, 200 miles southwest of Berlin. On April 4, Patton's Third Army captured this site, seizing gold and currency valued at approximately $315 million in 1945, along with 400 tons of paintings and the ancient Egyptian statuette of Queen Nefertiti. The authors estimate that around $433 million, equivalent to nearly $4 billion today, remains missing or stolen. This total includes $3.6 billion in gold currency bonds seized by Red Army Intelligence and seven tons of gold from the German Foreign Office found in the Bank of England. The narrative introduces a colorful cast of characters involved in the gold's fate but often gets sidetracked by tracing individual bars or discussing the lifestyle of occupation troops in Germany. While vivid investigative reporting is present, it occasionally gets lost amid less relevant details. (16 pages b&w photos); 384 pg.

A study of the evidence against Wilhelm Mohnke, one of Hitler's closest SS generals, and a man suspected of ordering the massacres of three large groups of unarmed men, at Dunkirk, during the Allied invasion of Normandy, and in the Battle of the Bulge.