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 Interesting story; tantalizing backstory, This review is from: Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery (Kindle Edition) Richard Bassett's "Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Betrayal: The Intelligence Campaign Against Adolf Hitler" is a well-written and tantalizing survey of the life of Wilhelm Canaris, the head of German Military Intelligence (the "Abwehr") from 1935 to 1944. Although Bassett cautions against making Canaris a saint - and that caution is obviously well-taken since Canaris wasn't a saint - Canaris comes out of the pages of Bassett's book as an honorable and admirable figure.Briefly, Canaris started out during the early years of Hitler as a Nazi - at least in the sense of an anti-Bolshevik, German patriot who wanted to see Germany returned to its ante bellum role in the world - but after a surprisingly short period of exposure to Hitler and his coterie, Canaris realized that the Nazis were uncivilized barbarians who would bring ruin to Germany. According too Basset, we can discern from Canaris' activities a two-track policy: the first being to help Germany win the war and the second being to blunt the barbarities of Nazi rule. As to the first, Canaris ran an effective intelligence operation that thoroughly compromised British intelligence. As to the second, Canaris gave orders to the Abwehr that it was not to be involved in atrocities. Bassett details how Canaris was also the background figure in various plots by German generals to arrest or depose Hitler. The earliest of these plots was actually derailed by Chamberlain's surprise trip to Munich, which allowed Hitler to avoid the necessity of conquering Czechoslovakia, the initiation of which was the pre-set signal for the arrest of Hitler. Canaris was also involved in the von Stauffenberg plot, the failure of which led to Canaris cashiering and the roll-up of the Abwehr into the SD. Eventually, it also led to the arrest of Canaris, the discovery of his records, which included records of Nazi atrocities, and his execution days before the German capitulation in May of 1945. Bassett also describes how Canaris opened lines of communications with British intelligence by which he attempted to co-ordinate a coup against Hitler with peace with the West. These lines of communications ran through Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the Vatican. Ultimately, British intelligence was unwilling to believe in the idea of "the Good German" - an attitude fostered in part by Kim Philby working in the counter-intelligence division of British intelligence. Bassett also claims that at some point Canaris became a de facto British agent in working against Hitler, such as by briefing Franco on arguments that he could use to keep Hitler from enlisting Spain in a joint operation to seize Gibraltar and by "sexing up" the intelligence on British military strength in 1940 in order to delay Operation Sea Lion. For its part, it was amusing to note that the British provided Canaris with details of Soviet military strength in order to induce Germany to head East. Canaris' life is obviously fascinating. What is equally fascinating is how Canaris figures in the backstory of so many history books that I've read, although he is never mentioned in those stories. For example, as noted above, Kim Philby's entre into the career that would lead him to becoming the highest placed Soviet mole in British intelligence intertwined with that of Canaris; both were active in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Philby reported on Canaris' actions to his Soviet masters, and Philby made himself invaluable to the Soviets by working to prevent any German-Western rapproachment. Likewise, in The Lost History of 1914: Reconsidering the Year the Great War Began, the chapter on Mexico mentions the escape of the Mexican dictator Huerta on the German cruiser Dresden at least three times. It just happens to be the case that the young intelligence officer on the Dresden was Canaris. Finally, in his execrable book Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, John Cornwell mentions that Pius XII showed great courage in relaying information about possible German military coups against Hitler. It is probably another example of Cornwell's shoddy scholarship and lack of curiosity about anything other than the axe he grinds against Pius XII, but Cornwell doesn't mention that it was Canaris and the Abwehr that was using Pius XII as a "line of communication to British intelligence. Incidentally, Bassett has a simple answer to the deep mystery of Pius' purported "silence"; Pius was preserving his institutional neutrality and authority in order to play the traditional role of mediator in order to bring the war to an earlier conclusion with a concommitant reduction in human suffering and death. | ||||||||||||||||
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