On the Road to the Wolf's Lair: German Resistance to Hitler (Belknap Press)

Though written as an historical account, On the Road to the Wolf's Lair reads at times like a spy thriller, complete with intrigue and danger. It is also meticulously researched, offering insight into the rise and fall of the Third Reich from the perspective of German resisters who once supported the movement. What is most interesting about the members of the civil service, military, and the clergy who came to oppose Hitler is that they initially embraced the party warmly, many of them sharing the nationalist fervor and anti-Semitism that characterized the Third Reich. In fact, it was their level of enthusiasm that originally granted them their high status and privilege within the dictatorship.

In this engrossing account, historian Theodore S. Hamerow closely examines why these people chose to reverse their alliance not only in spirit, but to take active steps to overthrow the regime, culminating in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler at his headquarters--the "Wolf's Lair"--in East Prussia in 1944. The book is less a strategic rendering than an analysis of motives, and Hamerow does not paint the resisters as unconditional heroes or moralists. Rather, he reveals all their foibles in an attempt to highlight the depth of their ultimate repulsion to Hitler's monstrous master plan. In telling his story, Hamerow also makes it clear that the resistance was stronger than initially believed by both Germany and the Allies, for it included high-ranking officers as well as bureaucrats at virtually every level of the government. In this way, the author makes a sizable contribution to the history of the Nazi party, adding a valuable volume to the ever-expanding World War II archives.