The Nazis Go Underground

by Curt Riess, Alan Sutton (Introduction), Fonthill Media (Illustrator)

Overview

'Its existence is known only by the effects of its action.' Author Curt Riess on what happens when an organisation goes underground. Written in 1944, thus contemporary to the events of the Second World War and Nazi Germany, The Nazis Go Underground describes how the Nazis planned and organised their descent into the underground as early as 1943. At this stage of the war, the situation for the Third Reich looked grim. With Bormann and Himmler as its architects, the Nazi party would go underground and prepare for World War III from the shattered ruins of Berlin. German generals were anxious to get the war over. They knew the war was futile, would end in total defeat and questioned Hitler's suicidal military tactics. Survival as an institution, as a political force, for them, was essential. The Nazis concocted a system by which they would continue to have close contacts with members of the aboveground legitimate government after the end of the war. They would make sure to have some of their men, dependable ones, remaining in the official apparatus of the government, to be able to coordinate operations and policies. It was therefore believed that Nazi Germany could once more rise from the ashes after defeat in the Second World War. Written and researched by an acclaimed Jewish Berlin journalist who fled Nazi Germany for the US, Curt Riess was in the position with his experience and contacts within the Third Reich to expose their underground movement. Conspiracy theory or historical fact, The Nazis Go Underground questions in incredible detail on how Hitler's operatives organised such a mammoth undertaking and since that day of 16 May 1943 may have already prepared for World War III.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148348870
Publisher:	Fonthill Media LLC
Publication date:	01/07/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Curt Riess, originally Curt Martin Steinam, was born of Jewish-German origin on 21 June 1902 in Wurzburg, Germany, the son of Bernhard Steinam, proprietor of a clothes shop, and his wife Jenny Straus. As a young man, Riess studied in Paris, Munich, and Heidelberg, and spent time working as a merchant in both New York and Berlin. On a business trip to the USA he discovered his talent for journalism and decided to pursue a career in the industry. Riess' first journalistic position was for a liberal 12 o'clock worksheet in Berlin, for which he also edited the sports section. In 1933, Riess was forced into exile and emigrated to Paris via Prague and Vienna. A year later, he became the European correspondent for the French newspaper Paris-Soir, a position that entailed travelling between New York, Paris, London, and Los Angeles, which enabled him to forge close friendships in Britain and the USA. Having officially become a US citizen in 1938, Riess settled in Manhattan in 1941 at the age of thirty-nine. From there he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post, and contributed articles for Collier's Weekly and H. L. Mencken's American Mercury. Throughout the Second World War, he was heavily engaged in anti-Nazi activity, serving as a spy, and then, once the USA had joined the Allies, as a specialist in the United States Navy. At the end of the war in 1945, Riess returned to Germany and began work on his biography of Joseph Goebbels, minister of Nazi propaganda; it would consume him for three years. The discovery, in late 1946, of Goebbels' diaries from 1942-43 was of significant benefit to Riess, whose biography is based chiefly on detailed first-hand information. The diaries were edited by Riess' friend Louis Lochner, who wrote the original preface for this book. Riess' prolificacy has rarely been matched among twentieth century authors. In addition to his biography on Goebbels, he also wrote acclaimed books and articles on various prominent contemporaries, including composers Rolf Liebermann and Wilhelm Furtwangler, comic actor and director Charlie Chaplin, and Austrian actress Romy Schneider. In 1952, he settled down in Switzerland and married the Austrian actress Heather Marie Hathaway. Curt Riess died in 1993, at the age of ninety.