Hitler’s Traitors - German Resistance to the Nazis

Hitler’s Traitors - German Resistance to the Nazis  written by Susan Ottaway

published by Pen & Sword Books - £19.95 - Hardback - Pages 224

This is the story of the groups and individuals that opposed Hitler and his government

and tells of their heroic, but largely ineffective, efforts to rid themselves of the most evil

regime in modern times. They came from many different backgrounds - Protestant

pastors, catholic bishops, politicians, military men, students and even a member of the

Waffen SS. Sadly, by the time the Nazi regime came to an end most of those Germans

who had resisted it were dead, arrested, imprisoned, tried and executed in the most

barbaric manner.

This book takes a look at individuals and groups that were opposed to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. While I found this book an interesting read, the book starts out with the rise of Hitler and the emergence of the NSDAP party in post-war WWI Germany. Then the last two-thirds of the book was dedicated to the resistance against Hitler, which was good and interesting to read, but it wasn’t really anything new or anything we hadn’t already heard before. The book felt like a book of its time of publishing both in style and reading. The book was published in 2003, and while the info is good, it feels of the year 2003. I must say though that the b/w photos in the middle of the book were of interest, and a number I hadn’t really seen before. A good book if you're interested in getting into the subject.

Screams of the Drowning - From the Eastern Front to the SInking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Screams of the Drowning - From the Eastern Front to the SInking of the Wilhelm

Gustloff written by Klaus Willmann and published by Greenhill Books - £19.99 -

Hardback - Pages 224

This is the true story of how one soldier experienced the horrors and bloodshed of

World War II — and lived to tell the tale.

Hans Fackler, like many boys his age, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht at the age of seventeen and sent to the Eastern Front. A pioneer in the infantry, he barely survived the carnage of the front lines and lost comrades to the Russian forces.

Eventually, Hans suffered a grievous injury from a grenade explosion. No longer able to fight, he found himself drugged on morphine and on board the controversial Wilhelm Gustloff, an armed military transport ship for SS, Gestapo and Wehrmacht personnel, which operated under the guise of transporting civilians.

The Gustloff was attacked and sunk by Russian torpedoes, drowning more than 9,000 passengers. Rescued by a German freighter, Hans recuperated in a military hospital near Erfurt in the Harz, which subsequently fell into the Russian zone. He escaped and undertook the arduous task of walking almost 200 miles back home to Bavaria.

The extraordinary first-person account of one of the few soldier-survivors of the sinking of the Gustloff, it also includes Hans’ experiences of taking part in the Kiev and the Vercors mountains massacres in 1941 and 1944 respectively.

Based upon a true story, this book follows the life of Hans Fackler, the only survivor of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Gustloff had barely survived fighting on the Eastern Front, but having been incapacitated he was put upon the Gustloff, which was then sadly torpedoed with a great loss of life, but Fackler survived. This book is written from written first-hand accounts of Hans Fackler, who eventually managed to find his way through a long walk back to Germany. The book follows the highs and lows of getting back even just finding food was high point. An interesting book and a good read, although and I learnt about the sinking of the Gustloff, which I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for reading this book. (My apologies, I wrote this review a good year ago I think but it never got put online.)