The Secret of Torgau - 1982 - Why the plot to kill Hitler Failed

Jakob Kersten; James McMillan

ISBN 10: 0245538267 / ISBN 13: 9780245538261

Published by Harrap, London England, 1982

About this Item

### The Secret of Torgau: Why the plot to kill Hitler Failed. ### ~#~ THIS BOOK: Classified as AS NEW. The book is as close to new as it can be, it may not have been read or has been read carefully without bending the book back. I wonder what would have changed if the Plot to Kill Hitler succeeded! ## ### The Secret of Torgau: Why the plot to kill Hitler Failed The Secret of Torgau casts new and fascinating light on Nazi Germany during World War ll. Part autobiography, part historical reconstruction, it takes as its focal point the career of Jakob Kersten. As a young man Kersten was recruited before the outbreak of war into a small left-wing anti-Nazi resistance group which contained some high-ranking German officers and a senior secretary in the Gestapo. After the war began, he indulged in various acts of sabotage as a seaman before being arrested for attempting to jump ship. He was incarcerated at the military prison of Torgau, some eighty kilometres south of Beilin on the River Elbe.## Today Torgau is chiefly remembered as the place where the American and the Russian armies first shook hands towards the end of the war, but in 1944 it bore witness to a remarkable sequence of events. For the 1 200 prisoners kept there had been specially recruited for their skills by the German High Command to be rushed to Berlin after the assassination of Hitler to man the key installations.## The coup failed, of course ? but there is compelling evidence here that even before von Stauffenberg's bomb exploded at the Führer's headquarters, the plot had been betrayed. The subsequent vengeance wreaked by the SS upon the inmates ? staff as well as prisoners ? of Torgau is one of the more harrowing parts of the story. This book is remarkable in several ways. First it paints an exciting and graphic picture of day-to-day life in Germany during the war. Secondly, it reveals a mass of new information about the machinations and tensions in the upper echelons of the German Army which led up to the attempt to kill Hitler. Thirdly, it brings to the forefront the activities of an elusive and enigmatic German general ? nicknamed the German 'Lawrence of Arabia' ? Oskar von Niedermayer, who was eventually to meet his death at the hands of the man he served: Josef Stalin. Last ? and by no means least ? it tells the extraordinary story of Jakob Kersten who was one of the very few people to survive the horrors of Torgau. ## #### INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: Please Note. FREE SHIPPING IS UK ONLY. Please get in touch with me for a shipping quotation. ####.

Seller Inventory # MMNF-111-nonfict

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Secret of Torgau - 1982 - Why the plot to kill Hitler Failed
• Publisher: Harrap, London England
• Publication Date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0245538267
• ISBN 13: 9780245538261
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Printed full colour- Laminated
• Signed: No Author signature
• Seller catalogs:
  • English History

About this title

Synopsis

An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new. ; 198 pages; Description: 198 p. , [4] p. Of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. Includes index. Subjects: Kersten, Jakob. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945 --Assassination attempt, 1944 (July 20) . Anti-Nazi movement --Germany.