The Gestapo S Most Improbable Hostage

I remember very clearly the day on which I was supposed to dieSo starts the story of Squadron Leader Hugh Mallory Falconer, British Special Operations Executive agent and prisoner of the Nazis for over two and a half grueling years.When he was caught out of uniform by the Gestapo in Tunisia not long after the culmination of Operation Torch in 1942, he had no right to expect anything but the worst. Quite miraculously however, his papers vanished whilst he was being sent to Gestapo HQ in Berlin and, as a result, no-one could make out who he was. This, coupled with his quick-thinking and cunning whilst under interrogation, led to the Nazis including him in a group of high-profile hostages, holding him alongside such notable figures as the former French Minister Leon Blum.The group was intended to save the Nazi leaders' necks as the War ground down to its inevitable end. Offered a certain amount of protection on account of their special status in the eyes of their captors, they experienced the war from a unique vantage point. Held at a variety of infamous camps, including Sachsenhausen, Dachau and Buchenwald, Squadron Leader Mallory was taken on a virtual grand tour of the Third Reich, witnessing the full extent of its horrors.Then in 1945, he was forced to new heights of cunning when the Nazis began exterminating their captives. His daughter, who has painstakingly transcribed the only copy of her fathers memoirs, describes this book, published here for the first time, as a personal manual on keeping your sanity when your weight has dropped to that of a small German Shepherd dog, you are covered in vermin, you are alone and you have everything to fear. It makes for vital and compelling reading.

This first-ever biography of of Lt. Cdr. Mike Cumberlege DSO & Bar, Greek Medal of Honour, murdered in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Feb/March 1945, recalls a man who was `truly Elizabethan in character-a combination of gaiety and solidity and sensitiveness and poetry with daring and adventurousness-and great courage.' Cumberlege came from a maverick sea-going family. He was highly resourceful and lived by his wits, skippering ocean-going yachts for wealthy Americans before the war. In 1936 he married Nancy; their relationship was close and, with the sea, forms a thread in the book. From 1940 Cumberlege and served in undercover roles in the Royal Navy in Marseilles and Cape Verde and was on the staff of General de Gaulle in London. Posted to Egypt in 1941 in the SOE, he formed a para-naval force of fishing vessels, took part in fighting in Greece, attacked the Corinth Canal, escaped from Crete, was wounded and returned three times to Crete clandestinely. On a second operation to destroy the Corinth Canal in 1943 he was captured. Tortured in Mauthausen concentration camp, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen and spent 21 months in solitary confinement. The book contains unique material gathered from the family and from well-wishers in places as far apart as Ukraine, Australia and the USA.

The word 'Gestapo' has become synonymous with the terrible brutality and terror of the Nazi regime in World War II. The Gestapo came into existence in 1933 as Department 1A of the Prussian State Police. Under the SS, the Gestapo grew in power, and was given the job of investigating and combatting 'all tendencies dangerous to the state'. Schutzhaft (protective custody) gave the Gestapo the power to imprison without judicial proceedings, often in concentration camps. It was also responsible for destroying opposition to Hitler. By early 1942, as the Nazi regime became increasingly unpopular in Germany, a number of protests took place. The Gestapo's response was brutal. Thousands were arrested and executed, and all dissent was crushed. The History of the Gestapo provides an authoritative overview of this sinister instrument of repression. Never before had an organisation attained such complexity, been vested with such power, or reached such a pitch of 'perfection' in efficiency and horror.

The notorious Nazi leader’s attempt to take war prisoners hostage at the end of WWII is revealed in this lively and expertly researched history. During the final weeks of the Second World War, Heinrich Himmler assembled the most famous and noteworthy SS prisoners be taken hostage. Himmler’s plan was to use these individuals as bargaining chips to save the Reich—or, failing that, himself. Known as the Prominenten, this group included European politicians and former heads of state, five British survivors of the ‘Great Escape,’ two MI5 agents, and Irish born POWs. This meticulously researched study sheds new light on how the British prisoners came to be integrated with a multinational group of VIPs in Dachau concentration camp, including German family groups of men, women and children; relatives of those implicated in plot to kill Hitler. The lively narrative describes kidnapping, escape attempts, interpersonal conflict, betrayal and comradeship. It also reveals intrigues and love affairs among the prisoners, culminating in their dramatic attempt to free themselves from the SS.