Disobeying Hitler

Raze Paris to the ground. Burn the bridges. Destroy all industry.

These were just a few of the crazed orders issued by Hitler in the closing months of the Second World War, as the Allies rolled inexorably towards Berlin.

This ‘scorched earth’ policy might have left Europe a smoking ruin, had it not been for the determination and bravery of a few German officers who disobeyed Hiter. Many paid with their lives.

Might Rommel have opened the Western Front to the Allies on 20 July 1944 had he not been shot up a few days earlier? Did Albert Speer single-handedly prevent the destruction of bridges, factories and towns? Did the actions of one Prussian General save Paris from total devastation?

In this compelling book, distinguished historian Randall Hansen explores the extraordinary phenomenon of resistance as disobedience at a time of fanatical loyalty, and the profound, lasting effect it had on the war and its aftermath.

A gripping account of German resistance to Hitler’s crazed tyranny in the last year of World War Two, in its 80th anniversary year.