Hitler's Spy Chief Paperback – July 1, 2013

Admiral Canaris is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating characters of the 20th century. I have read various biographies of him over the years, and at times I have been convinced that he was a Nazi fanatic, German anti-Nazi patriot, psychopath, liar, honest power broker, moralistic idealist, ruthless oppressor, and everything in between.I have no idea why any competent author would even attempt a biography of the man. To start with he was secretive by nature and actively worked to distort his personal history. He could be on five sides of the same issue, and his motives were often unclear and confusing. Canaris played a very dangerous game, for the ultimate stakes, with some of the most ruthless opponents imaginable. Yet I suspect that Canaris often hid his true thoughts and feelings, perhaps even from himself. He was capable of misleading some of history's most astute observers of human nature, and he instinctively created multiple layers of deception. Add to that mixture the simple fact of human nature that you want to believe in him-it is somehow comforting to think that even the Nazi regime had some decent men in it. In short, the perfect candidate to drive a biographer insane.===The Good Points===* While the book is written in a lively, easily readable format, Bassett strives to keep up an academic standard to his work. Much of the material in the book was new, at least to me, but a spot-check of his references seems to indicate it was supported reasonably well by historical records.* The subject matter is fascinating. On his best day, John LeCarre would hesitate to create a character with so complex a personality as Canaris. His famed spymaster George Smiley would come across like the Avon Lady compared with the treachery and high stakes that Canaris regularly played for.* A lot of the facts, and even more of the motives of Canaris' life can only be inferred or sifted indirectly from known facts and documents. Bassett does a very credible job of doing this, and usually gives the reader a guide to his train-of-thought in how he reached his conclusions. While i didn't always agree with his deductions, they were logical and probably as well-supported as will ever be possible.===The Not-So-Good Points===* I believe that Bassett generally admires Canaris, always a dangerous spot for a biographer. And I can see why. Canaris comes across as the wise old grandfather, regularly outwitting vicious Nazi's such as Walter Schellenberg and outplaying Joseph Stalin and Stewart Menzies at the highest stakes poker. Wrapped around that is the impression of a "decent" man who regularly hid Jewish people being hunted by the Nazis, frustrated some of Hitler's more outlandish plans and held his organization to humane and civilized standards. But Canaris was a German Intelligence officer, whose job description was to seek out political and military advantage for his country. And no matter what else the man was, Canaris was an excellent intelligence officer and actively worked for Germany's (if not the Nazi's) interests. Consider Canaris' constant efforts to create and maintain an image to the Allies of a man they could deal with? Is it because he wanted to keep open channels to limit or end the spread of the war? Was he just doing what any good intelligence chief would do and keeping a channel open to his enemies to better understand their motives and limitations? Or was he playing a long-game hoping to deal his way out of trouble if, as he expected, Germany lost the war. Or was he a German patriot who believed the best chance for Germany to survive the Nazis was to seek agreements and accommodations with the Americans and the British? The problem is I can not honestly tell. And neither can Bassett, or anyone else. But because of the limited research material available, the history will read very differently based on what your assumptions are. Personally I think Bassett goes a little too far towards the moral-patriot side of Canaris, but his position is perfectly defensible based on what we know.===Summaary=== While I disagree with some of the author's positions, I certainly enjoyed reading them. And, like any good armchair historian, I reserve the right to change my mind as I mull the book over. I will likely re-read the book in a few months to give some of the material a second chance to "stick". For anyone seriously interested the history of the 20th century, I would absolutely recommend the book, both as a biography of one of the most interesting characters of the time and as a jumping off point for a bit of thinking about how the 1940's and beyond could have turned out differently. I would not recommend the book to "novice" readers of WWII, since an appreciation of much of the material needs a background on the history of Europe in the 1930's-1940's.

i suppose when one looks back on Europe in the mid 20th century events are obscured by the larger than life figures that controlled events: Hitler, Stalin; Mussolini, Franco and the tin pot would-be fascists in Middle Europe and the later Nazi occupied countries. However, what really created the situation was a confrontation between the working class dressed-up in Fascist/Nazi garb and their conservative opponents in business, politics and the military. The Fascist/Nazis eventually bought - off the conservative element while at the same time propagandizing themselves as protectors of the working classes.The ordinary punter was caught in the middle between the extreme Left and Right. Will I vote for/support the left and see communism change my country, economy, religion and my lifestyle and become a vassal Soviet state or vote for the Right to protect myself from this event. The Germans, Spaniards and the Italians chose the latter action.The European democracies did nothing except observe the unfolding tragedy while various 5th columns worked hard at deluding, blackmailing or bribing their politicians and bolstering appeasement. Canaris, an old navy conservative, initially supported the Nazis as a bulwark against Communism and was appointed head of the German Abwehr. However, once he saw the horrors of the Nazi regime he started to do whatever he could to undermine Hitler. He managed this subterfuge until almost the end of the war. Due to bad luck he was caught and hanged- twice (they hanged him first until he passed-out and then resuscitated him then hung him again until he slowly strangled to death). Charming folk, the Nazis.This bio has provided fascinating insight into the kind of life the old upper middle classes lived in Europe before WWII. They ran everything. They had their contacts and their peer groups in all countries. Hence, Canaris was able to plot with his English and Spanish friends against Hitler. With the former he tried to get them to listen to the German general Staff plotters who wished to get rid of Hitler and do a deal. With the latter he fed information to Spainthat allowed Franco to outwit Hitler and allay Hitler's attempt to woo Franco into allowing Hitler to garrison troops in Spain and attack Gibraltar. This probably lost the war for Hitler as, if he managed to take Gibraltar, he could have cut-off the Mediterranean to the British Navy and created an Axis lake. This would have quickly led to the fall of Egypt, the loss of the Suez Canal, control of Iraqi Oil and opened a back door into Russia via Turkey. It would also have allowed Hitler to build a bridge to India via the Suez Canal, the Persion Gulf, Indian Ocean and link-up with Japanese troops on the march into India from Burma. He would also have gained access to Iranian oil in the process. The English cabinet would have changed, Churchill ousted and a deal struck with Nazis. Barbarossa would have been a lot easier to accomplish after this. Hitler went into Russia with 150 divisions and lost a million men before Moscow in the first 5 months of the invasion. He could have taken Egypt with 5 divisions, 100,000 men and mopped-up the Balkans as an after thought. Hitler's biggest problem was lack of oil. He didn't have any and needed Russia's oil. Had he taken the Mediterranean option he would have had all the Iraqi oil that he and Mussolini needed. During the invasion of Russia for example, Hitler's U-Boats were confined to port due to lack of oil and the Italian navy was stuck in Taranto for most of the war, for the same reason. There were about 20 assassination plots against Hitler. They all failed as they were run by the old conservative army class who felt it beneath them and a betrayal of their class to murder a leader and break their silly blood oath. All they needed was one resolute person to walk up to Hitler and shoot him. They couldn't do it! A lot of them were bought-off, of course, with money, promotions and country estates. Which brings me back to the contrast between the Old Gentility and Maniacal Working Class Thuggery. Thuggery beat gentility by a distance. Nazism was, to use Conrad's words,the Heart of Darkness and too much for the old gentility to cope with, or even believe. Canaris tried to thwart it as best he could but failed.Hitler's Spy is a great read. Its an eye-opener into old prewar Europe, its personalities and class systems and of course, into the personality of the decent gentleman himself who probably help save our bacon with his anti Nazi machinations.

An excellent history of the mysterious Wilhelm Canaris who headed the Abwehr (one of the spy mechanisms) before and during thenazi rise to power carrying over into the war itself culminating in his execution near war's end. There have been biographies of Canarisbefore and this is adequately cited as is true of reference throughout. I had not read them but I feel that I gained more than enoughknowledge of this man and his operation in this volume that I need go no further. Very complete. I might also add as a former intelligenceofficer I appreciated his observations as to how a spy chief (poor but popular name) would have to operate in a dynamic and verydangerous environment. Canaris saw his protege, Rudolph Heydrich, turn on him and try to take over the abwehr, an effort that seemedabout to succeed when Heydrich was assasinated. There has always been some suspicion that Canaris had a hand in it but Bassettminimizes this possibility as Canaris, not a bloodthirsty Nazi by any measure, would have known the terrible revenge that would becarried out by the nazis against any who were associated. The writing can be a bit dry at times but these are few and then a new andmore dynamic thread picks up: e.g. did Canaris seek to warn Stalin of the invasion? Did he have a meeting with Britain's spy chiefM (Stuart Menzies)? Was Canaris complicit in a plot to assasinate Hitler? (apparently Hitler and Himmler thought so) I obviouslyenjoyed this read and recommend to anyone who has more than a casual interest in spycraft and WWII history.

Bassett gives the reader a full account of Canaris life and times in just 300 pages.Bassett shows Canaris under a very sympathetic light, always trying to keep open the communication channels with his British nemesis, Menzies, the SIS head.a fight that cost the admiral his life at the end.But the book also shows Canaris as the good, anti-Nazi German and as a normal human being able to enjoy good food, music and friendship , an excellent chief for his Abwehr subordinates and a good father and husband.It is interesting to especulate how things would go for Germany and Europe if the peace-seekers among the Abwehr and the SIS would have been listened to.I wonder if Hitler knew of Canaris long peace -seeking efforts because Canaris was left undisturbed until the end of the War and was arrested and hanged under pressure of the SD ,the Nazi intelligence service and archfoe of the Abwehr. When a biography of an interesting person is well written as Bassetts's, no novel can be compared with!

For anyone interested in WW2 this is a most interesting story which is presumably mostly true. Espionage is a personal business and each national head of department seems to know their opposite numbers either friend or foe

Canaris is an enigma when you start reading this book and he is still an enigma 300 pages later. It's odd how little appears to be known about the man. Or maybe it isn't so odd, given that he was a spy chief and that his wife and children have vowed never to talk about him or his work. In addition to very little information, there is a lot of conjecture - for instance, did Canaris meet Churchill? What does become clear is that Canaris was one of the relatively good guys who tried from 1938 to 1944 to enable a peace between Britain and a denazified Germany and who helped the Allies defeat Germany in a number of ways.

Cover 4/5 Says it all reallyPurchased this book in the hope of more photos of Wilhelm Canaris but disappointed as the majority of photos are of other members of the German high command. Looks a good read so I will get started and report more as I go ...Finished. An excellent informative read. Uprated stars from 3 to 4 10 7 15.Alexander of the Allrighters and Ywnwab!

Disappointing, has relatively little of Canaris' private life and concentrates on his peace making efforts during WW2. Interesting but didn't really add to what I already knew