Thursday, July 23, 2015

It is Not Difficult to Get Some Facts Right


     Of course I have erred in this way, and in others! For instance, I do not like to proofread, but I have friends who do. But when one writes an interesting and stimulating biography of one of World War II's lesser-known figures, containing hundreds of names, it helps to get some things right.

     Richard Bassett's "Hitler's Spy Chief- the Story of Wilhelm Canaris" gives an excellent account of the many plots and counter plots in the intelligence services in both world wars. Some readers might be shocked at the duration and depth of Allied contacts with the Third Reich- such is Realpolitik. Which of us knows what is going on today on various international levels, I ask rhetorically.

     As much as I like the book, I have to shake my head at the error of listing Karl Bonhoeffer as someone executed with Canaris at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in April 1945. Of course it was Dietrich ; whose fame rightfully extends beyond Lutheran circles. Bassett also is rather imprecise about the location of that camp; it is not in the Palatinate, rather in the Upper Palantinate. By far better-known is the Rhine Palatinate (home of the Pennsylvania Dutch), far to the west. Had he said Northern Bavaria, I would not have been perturbed, or more perturbed, the omission of Dietrich's name having done so already.

     In June I watched a "documentary" on Netflix from Argentine  or Chile whose title translated as something like "Hitler's Escape." This alleged work of history had Canaris with Hitler on the U-Boat heading to Argentina.

     But read the book! I have it on my Kindle.

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