On the Road to the Wolf's Lair on the Road to the Wolf's Lair: German Resistance to Hitler German Resistance to Hitler

This is not another history of the entire spectrum of German resistance, as Hamerow largely ignores the Stahlhelm, Otto Strasser's Black Front, the Robby group, Joseph Romer, the Solf Circle--even the Kreisau Circle is only briefly touched on. Instead Hamerow, emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, focuses on those soldiers, bureaucrats and clergy who were ""in a position to form a systematic, organized opposition to the Nazi regime."" Stripped of their apologists martyrology and their critics cynicism, people like Johannes Popitz, Wilhelm Canaris, Bishop Wurm and Claus von Stauffenberg, emerge as complicated figures. Although there were genuinely ""good"" Germans (Bonhoeffer primarily), even people like Adam von Trott zu Solz and Carl Goerdeler initially supported the Nazis as an answer to what they saw as a soulless, materialistic, individualistic and, yes, Semitic, Weimar Republic. From there Hamerow traces a sickening roller-coaster ride of self-deceit and conflicted loyalties: would-be resisters' fears over the Sudeten crisis faded after the Munich Conference and the territorial gains of Hitler's brinkmanship; grave concerns about Kristallnacht and the 1939 dispute over the Polish Corridor paled when the declaration of war made resistance look like treason. Only the certainty of defeat brought about the final desperate, futile plans that resulted in the July 20th, 1944, attempt on Hitler's life. Hamerow's intensive archival research, his extremely accessible style and his analysis of resisters' practical and ethical motivations (particularly of churchmen whose moral duty often teetered uneasily behind their parochialism and desire to protect ecclesiastical autonomy) make this a worthy addition to a well-covered subject. (Apr.)