THE INFILTRATORS

A love big enough to bring down the Third Reich?

Author Norman Ohler Publisher Atlantic Books Price £20 Released Out now

Norman Ohler’s latest book follows the story of Harro Schulze-boysen and Libertas Haasheye, who led a network of antifascists in the heart of Berlin during WWII, feeding intelligence to the Allies. The Infiltrators paints a picture of a marriage of intellectual equals who are driven by a single shared cause: to bring down the Nazis from within. In telling this story the book draws on diaries, letters and Gestapo files, many of which are previously unpublished, bringing much greater detail to an otherwise known but under-reported story.

And while this isn’t a tale that concentrates on the big names of the Nazi era, they appear with regularity nonetheless. For instance it’s interesting to note that the couple used family connections to Hermann Göring to get Schulze-boysen into the Reich air ministry, giving him access to confidential information from across the military in multiple cities. The biggest example of this was the plans for what would become Operation Barbarossa that appear on his desk in January 1941.

Thanks to the personal papers we get a very intimate sense of who Schulze-boysen and Haas-heye were and that even though they were risking their lives, they showed a stoicism and determination throughout that is admirable.

Ohler’s driving and immediate prose can sometimes feel that it’s sacrificing precise language for entertainment and drama, but his writing style does make for an easy and engaging read. Some background knowledge of wider events will be helpful, but the gripping story alone offers the reader plenty.