“It is a remarkable
book, which grips the attention like a novel but which, in truth,
chronicles the real-life exploits of a man of huge courage, great
nobility of spirit and a passionate desire to rid his beloved country
of the scourge of Nazism. Much of the story is told via the medium
of Adam’s own words, either in letters he wrote or relayed
by his family and friends. The inclusion of this material gives
the book an immediacy and a poignancy that a mere retelling of the
facts could not convey.” From the Foreword by Diana Walford,
Principal of Mansfield College
“Von Trott and his colleagues wanted to show that Hitler’s
Germany was not the only one: that there was another Germany that
rejected the barbaric savagery of the Nazis to which too many Germans
had closed their eyes, and that remained true to the fundamental
values of human dignity, justice, responsibility and self respect.
They also wanted to show that denizens of that other Germany were
prepared, if necessary, to die for their beliefs. They should not
be judged by a utilitarian calculus. They did what they did …
because, like Martin Luther, they could do no other. That is why
their memory speaks to us through the fog of the most terrible war,
and the most evil regime, in human history.” From the
Foreword by David Marquand, Former Principal of Mansfield College
“As a school boy, Sears entered into his diary the attempted
assassination of Adolph Hitler in July 1944. Retired now from a
career in history and government at Oxford University, he offers
a biography of one of the leaders of the plot, and of the resistance
to Hitler generally within Germany. Among the stages of Trott’s
life are university life in Munich and Göttingen, Rhodes scholar,
the Far East, the plea for recognition, fanning the flames of resistance,
the year 1944, the day itself, the aftermath, and the military situation.”
Reference & Research Book News
“Like most of my generation and others, I seem always
to have known of the failed plot by the German Resistance Movement
to assassinate Hitler. With it I have always associated the name
of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. To my shame I had not heard of Adam von
Trott, but reading this short but gripping book has helped me to
appreciate both the strength of the Resistance Movement and the
leading part played in it by this man. By comparison, Bonhoeffer’s
role seems to have been somewhat peripheral.
… Adam von Trott was a handsome high-born German of considerable personality
and intellect. Of interest to members of the United Reformed Church
and British Congregationalists, he spent a term at Mansfield College
in 1929 at the invitation of Dr Selbie, the then principal. The
influence upon him of the college and of the university proved to
be considerable. In 1931 he returned, this time to Balliol, as Rhodes
Scholar. Becoming a passionate anglophile, he preferred for the
rest of his life to speak English rather than his native German.
Returning to Germany as the clouds were gathering in the 1930s,
he identified with those who could see the peril the country and
the continent were in as Hitler rose to power. His solution was
to join, and to play his parting fostering, the Resistance Movement.
He gained a position on the staff of the Foreign Office, travelled
the world in support of the cause, and befriended the many senior
army officers who shared its aims. He also retained his British
friendships and confidently expected the British government to support
his cause. They didn’t and shunned him, preferring to fight
for the total surrender and humiliation of Germany rather than the
elimination of Hitler and his replacement by leaders who, they felt,
could not be trusted. Trott never understood this attitude. His
love for his country and his desire for its renewal, as passionate
as his hatred of Nazism, would not let him go down that road.
… The coup d’état planned for July 1944, as we
know, failed. The war, which could have come to an end if the plot
had succeeded, dragged on for another ten months. More people died
in that final period, as the book points out, than in the previous
five years. Adam von Trott, along with others, was tried and hanged:
a martyr to a lost cause.
Kenneth Sears’ story is vividly told. It offers a perspective
on the history of the Second World War not always found among British
historians. It contains many excerpts from Trott’s letters,
and many transcripts of conversations with contemporaries. There
are forty-one photographs selected from family archives with the
help of Trott’s widow, Clarita. Unusually there are two forewords:
one by the present principal of Mansfield College, Diana Walford,
and another by her predecessor, David Marquand.”
C. Keith Forecst, United Reformed Church History Society Journal
