Timely Biography of a Duplicitous Nazi Super Spy
Admiral Canaris climbed to the top of the Nazi war machine while secretly saving Jews and spying for the Allies. A new book argues he deserves more credit for that
Imagine a military leader who dares protest the actions of his twisted, mendacious, even murderous commander in chief, knowing he risked his career and ultimately his life.
Such a man was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Abwehr, Nazi military intelligence, from 1935 to—spoiler alert—his death by hanging in 1945. A new biography, Admiral Canaris, by prolific military historian David Alan Johnson, hearkens to timely questions about the role of military leaders anywhere who, dedicated to serving their country, may face moral choices when confronted with illegality and a dangerous commander-in-chief.
A new docudrama, War Game, imagines a similar situation here in America come Jan. 6, 2025, when a key general startles the White House and Pentagon by defecting to a MAGA-like violent rebel movement determined to unseat the government with turncoat troops in the National Guard. It’s up to Constitution-bound senior leaders to stop them. Will they? We’ll find out for real when the Electoral College votes are tabulated three months from now amid threats of pro-Trump violence.
Johnson’s subtitle is, “How Hitler’s Chief of Intelligence Betrayed the Nazis,” and the author seems determined to illuminate the better angels of Canaris, who was executed by the Nazis only weeks before the end of the war under suspicion that he’d plotted to overthrow Der Führer.
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