Hitler’s Demons

Blurb:

Philip, Baron von Feldburg, is a young General Staff officer, deeply concerned about the direction Germany is going and distressed by the policies of the Nazi government, but in 1938 the whole country seems captivated by the pied piper from Austria, Adolf Hitler. Philip’s own family is no exception. While his younger brother is thrilled to be flying the Luftwaffe’s latest fighter, his younger sister marries a self-made man with good Nazi Party connections and a bright future.

As Nazi victory follows Nazi victory, Philip feels increasingly isolated and obsolete – until he meets Alexandra v. Mollwitz, an attractive young secretary. In Alix Philip finds a kindred spirit and love – and through her comes in contact with a group of senior officers actively working to overthrow the Nazi regime.

The medical student Marianne Moldenauer finds the Nazis brutal and barbaric. Acting out of naked humanitarianism, she finds herself drawn into an underworld of illegal activity directed at saving the victims of the racist dictatorship. But the young man she has fallen in love with is an idealistic commissar of the Gestapo. With each day the risk of her two lives coming in conflict grows more intense.

Helena P. Schrader

Historian, Novelist, Diplomat

Helena P. Schrader obtained a BA in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and followed this with a MA in Diplomacy and International Commerce from the University of Kentucky, Lexington.  She earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg with a
ground-breaking biography of the German Resistance leader General Friedrich Olbricht.

Schrader worked for consulting firms in Washington, DC, the German Privatization Agency (Treuhandanstalt), and as an Investor Relations Manager for a German bank and a German venture capital fund, before joining the U.S. Foreign Service. She is now a career diplomat. In June 2010 she was awarded the “Dr. Bernard LaFayette Lifetime Achievement Award for Promoting the Institutionalization of Nonviolence Ideals in Nigeria” by the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria.

She has lived on five continents and speaks three languages fluently.

She owns property in what was once Lacedaemon, which she visits regularly and where she intends to retire.

I must admit when I got the option to review this book, I took it because of the name.  I love stories told about the war and fiction stories are almost as good as the real thing. I will say it was a little hard to get past the first page. I don’t know what was going on in my head but it just did not want to cooperate with me, but in the end I ended up flying through it.

Hitler’s Demons is a book based around a guy named Philip. He is in the German military so you think he would be supportive of Hitler, but he secretly wasn’t.  He was part of a group called German Home Army, who was planning the assassination of Hitler, the Valkyrie.

The book goes through the events and how other people played a part in it.  It truly is fascinating. We know that attempt had actually failed, and many were caught and put to death without trial.

It is a long book I will admit. But if you’re fascinated by war books then this a book for you. I will not say that I didn’t struggle; German Language and some military wording threw me off.  I am in a military family and I had to pause and think of ranks as I was reading. Overall this is a very good book and I recommend it to everyone.

Review written by Heather.

Disclosure:  The Mommy Bunch was compensated for this review, however, all opinions are strictly our own!