Mussolini's daughter, a beautiful Nazi spy, a rich American socialite, and the damning diaries of Mussolini’s foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano make a fascinating so story, somehow all the more interesting for the author’s straightforwardly delivery of these very flawed women on the page.

Very sorry it took me so long to finish this—I actually bought a copy and am sure I will return to it again.

book-length narrative of a subject to which most histories of World War II would devote a page or so. A World War II history that barely mentions the war, in the sense of which Italian armies fought where and why. Like many books among the seeming hundreds about the War that come out each recent year, it's not all that well edited and it's not even particularly interesting. I can't criticize the author's detailed research or her obvious interest in the subject. All I can do is question why anyone would want to read this book. People interested in Allen Dulles and/or Benito Mussolini, would be the answer. Or else World War II junkies who can't get enough of this unending plethora of war histories. Many of which needed a much better editor.

Like many of you I can get burnt out with WWII stories. But this book was from a different perspective of the war, and involved three strong women. (You had me at strong women in history…) In 1944, Mussolini’s son in law and Italy’s foriegn minister, Galeazzo Ciano, was imprisoned and word got out of the secret diaries he had been keeping. Ciano’s wife, Mussolini’s daughter, Edda, demanded that Mussolini and the Nazis release her husband or she will make his secret diaries public. Enter Hilde Beetz, a German spy, who was expected to seduce Ciano and discover the location of his diaries. She becomes seduced by Ciano and served as a double agent. Finally, socialite Frances de Chollet, befriends Edda and the diaries are handed over to the Americans.

“...Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in history and shows how, were it not for the active participation of three courageous women, certain convictions at Nuremberg would never have been possible.”

I love stories of women in history and I always imagine that I would have been brave enough or moral enough to do what they did. This is the first time I thought, “Nope! I would not have been able to do that!” These women were incredibly brave. Braver than I could ever imagine being. The men they stood up to and double crossed, in order to do the right thing, were two of the scariest men in history. Their story deserves to be told and I am so happy that Mazzeo brought it to us.

"Sisters in Resistance," by Tilar J. Mazzeo, is set during the Second World War. It is the true story of a band of women who set out to foil the Nazis by delivering politically significant diaries and other documents to the Allies. Galeazzo Caleazzo Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister and Mussolini's son-in-law, feared that the dictator was destroying Italy by siding with Hitler and plunging the country into a costly war. Galeazzo's wife, Edda, was a volatile individual who had a variety of lovers (as did her husband). Their affairs, strangely enough, did not diminish their regard for one another. Ciano kept meticulous records of his thoughts and observations, and both the Nazis and United States were eager to get their hands on his journals.

This work of non-fiction is deeply flawed. Time and again, Mazzeo admits that there is no proof concerning the accuracy of various incidents. Another problem is the sheer volume of characters and events, which makes for a confusing mishmash rather than a coherent whole. I was not particularly interested in Ciano, Edda, nor most of the other men and women in this book. The prose style is cluttered, dull, and rambling, except for a few passages in which people risk their lives, make daring escapes, or die courageously.

The "Sisters in Resistance" were Frances Winslow de Chollet, Hildegard Burkhardt Beetz, Susanna and Virginia Agnelli, and Cordelia Dodson. Each aided and supported Edda—who was distraught much of the time—and played a part in the delivery of Ciano's papers to the West. According to the author, Ciano's diaries helped make the case at Nuremburg that several high-ranking Nazis were guilty of horrendous crimes. This story is worthy of a long essay, but it does not have enough substance to merit a three-hundred-page book.

What do Mussolini's daughter, a beautiful Nazi spy, and a rich American socialite have in common?
The question reads like an opening line for a joke of the sort your dad tells, but it's the very serious premise of this book about an WWII episode belonging more to the likes of John Le Carré's spy tales than an academic's pen.

The answer is: Count Galeazzo Ciano. Or rather, his diaries. What did Mussolini's son-in-law write in these diaries that merited a dizzying hunt across international borders and involved Italian, German, American, and British intelligence agents? What could the diaries contain that a few top Nazis wanted it so badly for themselves? Were they really so explosive they merited blackmailing Mussolini and Hitler simultaneously with them?

Tilar J. Mazzeo's "Sisters in Resistance" provides answers to all of this. From 1937 to 1943, possibly starting even earlier, Ciano had been meticulously registering important events, conversations, plans, letters, official document contents, personal impressions, table talk, and so on, that he was privy to as Italy's foreign minister. He was very candid, rather too honest (his comments on the Nazi big bosses is wonderfully catty) in his diaries, which were organised in three sets: the personal diaries proper; the "Conversations," that chronicled his very sensitive and top secret talks with important officials, and "Germania," that collected papers dealing with the Germans' hierarchy and their plans and intentions. Of these three sets of papers, the hot potatoes were in the second and third set, which would be so damaging to Germany if they fell in Allied hands as they revealed the truth about the atrocities they were committing and how they were lying to the world about their true intentions.

The one that would've been the most damaged on a personal level by the diaries was Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, and the ones most interested in damaging him personally were, can you guess? Our old familiar faces Himmler and Kaltenbrunner. When Ciano fell out of favour with Mussolini and the latter was deposed, he had to flee with his wife, Edda Mussolini, and their children, falling into genteel captivity by the Nazis. In captivity, Himmler and Kaltenbrunner sent a seductive spy to bed inveterate womaniser Ciano out of his diaries, and she, incredibly, succeeded and got the diaries... And you thought Gossip Girl levels of cattiness and honeypot schemes were Hollywood fantasies!

But the problem was, Ciano had only given the Germans a portion of his diaries. The rest of the diaries were still hidden away and out of the hands of the desperate Germans. Here's where wife Edda decides to take the bull by the horns, and blackmail her father and the Führer in exchange for Ciano's life: either you release him from captivity or the diaries will end up in the eager hands of the Allies. Don't believe me? Well, off I am to Switzerland with the papers, and you can't have them anymore! It's a giant go hang yourselves from irate Edda to both fascist dictators.

It's not easy to both secure the hiding locations of the papers and safeguard Edda and the Ciano children's lives at the same time. The Gestapo are out hunting, they are circled by spies ready to jump at them, and their existence as refugees in Switzerland is precarious. They need help, lots and lots and lots of help. Contrary to the book's subtitle and blurb, it's not just Edda Mussolini, Hilde Beetz, and Frances de Chollet who achieved the incredible feat of saving the Ciano diaries for posterity. A legion of people contributed, in varying degrees, some more, some less. Not only these three women risked their lives for the diaries, many others did too. They were simply the ones that did the most work, the heavy lifting so to speak, but would never have been successful if not for the army of ant helpers, who also deserve credit for their role.

It's thanks to that army of ant helpers, and especially these three women, that Galeazzo Ciano's diaries survived the destruction the Nazis had in reserve for them, and were key material at the Nuremberg trials at the end of the war. The Ciano diaries were crucial to serve a measure of justice that rendered it worth the sacrifices the people who fought to preserve them made.

Even though this story is written in a balanced and non-judgmental manner, it's not meant to make heroes out of the women involved. Indeed, none of them are admirable, none of them are exactly upstanding people. All people involved in the Ciano rescue mission are very flawed, some even moral reprobates. The point is, as Mazzeo put it, show these were "people who, in the middle of their life’s journey, find themselves on the wrong path discover the courage to change and to wrestle with the darkness and with the reckoning that follows. A Nazi spy. Mussolini’s daughter. A fascist diplomat. At the story’s heart is Mussolini’s son-in-law, a flawed man, a playboy and Italy’s foreign minister, who found the strength to repudiate fascism and stare down his executioners." Will you sympathise with these three women, or Ciano? I'd say no. You'll understand them better.

The book's great flaw is, I think, that it tends to play too much into the "spy thriller" act, and it ends up being a bit of a telenovela. It can get repetitive and tedious in parts despite the fast pace, because the author has a tendency to repeat herself. In part, that helps you remember who is who and what was done by whom, but at the same time it loses you in the labyrinth of too much information crammed in, some of which could've been made do without. The emphasis is on the tension, the thrills, and there's an overall feel of wanting this to be "filmable." In the process, too much melodrama clogs the pages, and you feel that a bit more explanations on historical context would've been an improvement.

I enjoyed this book about a part of WWII history that I knew nothing about. About Edda Mussolini’ Mussolini’s but then my history class in high school and even college was lacking. So it’s nice to learn things I didn’t know through reading.

I absolutely love this informative book about three women I had never heard about. This was an extremely exciting fast paced story. I found the details to be interesting. I would highly recommend!!!