Fantastic book. I really enjoyed how the author looked into the assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler. The book looked at the events from a different perspective to other books I’ve read. Very interesting. The book is very well written

Subtitled: The Plots, Places, and People That Almost Changed History

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of more than 40 assassination attempts of the life of Adolf Hitler. Some of these attempts were more ‘real’ than others, as many were only discussed while others (like the famous ‘Valkyrie’ bombing plot) actually made it to the execution phase. Many of the plotters were arrested and executed when their plans were discovered by the Gestapo, or as in the Valkyrie plot, after their attempts had failed.

Hitler escaped death so many times by varying his behaviors or out of sheer dumb luck that it boggles the mind. He was very conscious of the likelihood of people and organizations wanting to take his life, but even though his security was often lax, his random movements and good luck served him well. There were multiple times where bombing attempts on his special train (the fuhrersonderzug) pulled off on a siding and let other trains on the line go ahead of it. There were also multiple attempts at killing him by bombing venues where he was scheduled to speak. The variety of assassination plots was amazing, as well as the bravery of those who plotted against the Fuhrer with the knowledge that they would likely be arrested themselves and killed.

I gave The Hitler Assassination Attempts four stars. It sheds a lot of light not only on the assassination attempts, but also on life in general in the Nazi police state.

As I write this review the cruel and unashamed leader of an invading country continues to kill innocent people in his neighbouring country of Ukraine. Is he likely to be stopped by his assassination? If so, would it change the behaviour of his successor and the leadership of Russia? The present situation between Russia and Ukraine may be considered similar to that caused by Hitler and the Nazis in the lead-up and actions of WWII and this book informs us of the many ideas that were formulated to kill Hitler mainly during the 30s and 40s.
It would be fair to say that several of those highlighted barely got past the 'idea' stage but they were numerous and varied and not confined to Germany alone. It is extremely interesting to follow the argument especially in what turned out to be Hitler's last years that to assassinate him would not necessarily have been the best option not only because his erratic and ill thought out military decisions weakened Germany but, as like today's problem with Putin it might have made both the military and political situation with Germany no better unless the whole of the Nazi party could be got rid of.
All in all a well researched and informative work which also highlighted how large and intense was the security in keeping the Fuhrer alive - and the luck that also went a long way in doing so!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in granting my request for this book and the chance to leave an honest and unbiased review.

Most people have probably heard of the famous "Valkyrie" plot to assassinate Hitler carried out by a cabal of Wehrmacht officers and civilians on 20 July 1944, either from history class, books, or the Tom Cruise film. Indeed, the bomb planted by Claus von Stauffenberg is the most known plot, and if you're an avid WWII history reader, you'll likely name at least a dozen more plots on Hitler's life, maybe twenty if you try your memory.

How many were they? Why did they all fail? Who were the people who tried to send Hitler to a worse place via a timely bullet or bomb? These are questions John Grehan is going to answer in this book. The number of attempts is likely to surprise you, because they were more than the average reader would imagine. And all failed, all fell apart, and Hitler survived, often in such an astonishing manner that you're shocked and want to know how that was possible. You wonder whether the would-be assassins were that incompetent or Hitler made some Faustian deal in exchange for such amazing survival.

Grehan opens with an introduction in which he lays out the situation in Germany around and during the time Hitler started to make a name for himself up until he became Chancellor, explaining how the assassination plots grew from a struggling yet fierce opposition to the Nazis by people who wanted his downfall and tried their best to bring it about. This resistance is usually presented as very small in most history books, so it'll be a surprise to read things like that "between 1933 and 1939 the ordinary civilian courts convicted 225,000 people of political crimes." That's a number much higher than I'd previously read, and it's merely in the pre-war years! It doesn't account for the political assassinations and the no-trial executions of opponents, and definitely doesn't include the political prisoners during the war years, or the concentration camp inmates with the political prisoner triangles on their stripped uniforms. It's a much larger number, in the millions, but most of them went down in an anonymous manner. The famous ones made it into the history books, got statues, got streets and squares and buildings and schools named after them, etc. But the immense majority of resisters lived and died without public glory.

Much the same happened to the would-be assassins of the Führer. Everyone knows about Stauffenberg, but what about the others? Grehan says:

"... there were more than forty known planned attempts on the life of Hitler, as well as other schemes that were considered but not carried through and a number of impromptu, opportunistic efforts. Through inadequate planning or poor execution, but often merely through sheer bad luck, all the attempts failed."

More than forty! And only counting the planned ones. You'd need a several-volume encyclopaedia to cover them all, then; not a short book. Three attempts on Hitler's life were made before the Beer Hall Putsch, for example, and about half a dozen before he even became Chancellor. Thirty-five chapters look too few for such a large number of attempts, but Grehan makes a good job of writing an overview of them, from the first attempt on Hitler's life in November 1921, when he was nothing more than a loud street rabblerouser in Munich, to the last attempt in February 1945 when the Allies were closing in on Berlin. Not every chapter is detailed, some are barely over three pages long, and others are longer and include more details, because some of the attempts are given more attention, either because of how spectacular they were, or because there's more data on them. Some plots are grouped together by year in one single chapter, and others have their own separate chapter.

But all the attempts are interesting in their own right. Some are mind-boggling for the sheer bravery of the people that carried them out, such as the lone wolf bomb plot by a carpenter that planted a bomb at a beer hall where Hitler was to give a speech, bomb he missed by just minutes. Others are very mysterious and shrouded in fog that there's nothing about them besides "they intended to do it," such as the plots by the American Jews that were to go to Germany and assassinate Hitler before the war started. Yes, I didn't know about that one either. You'll get to read all sorts of schemes in this book, from the most harebrained to the most brilliant, from those that failed because the executioners plotted it badly to those that failed because the Devil was playing guardian demon for Hitler or something like that... I mean, how else can you explain that even the most perfect plots failed?

When I started the book, I said it was going to be a frustrating read. And indeed it is. Not because it's bad, on the contrary it's an excellent introduction to the micro-history of those that decided to resist the hard way. It's frustrating because it's a long compendium of failures, failures that cost millions of lives. It's frustrating because it is like watching the mammoth train loaded with explosives running out of control and hundreds of machinists trying their best to prevent its derailment, and nothing works: the trainwreck happens exactly as you saw it coming. You want to root for the people to take Hitler down, but you know it's futile, and everything that could possibly go wrong does. Sometimes, it's the plotters' own fault, one small mistake, one character flaw showing at the worst of times. Other times, they don't get the support needed from Allied special forces because Hitler was more useful to the cause alive than dead as he was blundering so badly that he was contributing to Allied victory by screwing up Germany. There were so many reasons the plots failed, and Grehan doesn't shy away from addressing when it failed merely because it was stupidly executed, an honesty I can appreciate.

It's not in-depth, of course. A longer book would be necessary for this, as I mentioned before. But if you're interested in learning how Germans (and a few foreigners) tried to solve the Hitler problem by violent means when the peaceful ones weren't going to work, this book is perfect for that, and very informative and ideal to familiarise yourself with this topic.

An interesting look at the attempted assassinations of Hitler. The stories are intriguing and a quick read. It was amazing how many attempts were made and the narrow margins by which some failed. They are informative and will satisfy any true crime or historical enthusiast.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book by John Grehan. It was very well done and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.