Joachim Fest: Plotting Hitler's Death

Joachim C. Fest was born in Berlin in 1926. After the war, in which he served and was taken prisoner, he joined the radio station RIAS-Berlin where he became the head of the Department of Contemporary History. In 1961 he became Editor-in-Chief of TV for Norddeutscher Rundfunk and published his highly acclaimed work The Face of the Third Reich in 1963. In 1973 he published the first comprehensive German life of Hitler since 1945. One of the world’s leading authorities on Nazi period, Joachim Fest lives in central Germany, near Frankfurt.

‘A marvellous account of the brave men who failed to assassinate Hitler. Was it their fault – or ours? Joachim Fest’s controversial book argues that the Allies were in part to blame as early as 1938 in ignoring the efforts of the German resistance to stop Hitler.’

‘A book that does full justice to the dramatic, heroic story of patriotic German officers and civilians, who from 1938 on – intermittently and under desperate conditions – sought to free Germany of Hitler’s criminal rule. A poignant account, brilliantly told…’

‘Joachim C. Fest… has written a book that combines the virtues of intellectual and narrative organisation with the attractions of bravura, and will clearly influence a whole generation of readers.’

‘The best single volume available on tortuous life and savage reign of Adolf Hitler; Fest tells the story as no non-German could, dispassionately, but from inside.’

‘Fest’s constant probing for insights into the nature of modern totalitarianism gives his book a unique and powerful intensity.’

Jacket picture: Hitler circa 1925 (Popperfoto).

Author photograph: Andreas Pohlmann.

Wiedenfeld and Nicolson

The Orion Publishing Group

Orion House

5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

London WC2H 9EA