Barbara Taylor Bradford - The Women in His Life

There was a small silence; finally Sigmund nodded. ‘As long as you have confidence in him, Kurt, that is good enough for me.’

Even though they were now in the depths of the forest, Kurt dropped his voice to a lower pitch, more from habit than anything else, and said, ‘Look, to make you feel more secure about everything I will tell you who is helping me. And you. It’s Admiral Canaris.’

Sigmund’s jaw dropped. He was thunderstruck and he gaped at Kurt. ‘Wilhelm Canaris! But he’s head of the Abwehr.’

‘Yes. As head of German Military Intelligence he is invaluable to me. And in many more ways than I can ever tell you.’

‘Canaris,’ Sigmund repeated wonderingly.

It was patently obvious to Kurt that Sigmund was genuinely stunned by what he had just told him, and he said, ‘By birth, upbringing, tradition, instinct and conviction, Admiral Canaris detests Hitler and all that he stands for, as do many of the men who work under him. And, incidentally, there isn’t one ministry in the entire Government that doesn’t have two or three men, sometimes even more, who feel the same way.’

‘Like the admiral’s contact in the Foreign Ministry?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I must admit, you startled me, took my breath away, when you mentioned the admiral,’ Sigi said. ‘Who would guess he is an anti-Nazi?’

‘His hatred of them is quite known … in a select circle. You could say it’s a sort of … well, it’s an open secret really. And there happens to be a number of generals who think exactly as he does. But it would be useless for them to work openly against Hitler, not to mention extremely foolhardy. Each of them would find himself swinging at the end of a rope if he did.’

‘So Canaris and the others are fighting Hitler from within … on the inside,’ Sigi asserted.

‘That’s correct. Canaris believes that Hitler will eventually bring about the total collapse of Germany. I happen to agree,’ Kurt said with a heavy sigh. ‘And he and I are both convinced that Hitler will definitely go to war with Britain sometime this year … a lot of people believe that, actually. He wants to engulf the West.’

‘You sound ominous, Kurt.’

‘I feel very ominous.’ The prince shook his head. ‘The future looks bleak, very bad; war is inevitable. And Germany must lose that war if it is to survive as a nation, and regain its humanity.’

‘Yes,’ Sigi said laconically, in the quietest of tones.

They walked on together, each of them momentarily preoccupied with dire thoughts, but after only a few seconds Sigi volunteered, ‘If Hitler forces Chamberlain’s hand and Britain does go to war, France will join in the fray as England’s long-standing ally, and co-signer of the Munich Pact.’

‘Undoubtedly.’ Kurt shook his head and cursed mildly under his breath, before exclaiming, ‘That fool Chamberlain! He always buys Hitler’s talk of appeasement … empty words … of no value. There’s only one politician in England who genuinely understands Hitler’s warlike intentions, his eventual aims, and the overall situation, and that’s Winston Churchill.’

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