From Presidio comes a new book which they say is 'ground-breaking history'. Hitler's Traitor has the subtitle Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich and is about espionage at the highest level in Nazi Germany in World War II. Presidio write: "From deep inside Moscow's infamous 'Center', the Soviet Union directed an espionage operation of unprecedented size and scope. Its crown jewel was 'Werther', a man who, over the years preceding the war, had wormed his way into Hitler's innermost circle. He became the most devastating traitor to Nazi Germany perhaps in all of history. Maria Poliakova was a beautiful young Russian-Jewish spymaster with a penchant for danger. Werther was Maria's agent. Together, they changed history. For most of the World War II, Soviet intelligence activities against Nazi Germany were so sophisticated that even Hitler, with all his power, could not detect them. Werther was so highly placed in the Nazi hierarchy that he was able to provide the Russians with strategic and tactical intelligence that directly influenced the outcome of such key Soviet victories as Stalingrad and Kursk-Oriel. The evidence of the treachery is indisputable. There is no doubt that Werther existed. But who was he? Over the decades following the war, scholars searched in vain for Werther's identity. Before the recent opening of previously top-secret World War II Soviet archives, this mystery could not have been solved. Still, it took all of the investigative skills developed over decades for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Louis Kilzer to discover the amazing truth behind the fall of the Third Reich. After providing the reader with the necessary background, author Kilzer thoroughly examines all possibilities. Conclusively, he identifies Hitler's chief henchman, Martin Bormann, as the traitor codenamed Werther. The resulting book, Hitler's Traitor, is ground-breaking history. The story of the 'Red Orchestra' (Rote Kapelle) and its conductor Maria Poliakova, is an amazing chronicle of intrigue. The story of Werther provides not just a more complete understanding of Hitler and his cronies, but a truer understanding of many of the monumental events of World War II." In their review of the title, Publishers Weekly write: "The text is fluent, comprehensive and annotated ... showing the under-appreciated significance of Rote Kapelle and winningly conveying the author's fascination with a challenging historical puzzle." Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 102 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com