History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945

Peter Hoffmann is William Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University and author of Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905-1944, and The History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945.

"With this monumental work, Peter Hoffmann may fairly claim that the theme of the German opposition to Hitler is finally exhausted. Every idea has been worked out, every scrap of ore mined ... It is a work of which an historian in any field might justly be proud, and which deserves the greatest praise for the way in which meticulous study of the available documentary sources has been combined with the gathering of statements from contemporaries and surviving participants in the events to form a well-ordered, highly readable and at times gripping narrative ... It will be the essential, and surely final, handbook for every student of the subject." Times Literary Supplement. "In a study which so fully merits the accolade 'exhaustive,' Hoffmann has done full justice to the subject ... He excels in developing plausible and usually convincing explanations on how things came to turn out the way they did. There is much new light on many basic problems which have bedeviled students of the period ... By his connected story of developments from 1938 to the dramatic denouement in 1944, tracing each rise and fall of the curve, Hoffmann succeeds as no other before him in bringing matters into proper focus." Harold C. Deutsch, Journal of Modern History. "This admirable book goes right to the heart of the conspiracy to kill Hitler that misfired on July 20, 1944, to the last fascinating detail ... A powerful study of lasting interest, as well as a piece of first-rate scholarly detection." The Economist.

• Part 1 The background: the year 1933; forms of resistance; top-level crisis. Part 2 The sudden crisis and the attempted coup of 1938: operation "Green"; foreign policy and resistance; Beck's plans; Halder's plans. Part 3 Plans for a coup 1939-1940: before the outbreak of war; plans, probings and memoranda; Halder's new plan; further efforts; soundings abroad. Part 4 Internal political plans: Schmid Noerr; Hassell; Popitz; Goerdeler; the Kreisau circle; socialists. Part 5 Contacts with the enemy 1940-1944: Albrecht Hashofer 1940-1941; Hasell 1941-1942; Lochner 1941-1942; Trott, Bonhoeffer, Schonfeld 1942; Moltke 1943; Trott 1943-1944; Gisevius; miscellaneous contacts; "eastern solution"? Otto John 1944. Part 6 Assassination attempts 1933-1942: the early days; attempts of 1938-1942. Part 7 Tresckow and army group centre: preparations; projections of 1943; abortive plans; "Valkyrie". Part 8 Stauffenberg and the replacement army: Stauffenberg's career; assassination attempts - Bussche, Kleist, Breitenbuch; procurement of explosive; communications planning; internal political planning; Stauffenberg's first two assassination attempts. Part 9 20 July 1944: "Wolfschanze"; Berlin: the coup; the coup in the provinces Prague, Vienna, Paris; collapse in Berlin. Part 10 Wreck of the opposition: summary court martial; arrests; people's court, executions, concentration camps.