The book, itself, details how the organization operated in each nation as well as how they were set up, interconnected, and how they were discovered and rolled back, over time, by Germany counterintelligence. They fed information, often with less than a 12 hour lag, of German high command war decisions to the Russians that allowed the Russians to be prepared to drive the Germans out of Russia and to understand what was really going on in the German military. It is possible to say, without exaggeration, that the war for Russia could easily have gone very differently without them. The Red Orchestra was the Nazi German name for a group of spies operating, in coordination, in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland that were run by Russian military intelligence during WWII. I'd only heard of the "Red Orchestra" as a passing reference earlier this year so it was all new, even as someone very interesting in spying and intelligence. It was recommended to me by a friend who reads a lot of this work. This book was amazing if you're a spying, intelligence, or WWII nerd. We think of the Germans of this era as almost inhuman, when the greater tragedy was that they were all eminently human - just as interestingly, you would assume that given the police state they lived in, it would have been impossible to get away with any number of things that the Red Orchestra got away with, let alone some of the other activities that are alluded to (people putting up posters on walls and telephone poles condemning the Nazi government, etc.) The book does present a relatively interesting look at life inside Nazi Germany that might challenge some preconceptions. The examination of the personalities involved is of some interest, as is the discussion of what was remarkably primitive tradecraft in a lot of ways (which is probably why the Red Orchestra was, after the damage had been done, broken up and most of its members executed). At the end of the day it's a fairly realistic, somewhat cold look at the way Communist spies managed to pull off one of the greatest espionage rings of all time - one that quite possibly changed the course of WWII. This isn't much of a tale of derring-do or James Bondish adventure, but it's all the better for that. Depictions of the summary executions by hanging and guillotine were truly bloodcurdling.Įxcellent book on what was maybe the most important spy ring in the Europe during the WW2. To make example of all arrested members of the group their families, relatives and even just pure acquaintances weren't spared - they were killed or interned into the concentration camps (that had basically the same result in the end). Now just think about possibility of control today. It is just situation in which peoples fate resides in hands of the good-will of their environment (best example is Swiss police action that broke one of the best parts of the organization (Rotte Drei) out of fear that Germans will be provoked to invade Switzerland otherwise) and once that good-will is gone there is no way for them to escape. Author shows in great detail how in country under full control of opposition no spy circle can survive for long, even when highly trained and equipped. while some got what they deserved others were truly betrayed ). While all the participants of the Red Orchestra contributed greatly to the war effort against Nazis (especially in the East) they were brutally treated by German counter-intelligence (military and Gestapo), betrayed by their own members (some talked under savage torture, some talked because they wanted to save their hides), sent to concentration camps and finally betrayed by their own employers (last chapter was truly, truly sad. This is non-fiction history book and as such there is no happy ending. It was through mistakes like these, silly, silly but oh so human mistakes really, that Germans counter-intelligence managed to gain foothold and in matter of two years completely destroy the network (directly or indirectly). It was painful to read about people that took the combat against Nazis in a naive way, trying to be politically active in a world that did not tolerate any opposition at all. they came from all social strata, by some magic started to work together united in the common goal - utter defeat of black stormy cloud over Europe that was Nazism. While the most organized part was definitely one groomed and trained by Soviet Russian GRU service, Red Orchestra was conglomerate of various organizations, some of them conservative, some of them socialist, some high-level military, some Communist, some purely anti-Hitler and nothing else, some working class, some high class, some working in artistic circles and generally living as bohemians. Rote Kapelle) was not a single organization.
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