Books

The German Secret Service in America, the
Ethnological and Cultural Studies of the Sex Life in England as Revealed in Its Erotic and Obscene Literature and Art
Peter the Great
Character Building
Letters of Pontius Pilate: Written During His Governorship of Judea to His Friend Seneca in Rome
Legends and Romances of Spain
Milford's Memoir
The Adventures of Captain Bonneville: Digested from His Journal
Anson's Voyage Round the World in the Years 1740-44: With an Account of the Last Capture of a Manila Galleon
The Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley: The Making of a 19th-century Explorer
Commerce of the Prairies: Life on the Great Plains in the 1830's and 1840's
The Cruise of the Corwin: Muir's Final Great Journey
Death Valley in '49: The Autobiography of a Pioneer; Detailing His Life from a Humble Home in the Green Mountains to the Gold Mines of Cali
The Emigrant's Guide: To Oregon and California in 1845
The Oregon Trail: Adventures on the Prairie in the 1840's
Shackleton's Boat Journey: The Narrative from the Captain of the Endurance
Three Years Among the Comanches: The Narrative of Nelson Lee, the Texas Ranger; Containing a Detailed Account of His Captivity Among the Indians, His
Three Years in the Klondike: A Gold Miner's Life in Dawson City, 1898-1901
Two Years Before the Mast: And Twenty-four Years After
The Worst Journey in the World: A Tale of Loss and Courage in Antarctica
Against All Odds: Shot Down Over Occupied Territory in WWII
The Quest for Freedom: Belgian Resistance in World War II
Virginia Girl in the Civil War: Being a Record of the Actual Experiences of the Wife of a Confederate Officer
Mysterious Sahara: The Land of Gold, of Sand and of Ruin
Beyond the Law

Nazi Spies in America: Hitler's Undercover War

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Great Overview of Nazi Spies in America

Nazi Spies in America: Hitler's Undercover War
William Breuer
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews:

Great Overview of Nazi Spies in America.......2001-06-12

Despite it's choppiness and a tendency to fall into clichéed prose, this book is a remarkable recounting on Nazi espionage efforts in the United States, during, and well before WWII. Beginning in the 1920s, and proceeding in brief, 5-10 page, chapters, the book provides an exhaustive overview of the individual spies and their methods, as well as the American response.

From the very start, modern readers will be amazed at how unsecured American industrial and military sites were at the time. Throughout the book, virtual amateur agents are able to bluff their way onto military bases, aviation plants, and the like, and are able to extract the most detailed information to pass along to Germany. Not until the FBI got fully organized in counterespionage and the U.S. entered the war, were such transparent ploys regularly detected and thwarted. A simple, but effective ploy was for the Gestapo to pick up a German-American visiting in Germany and threaten the safety of his family still in Germany unless he returned to the US and acted as a spy. Often, these unwilling agents were men who worked in industries vital to war efforts, and would thus have access to valuable data. Another avenue for espionage was through the main Germanic cultural organization in the US, the German-American Bund. Bruer recounted how the Bund was a ready-made support apparatus for Nazi espionage. More alarming is his detailing of covert Nazi propaganda efforts in the US domestic debate to keep America out of the war for as long as possible and portray Roosevelt as a warmongering lackey of the British. Another somewhat surprising revelation (to this reader at least), is the prominent role Nazi agents had in supplying information to Japanese intelligence about Pearl Harbor as far back as 1938. In addition to the exploits in America, the book does a decent job at explaining how different elements within the Third Reich had their own spymasters, agents and agendas for espionage in America.

Bruer does admirably in drawing from FBI files, but certain episodes too often feel like condensations of other people's material. Former FBI agent Leon Turrou's 1969 book, "The Nazi Spy Conspiracy in America" and Ladislas Farago's 1971 book "The Game of Foxes" being two such examples. And while the writing moves things along at a rapid pace, one wishes for a bit more of a rigorous historical and social framework. Many of the episodes recounted would be interesting in greater detail, and there's fodder for many an article or movie in these pages. Well worth the time of any reader with an interest in WWII.

Hitler's Secret War in South America, 1939-1945: German Military Espionage and Allied Counterespionage in Brazil

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A Good History Book!

Hitler's Secret War in South America, 1939-1945: German Military Espionage and Allied Counterespionage in Brazil
Stanley E. Hilton
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Intelligence & Espionage | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

The Shadow War
Nazis and Good Neighbors: The United States Campaign against the Germans of Latin America in World War II
Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps
Latin America during World War II (Jaguar Books on Latin America.)
Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II

ASIN: 0807124362

Customer Reviews:

A Good History Book!.......2002-03-23

This book gave you a good case study of how far reaching the
Nazi empire was in the world. The Nazis had been able to develop an extensive spy network in South America.The book also points
out the complicity of South American businessmen and South
American military officers with the Nazis.You also get the inside
story of the efforts to destroy this spy network that was established by the Nazis in South America. This is an informative
and eye opening book about the Nazis in South America.It would shock you to learn how strong they had become in South America.
Read this.

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Operation Pastorius member speaks out

Eight spies against America
George John Dasch
Manufacturer: R.M. McBride Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

Operation Pastorius member speaks out.......2005-04-04

This book is about Operation Pastorius. Dasch had joined a Nazi spy plan in order to arrive in America and expose the Nazi efforts. Unfortunately, Dasch and the rest of Operation Pastorius saboteurs were found guilty though they had done nothing. Even Dasch, who had willingly turned himself in to the FBI, was put in prison for 6 years, then exiled.
It is a great story, unfortunately at the time of publication it was given little recognition even thought this is a first hand account of one of the most controversial events in American history.

Passport to treason;: The inside story of spies in America,

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Passport to treason;: The inside story of spies in America,
Alan Hynd
Manufacturer: R.M. McBride & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Agent 146: The True Story of a Nazi Spy in America

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Don't Believe Everything You Read
The Mystery is still alive
Recommended
An excellent read
Agent 146 defies credibility

Agent 146: The True Story of a Nazi Spy in America
Erich Gimpel
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Military & Spies | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Criminals | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

They Came to Destroy America
Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America

ASIN: 0312307977

Book Description

September 1944. Germany is burning at both ends and the Third Reich is crumbling. Word has drifted back to Berlin that the Americans are testing a secret weapon of un-be-liev-able destruction, a weapon that will win the war for the Allies. The Fhrer himself calls upon Agent 146 in a last-ditch effort to sabotage America's atomic program. Two months later, a German U-boat surfaces off the coast of Maine. Agent 146 and an American turncoat named William Collepaugh sneak ashore. They head down the coast, ending up in New York. Once there, a fascinating game of cat and mouse begins as the FBI attempts to close in on the elusive Nazi spy. Never before published in the U.S., Agent 146 is an in-tri-guing true tale of espionage under the Reich. With fas-cina-ting accounts of the Nazis' plans to sabotage the Allies-from sending in commandos to capture Gibraltar to blowing up the Panama Canal-the story of Agent 146 and his capture is a must-read memoir for any World War II history buff.

Customer Reviews:

Don't Believe Everything You Read.......2006-11-09

A casual read of this book reveals its many inconsistencies. A careful read and a knowledge of US history reveals that this text is full of lies.

Gimpel states that he has been referred to as The World's Most Dangerous Spy. A spy who appears to have never fired a shot at anyone and who claims to have never killed anyone is the world's most dangerous spy? Ha! Gimpel is merely trying to convince readers (and perhaps himself as well?)that he was an excellent spy, a lady's man, a master of several languages, and on and on. At the same time, his book details how he told his girlfriend in Berlin that he was leaving with an American to travel to the US. (The three of them go out drinking the night before his departure, and his girlfriend begs him to stay in Berlin with her, instead of going to America.) Why would a professional spy (and the world's most dangerous one at that) tell his girlfriend details of his upcoming trip to spy on a foreign nation? [Answer: either he didn't really tell her and is just lying to readers, or he did, indicating that he wasn't a very good spy.]

The author reports that he spent several years in Alcatraz. He speaks highly of the dining hall, stating that "you could easily imagine yourself in a hotel." Ha! I have visited Alcatraz as a tourist, and can hardly imagine the dining hall being mistaken for a dining room in hotel. He mentions that Al Capone spent the last years of his life in Alcatraz. On the next page, he quotes someone on a tour boat traveling the waters off of The Rock as saying (over the loudspeaker) that Al Capone died of a brain tumor in Alcatraz. News flash: Capone was released from prison in 1939, spent some time in a hospital, then lived his last years at his estate in Florida, where he died in 1947. Even if Gimpel himself was unaware of this, his editor(s) should have caught this error.

Alcatraz visitors could only be family members, and they were not allowed physical contact with prisoners. At one point (pp. 256-7) Gimpel says that he was visited by two men (neither of whom was related to him), and that they spoke to him in German. All visits in Alcatraz were monitored, and the prisoners instructed concerning topics which were not allowed to be discussed. Would the guards at the prison allow a prisoner and two visitors to carry on a conversation in a foreign language? Gimpel then goes on to say that during a second visit with these non-family members, he was allowed to visit with them in an ordinary room (no glass between them, no phones used for communication, etc.).

The author talks about his former partner at one point being alone in New York and without money. A couple of pages later he speculates that the former partner "still had some money" (from the $5,000 that Gimpel gave him). Later in the text, he talks about how, after the two of them separated, his former partner went on a two-day drinking binge (difficult to do without money). So which is it: did he or did he not have money?

I could go on and on detailing the problems and inconsistencies in Agent 146. In the end, once you start to see that the author is contradicting himself and in some cases outright lying to the reader, it is very difficult to believe anything that he has to say. Even the book jacket--printed in 2003--contains lies. To wit: that Gimpel was given a last-minute pardon, that he returned to Germany in 1947, and that he and his partner were the only Nazi spies to reach American soil.

Save your time and money, and read one of the other books on WWII espionage such as Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks or Behind the Lines by Russell Miller.

The Mystery is still alive.......2006-10-17

Erich Gimpel did not die in 1956 in Germany as the official review at top states. He was living in South America as of 2002, with photographic proof if one simply searches the web carefully enough. I don't know where that death date comes from, but as far as I know he was still living in his '90's even as of 2004.

Recommended.......2006-07-22

I "read" this book as a book on tape. I found this book enjoyable to "read". If you want to read something interesting about clandestine spying in The US during WWII, read this! I think reading this book was "time well spent". Email:boland7214@aol.

An excellent read.......2005-12-12

Sure there are things in this book that question the credibility of the author, but isn't all history written looking back when memories, sometimes are not the best? Rose colored glasses are used when recalling impossible situations? I don't know. But what I am sure about is Agent 146 was impossible to put down. From start to finish I was captivated in the life of danger, the inside look at Nazi Germany and the hair raising cat and mouse chase through New York City. Maybe some of it is hyped up, maybe not, but I couldn't put this book down and I encourage anyone with any interest in World War II to read it!

Agent 146 defies credibility.......2005-10-15

Erich Gimpel narrates Walter Mitty-like escapad-es, with absolutely no corroboration Characters are imply initials or phoney names. Some incidentsreported simply did not happen, such as a "JoanKenneth" knocking at the Military Commissionhearing room, asking to testify in favor of Gimpel. The record of trial and witness list show no such appearance. Also, it would have been impossible tobreach the security at Governors Island. So beware! There are many more fictions presented as fact. Hisaccount of his escape attempt at Leavenworth doesnot jive with the Bureau of Prisons account, whichled to his transfer to Alcatraz.The "true" story of a spy in America? Not in my book. There is no record that he sent a single message (transmitter was never assembled---FBI found the parts in a box after his capture).His performance for the Abwehr was consistent with the failure of German intelligence throughout WW II.

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Nazi Spies in America
Leon G Turrou
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

German conspiracies in America: From an American point of view

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German conspiracies in America: From an American point of view
William H Skaggs
Manufacturer: Thomas Langton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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The German secret service in America,
John Price Jones
Manufacturer: Small, Maynard & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

When originally published in 1918, it was said "This book sets forth how secret agents of the Teutonic governments acting under orders have attacked our national life, both before and after our declaration of war; how men and women in Germany's employ on American soil, planned and executed bribery, sedition, arson, the destruction of property and even murder, not to mention lesser violations of American law."

They came to kill;: The story of eight Nazi saboteurs in America

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They came to kill;: The story of eight Nazi saboteurs in America
Eugene Rachlis
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

The German Secret Service In America.1914-1918.

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The German Secret Service In America.1914-1918.
JOHN PRICE AND HOLLISTER,PAUL MERRICK. JONES
Manufacturer: William Briggs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RUHIHG

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