Unknown Enemy

Riveting, timely and truly revelatory. The Organisation Todt is the Nazi-era secret that still needs to emerge from the shadows. Charles Dick’s book does that and so much more -- DAMIEN LEWIS, author of SAS Brothers in Arms and The Nazi Hunters Well-researched and scholarly . . . Reminds us how many criminals got away . . . When the Second World War came, OT had new priorities: the Atlantic Wall, submarine pens, mines . . . This is where Dick lifts up the stone: much of what OT achieved, or tried to achieve, required slave labour. As such, OT played its part in the Final Solution and other war crimes. The book is a depressing reminder that most of the leaders of the organisation, and the chief brutes who worked under them, got away with it -- Simon Heffer * Telegraph * Dick writes well and provides a mass of readable information on how Organisation Todt exhibited some of the most brutal aspects of Nazi rule, above all in its treatment of foreign workers. His two books have well and truly put the organisation on the historical map -- Richard J. Evans * Literary Review * The complete story of Organisation Todt, the Nazis’ little known, brutal engineering operation and its works across German-occupied Europe -- Mark Broatch * New Zealand Herald, Books of the Year * Mr Dick’s account of Speer as head of the OT makes for compelling and sobering reading . . . In addition to letting the perpetrators ultimately go free, Mr Dick writes, “postwar trials have contributed very little to public understanding of the vast scope and brutal nature of the OT’s activities.” His book performs that important task at last -- Arthur Herman * Wall Street Journal * Charles Dick has done a major service to the history of the Third Reich … The Organisation Todt exploited camp prisoners and forced labourers as ruthlessly and murderously as the better-known SS, but its responsibility has never been properly explored. Dick gives us more “ordinary men” capable of committing inhuman crimes, a story still pertinent in today’s troubled world -- RICHARD OVERY, author of Blood and Ruins Deeply researched, thorough and well argued – an excellent study of an often forgotten part of the Nazi past -- JAN RÜGER, author of Heligoland Full of acute insights and arresting details … A vital contribution to our understanding of Nazi terror and the Third Reich -- NIKOLAUS WACHSMANN, author of KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps Engagingly written and impressively well-researched, Unknown Enemy will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the Second World War -- CHRISTIAN GOESCHEL, author of Mussolini and Hitler Unknown Enemy provides a compelling and smartly researched overview of Organisation Todt . . . Dick’s analysis of how these ordinary German engineers, architects, and site foremen exacted a deadly toll on the lives of millions of forced labourers is a major contribution to historical knowledge on the Nazi pursuit of Lebensraum -- CHRISTOPHER DILLON, author of Dachau and the SS