Book review: A true story of courage and betrayal of those who fought Hitler’s villainy

Jonathan Freedland delivers short, snappy, and impactful chapters that peel back the spirit of each character. Picture: Philippa Gedge

• The Traitors Circle: The Rebels Against the Nazis and the Spy who Betrayed Them 
• Jonathan Freedland 
• John Murray Books, £25.00 

If this book were a spy thriller, it would be hailed as a great work of fiction. Sadly, the story of The Traitors Circle is true.

More sadly, after reading this book and also listening to the current world news events, the reader will realise the world has forgotten how it came to pass that around 73m people lost their lives during the Second World War.

Jonathan Freedland, an award-winning columnist with The Guardian, has given the world a timely notice of the consequences of totalitarianism and tyranny. 

In The Traitors Circle, we are reminded that freedom of thought and the expression of opinion were verboten in Nazi Germany.

The book tells how the lives of a group of educated people, drawn from the upper-class social circles of Germany, were changed by simply attending a birthday party on a Friday afternoon in September 1943.

The members of the group were experienced people; they included a former diplomat, a high- ranking civil servant, and the hostess, school principal Elizabeth van Thadden.

While some had lost a little of their power following the rise of the Nazis in 1933, they all remained well connected and influential in the corridors of power. 

The group had one other important bond; they all believed Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazis) were leading Germany into disaster. 

Not all Germans were Nazis

Contrary to what we have sometimes been led to believe; not all Germans were Nazis.

There are two anti-heroes in the book. The more important is Hubert (Leo) Lange, who rose to a position of power in the Gestapo because of his willingness to murder members of the Jewish and Romani races and the mentally ill.

Lange’s name may be familiar to those who have read Christabel Bielenberg’s book The Past Is Myself, where he is named as one of the interrogators of her husband Peter for his anti-Nazi activities.

Lange also groomed Paul Reckzeh, a doctor who was so eager to rise to power that he was prepared to step on anybody in order to improve his status within the Reich. 

To this end, he inveigled his way into the 50th birthday party of Van Thadden’s sister, Anza.

As one would expect at an afternoon tea party in Berlin of 1943, the conversation turned to the state of Germany and the state of the war. It appears that by then, the outlook was gloomy. 

The consensus was that Hitler was leading Germany to its doom and that the Reich — supposed to last 1,000 years — was already crumbling. 

This type of informed opinion was considered treason. As a Gestapo spy, this was exactly what Dr Reckzeh, was hoping to hear.

Dr Rechzeh reported back to his superiors and a result of the Gestapo investigations, members of the ‘birthday party’ group were arrested and tortured. 

What followed is a tale of suicide, execution, torture, exceptional bravery, defiance, and in some cases, endurance.

Eventually, six were brought before what was known as the ‘People’s Court’, presided over by the ‘hanging judge’, Roland Freisler.

The Traitors Circle is a triumph in storytelling. It is a grim tale. The telling of which could easily have been lost in the descriptions of the morose and poisonous atmosphere of the last days of the Third Reich. 

Freedland however, uses his columnist style to deliver short, snappy chapters that reveal the personality and spirit of each character, urging the reader to keep turning the pages.

He invites empathy and reflection on the amazing story of each characters’ courage and tragedy — while at the same time leaving no doubt that right or left-wing dictatorships, or state tyranny, have no place in a civilised society.