The Black Orchestra By: R. J. Linteau In 1944, Father Jonathan Strauss lives a quiet, contented life as a parish priest at New York’s famed St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He thinks he has avoided the horrors of World War II: horrors he knows all too well serving as a German soldier and then espionage agent in the Great War. But the U.S. government has other ideas. His past has given them fodder for blackmail, forcing him into a dangerous mission that places him in the center of an attempt to assassinate the Führer, Adolf Hitler. The Black Orchestra, a clandestine group of Weimar politicians, military men, and aristocrats, have vowed to kill the sick, maniacal leader of their beloved country. Little does Strauss know that his acceptance of this mission will send him on a journey into the bowels of Hell. All of the evils of the Third Reich are revealed to him as he travels from Italy to France, onto Berlin, and then finally to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. As the priest-turned-spy comes face to face with true evil, he is forced to come to terms with his unsavory past. Based on real events, The Black Orchestra is a heart-stopping thriller that will entertain from start to its astonishing finish.

The riveting and tension-filled story of a small group of conspirators who plotted relentlessly to obstruct and destroy the Third Reich from within. Behind the front lines of World War II, a clandestine war within a war was being waged in Nazi Germany. As the "Final Solution" unfolded and fascism swept across Europe, a network of German military officers, diplomats, politicians, and a smattering of civilians were doing everything in their power to undermine the Third Reich from the inside: reporting troop movements to the Allies, feeding disinformation to the Nazi high command, arranging risky evacuations of Jewish citizens, and hatching plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler (including the near-miss "Valkyrie" bombing). The Gestapo had a nickname for this loosely organized, shadowy confederation of traitors--the Black Orchestra. Among the key players in the Orchestra were Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an outspoken Lutheran pastor-turned-government agent, and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi, an attorney working under fellow conspirator Admiral Wilhelm Canaris at the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. Motivated by moral and patriotic conviction, some with their own Nazi sins to atone for, these men faced constant danger of being exposed and executed. The book's tension, however, comes not just from watching these "white knights" attempt to derail the Third Reich (and sometimes succeeding), but also from what transpires when their treasonous activities are discovered--and their fates hang in the balance as the end of the war rapidly approaches.

They were a small group of conspirators who risked their lives by plotting relentlessly to obstruct and destroy the Third Reich from within. The Gestapo nicknamed this shadowy confederation of traitors the “Black Orchestra.” This is their tension-filled story. As the “Final Solution” unfolds, a loose network of German military officers, diplomats, politicians, and civilians are doing everything in their power to undermine the Third Reich from the inside: reporting troop movements to the Allies, feeding disinformation to the Nazi high command, plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and more. The Gestapo nicknames this shadowy confederation of traitors the “Black Orchestra.” Its players include Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a dissident Lutheran pastor, and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi, a staff attorney at the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. In this tension-filled narrative, Tom Dunkel traces the perilous movements of these “white knights” as they and their families face constant danger of being exposed and executed. Some act out of moral outrage and patriotism. Some want to atone for their own Nazi sins. When their treasonous activities are finally discovered, Hitler’s SS and the Gestapo are hell-bent on taking bloody revenge as the end of the war rapidly approaches and lives hang in the balance. White Knights in the Black Orchestra is a tautly written, meticulously reported account of men and women heroically resisting Hitler’s ruthless regime. It packs the punch of the best espionage thrillers, but the cat-and-mouse drama and plot twists are grounded firmly in fact. This is a stirring story of people willing to risk all by doing the right thing in a country gone mad, a story that may prompt readers to ask themselves “What would I have done?”

WW2 Germany. The German war machine has invaded Poland and is advancing west toward France. In Berlin Kurt Muller, an Abwehr signalman, discovers a colleague lying dead at his radio receiver. The criminal police dismiss the death as suicide, but Kurt is not convinced. Kurt follows a trail of mysteries, witnessing several atrocities that expose the Nazi regime for what it truly is. When the trail leads him to the German resistance, he faces the most difficult choices of his life. He must choose between his duty and his conscience, between his country and his family, between love and death. "Very well written, well-paced, intriguing, sinister, disturbing and gripping, 'The Black Orchestra' is an excellent historical novel, tackling an extremely emotive and horrific part of European history. If you liked Ken Follet's 'Winter of the World', you will love 'The Black Orchestra'. It has it all: a totalitarian society, murder, conspiracy, constant danger, a mysterious and slightly sinister love interest and a likeable, honourable and slightly naive main character with depth." "Only Fatherland by Robert Harris comes close in my opinion." "Very much in the ilk of Ken Follett." "One of the very best books I have ever read, couldn't put it down read it in a couple of days." "A fast paced book and a must read if you have an interest in WW2 history." "Every hour I spent reading this book was enjoyable. I recommend this book if you like a tale of suspense set in a turbulent time in history." "Extremely well researched - and with strong, well-drawn characters - The Black Orchestra contains plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes throughout." "When I started to read it found it difficult to put down. A good read especially if you like WW2 history" "A good spy story... fast moving with some interesting twists and surprises. What I enjoyed is the suspense, the trying to put everything in place. Lovely easy read." "This was a very good story with great character development. It would have been even better without the sex scenes and profanity."

LOVE YOUR LIFE OR CHANGE IT The Dark Orchestra is a story about life that just so happens to encompass the sport of Weightlifting. Athletes compete, displaying countless hours of hard work for a shot at the podium, but we are not all privy to how they arrived there. The sacrifices made and struggles endured are vast when en route to the national stage. Jon North's journey began long before he ever set foot on the Weightlifting platform. In his younger years, he was a prisoner to drug addictions that kept him from pursuing a fruitful lifestyle. To break free of his demons, he found the barbell, a now old friend to whom he quite literally owes everything, including his life. The barbell catapulted Jon into the world of Weightlifting, a place where he would embark on a momentous voyage of self-discovery and becoming a national champion. His maturation from a rookie to a gold medalist was arduous and filled with many hardships. Jon learned to use the difficult times of his life, despite how dark the road to the podium became, to fuel his pursuits of mastery in the sport. The courage and confidence to be free made him stronger in life and on the platform.

Written in riveting fashion by the coauthors of The Secret War Against the Jews, Mark Aarons and John Loftus's Unholy Trinity tells one of the darkest tales of World War II. After the war had ended, fearing a surge of Soviet growth, the Papacy entered into an espionage alliance with British and American intelligence agents. Subsuming justice to the nascent Cold War ideology, these three powers ferreted Nazi criminals out of Europe so that they could be used in the supposedly greater fight against Communism. The Vatica's Nazi smuggling network was penetrated by Prince Anton Turkul, the great Soviet double agent who turned the operations into a sting for his masters in the Kremlin. Unholy Trinity exposes Turkul's "Red Nazi" operation for the first time and shows how Kim Philby, the infamous British-Soviet double agent, and his network were nearly sacrificed to preserve Turkul's Vatican operation. Exploring the Vatican's role in aiding Nazi criminals to escape punishment for their crimes, this book, originally published in 1991, first revealed the Vatican-Swiss bank connection to Nazi gold and documented the hidden links to Western investors in Nazi Germany. Since its publication, major revelations about the role of Swiss banks have confirmed Unholy Trinity's expose of the flight of the Nazi's stolen treasures; the new introduction and new final chapters, written by Aarons and Loftus for this edition, bring the book completely up to date and show how the media have missed the vital Vatican connection in the Swiss-bank story. Among other things, the authors demonstrate that U.S. and British code-breakers were fully aware of the Holocaust as early as 1941 but lied to the Western press; that the code-breakers bugged the Swiss banks and then buried secrets of Nazi gold transfers to protect U.S. intelligence chief Allen Dulles; and that the Australian, British, and Canadian governments are still waging a campaign to keep their citizens ignorant about the Nazi war criminals living among them. Covering all these topics and more, Unholy Trinity is the definitive history of a series of profoundly disturbing cover-ups involving the Holy See, Allen Dulles, the Swiss banks, and the remnants of the Third Reich.

(Book). This ultimate guide to big bands includes hundreds of entries spanning the history of this American musical style. Each entry contains the band name, its leader, essential personnel, the years it existed, tops hits, and a brief description of the band.

Summer, 1942: The con man known as David Walker didn't exactly volunteer, but OSS chief Wild Bill Donovan convinced him that serving his country and the cause of freedom by posing as German astrologer Peter Kepler was a better use of his time than going to prison for impersonating a Princeton University professor. His mission: use his skills in illusion, sleight of hand and deception to gain Heinrich Himmler's trust and persuade him to assassinate Adolph Hitler. In a plot that involves German resistance members in high places, Walker walks a tightrope of deceit, playing on the high command's fascination with the occult to penetrate the highest levels of Nazi power in a daring plan to eliminate the Nazi Fu ̈hrer. In action that takes him from Berlin to Paris to Cairo; from Hitler's Eagle Nest to Himmler's occult Wewelsburg Castle, Gary Kriss's The Zodiac Deception is a memorable debut, an unforgettable thrill ride through the dark heart of World War II Germany.

Essays on the era of silent film

On the eve of the Great War, they had the world at - and watching - their feet. If God is in the details, they were divine.Vernon and Irene Castle were the world's first true celebrity couple. He, an Englishman, was tall and slim, as poised as an elegant evening out, a template for the Hollywood idols who would follow. In a staid age, she, a New Yorker, was a glorious, modern beauty, with her haired cropped into a 'shock', a disdain for crippling corsets, a love of a martini and a good time.Together, they beat the censors and made their vibrant dancing acceptable for all. In the fashionable quarters of New York they opened a dance school and night clubs to which Society flocked. They broke the rules by touring with black musicians, and led the way forward to the Charleston-galloping Gatsby Generation. They enlightened and enchanted from London to Paris to New York, spreading a breathless joy, as though their music had one note, and their dances one step, too many. Launching one racy dance craze after another, they taught the world to dance - and often dress - the way we do today. Adored and acclaimed, they were stars long before the celebrity constellations grew crowded.Yet the whirlwind story of perhaps the most influential dance team ever is also one of tragedy. Their timing, so perfect in everything else, saw Vernon Castle, at the height of their fame, return to England to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps; he saw action as a pilot on the Western Front, winning the Croix de Guerre, while his wife made special appearances to support the Allied war effort. And then, in February 1918, he was killed in a flying accident in Texas, while training American pilots for war. Irene received a last note from him: 'When you receive this letter I shall be gone out of your sweet life. You may be sure that I died with your sweet name on my lips... be brave and don't cry, my angel.'She and many others did cry, for as far as the world was concerned Vernon and Irene Castle could have danced all night, and for ever.'The afternoon was already planned; they were going dancing - for those were the great days: Maurice was tangoing in "Over the River", the Castles were doing a stiffed-leg walk in the third act of the 'Sunshine Girl' - a walk that gave the modern dance a social position and brought the nice girl into the café, thus beginning a profound revolution in American life. The great rich empire was feeling its oats and was out for some not too plebeian, yet not too artistic fun.' - F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'The Perfect Life', one of the Basil and Josephine Stories, first published in the Saturday Evening Post, 5 January 1929.