Name: Sisters in Resistance: How a German Spy, a Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis
SKU: 54668581
Price: 364.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Tilar J. Mazzeo
ISBN: 9781538751275

portada Sisters in Resistance: How a German Spy, a Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis

Sisters in Resistance: How a German Spy, a Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis

Type

Physical Book

Author

Tilar J. Mazzeo

Publisher

Grand Central Publishing

Language

English

Pages

352

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781538751275

Synopsis "Sisters in Resistance: How a German Spy, a Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis "

In a tale as twisted as any spy thriller, discover how three women delivered critical evidence of Axis war crimes to Allied forces during World War II: "A tantalizingly novelistic history lesson" (Kirkus). In 1944, news of secret diaries kept by Italy's Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness. What wasn't reported, however, was how three women--a Fascist's daughter, a German spy, and an American banker's wife--risked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allies, who would later use them as evidence against the Nazis at Nuremberg. In 1944, Benito Mussolini's daughter, Edda, gave Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's journals to the press. To avoid the peril of exposing Nazi lies, Hitler and Mussolini hunted for the diaries for months, determined to destroy them. Hilde Beetz, a German spy, was deployed to seduce Ciano to learn the diaries' location and take them from Edda. As the seducer became the seduced, Hilde converted as a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this failed, Edda fled to Switzerland with Hilde's daring assistance to keep Ciano's final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies. When American spymaster Allen Dulles learned of Edda's escape, he sent in Frances De Chollet, an "accidental" spy, telling her to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Together, they succeeded in preserving one of the most important documents of WWII. Drawing from in-depth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed these events, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Frances's involvement, certain convictions at Nuremberg would never have been possible. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Tilar J. Mazzeo

(Author)

View Author's Page

Tilar J. Mazzeo is a renowned author and scholar known for her non-fiction works that explore cultural histories and biographies. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Washington and has been a professor at institutions like Colby College in Maine. Besides her academic career, Mazzeo has worked as a wine writer and oenologist, contributing to various publications and teaching courses related to the wine industry.

Among her most notable works are "Irena's Children" (2016), a biography that received the Western Canada Jewish Book Award in 2018; "The Widow Clicquot" (2008), which won the Gourmand Award for Best Work of Wine Literature in the United States in 2009; and "The Hotel on Place Vendôme" (2014), which was a New York Times bestseller.

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