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The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > France History > Item 68
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The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France
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by Simon Kitson and Catherine Tihanyi
Sales Rank: 340446
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List Price: $25.00
$16.50
At Amazon
on 6-16-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 208 pages
Published by: University Of Chicago Press; Tra edition December 30, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0226438937
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226438931
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
“The pungent details give Kitson’s book a particular force: the incidents of head-shearing, the intimations of torture, the leakages back to the German authorities of the places where the spies were held, the contempt of the Vichy secret services for British agents. . . . All these elements make an English edition of the book a necessity.”—Rod Kedward, Times Literary Supplement, on the French edition
(Rod Kedward Times Literary Supplement 03/06/2008)
“Zooms in . . . on the vexed questions of spying and counterespionage under Vichy, affording an extended example of the kind of detailed research that must underpin any reinterpretation of the années noires.”—Richard Parish, Times Higher Education Supplement, on the French edition
(Richard Parish Times Higher Education Supplement 01/15/2008)
“Previous historians of Vichy espionage have had to rely largely on the (often-self serving) memoirs of French secret agents. Kitson is the first human being to have tested these accounts against the historical record deriving from the rich body of archives recently repatriated to France from the former Soviet Union. The result of that important original research, The Hunt for Nazi Spies is a distinguished and skillfully written work."—Julian Jackson, author of France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944
(Julian Jackson, author of France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 01/02/2008)
“The story is at once confusing and fascinating. The Vichy regime tracked down left wing resistants and supporters of Charles de Gaulle''s Free French forces. It deported slave workers and Jews to Germany. Yet concurrently, it tracked down and arrested hundreds of German agents who sought to further undermine France militarily. . . . Kitson''s book is a highly-recommended read for anyone interested in the intricacies of counterintelligence.” (Washington Times )
“The important thing. . . is not these cloak-and-dagger adventures in themselves but what they meant. Simon Kitson''s main achievement is to have put them carefully and sensibly into context. He presents Vichy''s game convincingly as a complex pursuit of state interest somewhat refractory to our neat conceptual boxes labeled pro-Axis or pro-Allied. It requirements to be understood on its own terms.”—Robert O. Paxton, New York Review of Books (Robert O. Paxton New York Review of Books )
"Takes a fresh look at Pétain’s French state, which tried to govern defeated France from Vichy from 1940 to 1944; the unfamiliar angle of sight reveals several surprises. Those of us who do not live under authoritarian regimes are always curious about what life in them is like; here is fresh fuel for our curiosity, neatly set out by an expert.”—Spectator (Spectator )
"Mr. Kitson''s book is a flawless piece of professional history: original, thorough, subtle, appropriately measured. It has been and will continue to be admired for these reasons alone. There is also much to interest the contemporary student of intelligence, particularly in Mr. Kitson''s discussion of a counterintelligence bureaucracy ''weakened by puerile rivalries.'' It may, however, be overlooked by readers of popular fiction. It shouldn''t be. A reader willing mentally to supply just a few lines of dialogue here and there will find between the lines of this book a dark and cynical spy novel filled with all the wretchedness of human nature, one all the more disturbing for being true."
(New York Sun )
Product Description
From 1940 to 1942, French secret agents arrested more than two thousand spies working for the Germans and executed several dozen of them—all despite the Vichy government’s declared collaboration with the Third Reich. A previously untold chapter in the history of World War II, this duplicitous activity is the gripping subject of The Hunt for Nazi Spies, a tautly narrated chronicle of the Vichy regime’s attempts to maintain sovereignty while supporting its Nazi occupiers.
Simon Kitson informs this remarkable story with findings from his investigation—the first by any historian—of thousands of Vichy documents seized in turn by the Nazis and the Soviets and returned to France only in the 1990s. His pioneering detective work uncovers a puzzling paradox: a French government that was hunting down left-wing activists and supporters of Charles de Gaulle’s Free French forces was also working to undermine the influence of German spies who were pursuing the same Gaullists and resisters. In light of this apparent contradiction, Kitson does not deny that Vichy France was committed to assisting the Nazi cause, but illuminates the complex agendas that characterized the collaboration and shows how it was possible to be both anti-German and anti-Gaullist.
Combining nuanced conclusions with dramatic accounts of the lives of spies on both sides, The Hunt for Nazi Spies adds an important new dimension to our understanding of the French predicament under German occupation and the shadowy world of World War II espionage. (02/24/2008)
Reader Reviews
I give the author a lot of credit for tackling this topic. In all my reading on World War II, Vichy counterintelligence/counterespionage is rarely commented upon. The focus is usually on paramilitary forces like the militia and their efforts against the allies. This book is focused on Vichy efforts to counter German and Italian attempts to collect intelligence using human sources. Just about everything the author writes is new information. Who knew the Vichy service continued to arrest Nazi agents right up until the occupation of all of France in 1942? The book is a real contribution to our knowledge of intelligence in the war. In the bibliography the author cites "Hitler's Spies", the seminal work on German intelligence during the war. I wish he had used that book's matrix to organize his work. Start by describing the mission of the agency, then give it's organization and strength and then move to illustrative stories. At the end of the book Kitson had still not methodically described the organization of the Vichy services or their field offices. Domestic and North African offices are mentioned, but did the Algiers office of Army CI/CE have 3 people assigned or 30? How do the offices in the "free" territory assign targets. Did they have any officers (not assets) in foreign countries or in the occupied zone? None of these organizational and operational questions are addressed and the books is poorer for it. Still after seeing the same old WW II topics worked over and over agin with little new information uncovered it is good to see a real original book produced at this late date.
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The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France
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