Pretty good book about MI5's efforts to track down Nazi sympathizers in the UK during WW2. At the very beginning of the book author Robert Hutton makes it clear that he faced a severe shortage of documentation. After the war a lot of files were destroyed by the UK. Why? The author believes that post war leaders did not want it known just how many ordinary citizens were not only sympathizers, but willing to commit espionage, and kill if the chance arose. It was evident that many Britons craved authoritarian rule. It was also painfully clear that anti-Semitism was widespread, and in the post war years as the world grappled with the Holocaust, acknowledging it's scope in the UK was toxic. Oddly enough, Victor Rothschild, a member of one of Europe's most famous Jewish families, played a critical role in MI5's efforts during the war, and he faced whispers that he was not up to the job because he was a Jew. That he might have dual loyalties.
"Jack", was a nondescript bank teller who was pressed into service as the war broke out running multiple large cells of sympathizers. Soon he had collected a group of shop keepers, housewives, factory workers, and minor level members of the social elite who were under the impression they were harvesting intel to help the German war effort.
Given some of the stuff going on in the US right now, there are some troubling parallels in attitudes and loyalties. Also in the scapegoating seen in Europe before and during WW2.
"Jack", was a nondescript bank teller who was pressed into service as the war broke out running multiple large cells of sympathizers. Soon he had collected a group of shop keepers, housewives, factory workers, and minor level members of the social elite who were under the impression they were harvesting intel to help the German war effort.
Given some of the stuff going on in the US right now, there are some troubling parallels in attitudes and loyalties. Also in the scapegoating seen in Europe before and during WW2.
