Opposing Hitler: Adam von Trott zu Solz, 1909-1944: 'To Strive and Not to Yield'

Adam von Trott zu Solz was a boy when Germany was defeated militarily in 1918 and, in his youth, he witnessed Germany's economic collapse. He was studying at Oxford University when Hitler came to power in 1933. As the economy improved, Hitler enjoyed enormous support. After 1939, the German armies ravaged at will through Western Europe, and von Trott was convinced that the necessary opposition to the Nazis must come from within Germany and not from outside its borders. As a senior official in the Foreign Office, von Trott travelled frequently to Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey to talk with British and American contacts, pleading unsuccessfully for recognition of the internal resisters. In July 1944, he was one of the leaders of the group which attempted to assassinate Hitler. Refusing all offers to smuggle him out of Germany - "I shall take the blame for everything" - von Trott was executed at the age of 35. Based on extensive research and talks with those who knew him, this book details the life of a charismatic opposition leader with a brilliant intellect who refused to compromise his conscience and who sacrificed himself to a noble cause.