After more than 50 years, some of the secrets behind the post-war kidnappings in Berlin remain classified. Following Second World War, West Berlin residents found themselves as prime targets for kidnapping by communist agents. Lurid press accounts of these abductions left Berliners frightened and intimidated. The central connection of American intelligence agencies (CIC, CIA) to most of these cases, however, was not well known at the time. Delving into these various kidnapping cases, Smith discovers a distinct profile for the abductees. Almost all were former residents of East Germany and, as such, had an intelligence value for the Americans. This connection in turn made them prime targets for Soviet and East German intelligence units.

Examination of the climate of fear in West Berlin reveals the complexity of politics in the early Cold War. Many targeted individuals had Nazi pasts-a factor that the Americans took great pains to conceal. At one point, the United States even risked a diplomatic rupture with West Germany when American authorities went so far as to block prosecutions of a German citizen in German courts for aiding in the kidnapping of a number of West Berliners. Exactly why Washington was so willing to go to extreme lengths in this case remains unknown, but Smith's research sheds new light on the clash between East and West in one troubled city.

Exploring a little known aspect of the history of the Third Reich, this text relates the struggle between party loyalists, who assumed that with the assumption of power in 1933 state control was theirs and diplomats in the Foreign Office, who viewed Hitler and his followers as representatives of a party that would disappear.

There are several important studies on Allied efforts to re-educate German civilians after the fall of Nazism. The simultaneous major program of the U. S., Britain and Soviet Union to influence the future of German politics and society through the re-education of prisoners of war has not previously been studied. Based on extensive archival research, including hitherto unknown material from the Soviet archives, as well as interviews with participants, this book draws a fascinating picture of the war for the postwar German mind. It also explores the question of the impact of the returnees upon the two German states that emerged after 1945. The unique value of this study lies in its genuinely comparative approach which also examines the program that Soviets introduced in their POW camps.

The Nazi Party and the German Foreign Office explores the struggle between entrenched diplomats in the Foreign Office and Party loyalists, who presumed that with the assumption of power in 1933 total state control was theirs.

Millionen Deutsche waren im Zweiten Weltkrieg vor den alliierten Bombern auf der Flucht aus den Stadten. Plane fur die Evakuierung gab es nicht, das NS-Regime nahm die Gefahrdung der Zivilbevolkerung billigend in Kauf. Als die Reichsfuhrung im Fruhjahr 1943 endlich aktiv wurde, war es zu spat: Das ganze Reichsgebiet war inzwischen Luftkriegsgebiet. Was nur als vorubergehende Notlosung geplant war, wurde fur viele Evakuierte zum jahrelangen Dauerzustand: Leben in einem fremden Umfeld, in primitiven Verhaltnissen, getrennt von der Familie. Eine Losung bahnte sich erst im Jahre 1953 mit dem Erlass des Bundesevakuiertengesetzes an. In der Studie werden politische Entscheidungsprozesse und Wirkungen der Evakuierungen auf zentraler Ebene und vor Ort untersucht sowie die Erfahrungen der Betroffenen, Einheimischer wie Evakuierter, am Beispiel Bayerns aufgezeigt. Aus der Presse: "Das aufschlussreiche Buch, das u.a. mit der Sozialanalyse der im Landkreis Berchtesgaden Evakuierten und der im Marz 1945 aus Wurzburg Geflohenen profunde weiterfuhrende Einsichten bietet, verdient eine breite Rezeption und regt zum Diskurs an." Bernhard Sicken in: Das Historisch-Politische Buch, 48 (2000), H. 3"