Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force That Built the Third Reich

'Riveting, timely and truly revelatory. The Organisation Todt is the Nazi-era secret that still needs to emerge from the shadows' DAMIEN LEWIS, author of SAS Brothers in Arms and The Nazi Hunters 'Charles Dick has done a major service to the history of the Third Reich. The Organisation Todt exploited camp prisoners and forced labourers as ruthlessly and murderously as the better-known SS, but its responsibility has never been properly explored' RICHARD OVERY, author of Blood and Ruins Discover for the first time the story of the Organisation Todt, a hidden and brutal organisation overseen by Hitler at the heart of the Nazi machine. Adolf Hitler described the Organisation Todt as 'the greatest construction organisation of all time'. It was from this organisation, headed by Albert Speer, that Hitler enlisted the nation's leading engineers and architects to build his empire of dreams. In time, it became a key partner to the SS and the Wehrmacht and led to the deaths of millions. Unknown Enemy reveals the full extent of the OT and its long arm across Europe and the Reich. In wartime, its operations relied mainly on Germany's slave labour system, the largest exploitation of foreign labour since the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Charles Dick takes us inside the OT's vast building projects throughout German-occupied Europe, from the Arctic circle to the Balkans, to tell the story of how engineers and builders – so-called 'ordinary men' – perpetrated some of the gravest war crimes under its banner. Despite its extensive network, the Organisation Todt largely managed to slip under the radar of war prosecutors after Germany's defeat. Drawing on extensive new research, first-person accounts and survivor testimony, Unknown Enemy finally unearths its dark story.

About the Author :
Charles Dick is an independent scholar who obtained his PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. He was a journalist for Reuters News Agency (later Thomson Reuters) in North Africa, Bonn, Paris, Vienna and London over a thirty-five-year career. He lives in London.

Review :
Riveting, timely and truly revelatory. The Organisation Todt is the Nazi-era secret that still needs to emerge from the shadows. Charles Dick's book does that and so much more Well-researched and scholarly . . . Reminds us how many criminals got away . . . When the Second World War came, OT had new priorities: the Atlantic Wall, submarine pens, mines . . . This is where Dick lifts up the stone: much of what OT achieved, or tried to achieve, required slave labour. As such, OT played its part in the Final Solution and other war crimes. The book is a depressing reminder that most of the leaders of the organisation, and the chief brutes who worked under them, got away with it Dick writes well and provides a mass of readable information on how Organisation Todt exhibited some of the most brutal aspects of Nazi rule, above all in its treatment of foreign workers. His two books have well and truly put the organisation on the historical map The complete story of Organisation Todt, the Nazis' little known, brutal engineering operation and its works across German-occupied Europe Mr Dick's account of Speer as head of the OT makes for compelling and sobering reading . . . In addition to letting the perpetrators ultimately go free, Mr Dick writes, “postwar trials have contributed very little to public understanding of the vast scope and brutal nature of the OT's activities.” His book performs that important task at last Charles Dick has done a major service to the history of the Third Reich … The Organisation Todt exploited camp prisoners and forced labourers as ruthlessly and murderously as the better-known SS, but its responsibility has never been properly explored. Dick gives us more “ordinary men” capable of committing inhuman crimes, a story still pertinent in today's troubled world Deeply researched, thorough and well argued – an excellent study of an often forgotten part of the Nazi past Full of acute insights and arresting details … A vital contribution to our understanding of Nazi terror and the Third Reich Engagingly written and impressively well-researched, Unknown Enemy will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the Second World War Unknown Enemy provides a compelling and smartly researched overview of Organisation Todt . . . Dick's analysis of how these ordinary German engineers, architects, and site foremen exacted a deadly toll on the lives of millions of forced labourers is a major contribution to historical knowledge on the Nazi pursuit of Lebensraum