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

The harrowing true story of Organisation Todt, the builders-turned-killers at the center of the Nazi war machine. Adolf Hitler described the Organisation Todt as "the greatest construction organization of all time." It was from this organization, 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 labor system, the largest exploitation of foreign labor 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 :
"Nazi atrocities receive plenty of attention, but one murderous Reich institution has slipped under the wire...An impressively researched indictment of Hitler's monumentally cruel construction organization." --Kirkus (Starred Review) "Previous studies haven't provided a full accounting of the atrocities committed by its personnel, or under its oversight, because the OT has only been dealt with piecemeal . . . In the OT, competent professionals working independently of direct Nazi control were willing and active participants in the worst crimes of the regime. The implications are sobering, and this compelling telling offers new insight into the operations of a fascist state." --Booklist, starred 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." --Damien Lewis, author of AGENT JOSEPHINE and MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE "Deeply researched, thorough and well argued - an excellent study of an often forgotten part of the Nazi past" --Jan Rüger, author of HELIGOLAND "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" --Christian Goeschel, author of MUSSOLINI AND HITLER