Jonathan Freedland is a columnist with the Guardian, which is where I came across his book the Traitor’s Circle. The book recounts a true story of German dissidents during World War II. They met regularly at the house of one of their members to discuss their disgust for Hitler and dim outlook on the war. Some of them committed true acts of heroic bravado, including one escapade that involved smuggling a trainload of Jews into Sweden, but mostly their only “dissidence” was a refusal to abandon their morals and accept the legitimacy of the Reich. For this, they were punished severely, after a mole infiltrated one of their parties and denounced them for the crime of “defeatism.”
The story is engaging and does a good job of showcasing that even among the groups that benefitted from his rule, support for Nazism was not absolute among the German people. Freedland has a tick of ending every chapter wit ha cliffhanger that started to feel a little forced, but overall the writing did a good job of capturing the moment and conveying the different narratives in a clear way. Worth reading.