First published 2018
On a cold February day in 1933, twenty-four German business leaders gather secretly in the Reichstag building. They meet with Nazi officials to discuss financial backing for the National Socialist German Workers' Party and its terrifying leader. This clandestine arrangement sets in motion a cascade of national consent that will produce horrific consequences. Five years later, the world watches Germany's motorized army roll into Austria during the Anschluss. Goebbels' propaganda machine broadcasts images of unstoppable military might, but behind the carefully crafted spectacle, a different reality unfolds. Tanks break down in Austrian streets, undermining the orchestrated myth of invincibility. The true story reveals itself as a series of small power struggles, anxious phone calls, and crude threats rather than heroic determination. Victory comes through intimidation and deception, not glorious conquest. Vuillard strips away the mythology surrounding these pivotal moments to expose how bluff and coercion shaped history's darkest chapter.
Genres: history, 20th-century, military-history, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, power-struggle
Setting: Reichstag, Austria, Germany
Period: 1933, 1938
160 pages · Hardcover · Meulenhoff
Content warnings: violence