Rating: 4 out of 5
Canaris’ story is an interesting one, but I found—in short—this account too repetitive. Having made it’s point not only in the introduction as well as in every chapter from there on, the author also felt the need to emphasise how the Admiral’s attitude remained anti-Nazi. I’m not sure that the physical count of how many one was able to save also is a number that should just be thrown around: how many is enough?
Going into the weeds, the chapters preceding life in National Socialist Germany could have been a bit more thorough. As it was the formative time of the person, it would have been nicer to see more detail here: especially in the First World War operations where we get told a lot about what Canaris, though low-ranking, managed to achieve. Some more examples and illustrations (textual) of this would have been good to have.
Once we come into the period under Hitler, the author’s tune essentially starts to echo: Canaris was doing good things (anti-regime), he was doing bad things (pro-regime), but the latter were relatively important because he was trying to do them as badly as possible. It’s interesting in this light to see the factions within Abwehr as well as in other organisations, but overall the conclusions should state that while he carried out pro-Hitler activities (however well), the admiral also managed to take action to support the opposition.
Whether that’s enough to redeem him in whole or in part is something I’m not sure can be answered based on this title alone: I would lean at the very least towards “in part”. The author, however, would like us to think so.
