Unknown Enemy

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 SAS Brothers in Arms and The Nazi HuntersWell-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 – Simon Heffer * Telegraph *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 – RICHARD OVERY, author of Blood and RuinsDeeply researched, thorough and well argued – an excellent study of an often forgotten part of the Nazi past – JAN RÜGER, author of HeligolandFull of acute insights and arresting details … A vital contribution to our understanding of Nazi terror and the Third Reich – NIKOLAUS WACHSMANN, author of KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration CampsEngagingly 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 HitlerUnknown 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 – CHRISTOPHER DILLON, author of Dachau and the SS

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.