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Himmler's Secret War: The Covert Peace Negotiations of Heinrich Himmler. By Martin Alien. London: Robson Books, 2005. ISBN 1-86105-889-6. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xx, 300. £17.99.
Following a brief biographical sketch of Heinrich Himmler, Martin Alien weaves together a well-written and well-documented story of the SS leader's covert wartime negotiations with the Allies, beginning with Prince Max von Hohenlohe's trip to neutral Switzerland during October-November 1939. Despite the Venlo Incident in the fall of 1939 (Chapter Two), the British continued covert negotiations with Himmler (and for a time with Hitler's emissaries) with the intention, however, not of making peace, but rather to "encourage the Germans to attack Russia" (p. 92).
The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) along with the secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, began to carry out separate attempts at covert...