Karen Gray Ruelle - Surprising Spies: Unexpected Heroes of World War II

IT WAS 1933 , and Germanys economy was in bad shape. Factories were closing and people across the country were living in poverty, desperate for jobs and food. At that time, Germanys chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was head of the Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparteithe National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi party. His ideas about what was wrong with the country especially appealed to these Germans who were living in such poor conditions.

Hitler used persuasive speeches to blame Jewish people for Germanys troubles, and because there was already a lot of anti-Semitism (hatred for Jews) in the country, it wasnt difficult for Hitlers supporters to accept what he told them: that Jews were responsible for the problems in the world, and they had to be destroyed.

The following year, upon the death of Germanys president, Hitler proclaimed himself the fhrerthe supreme leaderof Germany. He promised to make Germany great again. But his ultimate goal went beyond lifting the country out of economic depression. He wished to conquer all of Europe, and perhaps the rest of the world, too.

The Nazis especially hated Jews, but they also hated anyone else who didnt fit into the Aryan stereotype. People who were considered Aryan had physical features that were typical of many northern Europeans, including blond hair and blue eyes. They were, in Hitlers words, pure and free of Jewish influence. Those who didnt fit the Nazis ideal mold also included Slavs, Romani people, Jehovahs Witnesses, people who were not heterosexual, people who were not cisgender, the mentally ill, and people with physical differences or disabilities. Hitler wanted to destroy them all.

BENITO MUSSOLINI, prime minister of Italy, and ADOLF HITLER during an official visit to what was then occupied Yugoslavia in the early 1940s

Italys prime minister, Benito Mussolini, was in league with Hitler. Like Hitler, he was a fascista dictator with complete power over everything in their country, who doesnt allow anyone to disagree with them. While Hitler focused on conquering his neighbors in northern and central Europe, Mussolini sent the Italian army into the nations surrounding the Mediterranean and into North Africa, where he hoped to rule.

Around the same time, Japans Emperor Hirohito planned to vanquish all of Asia. In 1937, the Japanese army invaded China and continued on the march. Japan partnered with Nazi Germany and Italy in 1940, and the three countries formed the basis of an alliance called the Axis. They vowed to help one another in their battle for world domination.

When the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941, the United States joined Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and others in battling the Axis nations. (The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a socialist state in Eurasia made up of Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia, and Transcaucasia, with its government center in Moscow. After 1991, the USSR was dissolved and broke up into separate countries again.)

The US, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union were the chief countries to fight the Axis, and they were called the Allied nations. By now, nearly the entire world was at war. The conflict lasted from 1939 until 1945, when the Allies could at last claim victory. During that time, horrific numbers of people were killed, including six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis in what became known as the Holocaust.

World War II produced many Allied heroes who proved their enormous courage and selflessness in land, air, and sea combat. But many other battles were played outand wonin secret, by mysterious means, fought by warriors most of us have never even heard of. These were the soldiers of the underground, the Resistance fighters, and the spies who risked their lives on dangerous missions to gather information, to spread disinformation, to sabotage, confound, or destroy the enemy, all in an effort to help win the war.

Japan, the third major Axis nation

EMPEROR HIROHITO of Japan on his favorite horse, Shirayuki, in 1935

This army of secret warriors was made up of all sorts of unsung heroes, from everyday citizens spying on their neighbors in broad daylight to trained soldiers and spies sneaking into enemy territory.

This book profiles several such underground fighters, and the true identities of some of these spies may surprise you. Most of them had a network aiding their cause: a handler, or contact person, back home whose job was to support them as much as possible; a courier, who would deliver messages, letters, and packages; and subagents, who reported to them. There also were cryptologists who worked hard to break codes and decipher secret messages, and wireless operators who helped to send encrypted messages. And of course, all the while, there were the soldiers on the front lines.