logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2023
46m 58s

A Nazi Defector Revealed Germany’s Infil...

History Unplugged
About this episode
Heinrich Pfeifer was a senior member of the Nazi deep state who defected in 1938. He wrote his memoirs in 1945, with the goal of describing the inner workings of Nazi intelligence with enough detail to keep any of the members from escaping justice from the encroaching Allies. However, he was assassinated in 1949 after a pro-Nazi hit squad killed him, and copies of his work were mostly destroyed. However, today’s guest, Robert Temple, was able to obtain a copy and recently translated it to English.

Temple is author of Drunk On Power: A Senior Defector’s Inside Account of the Nazi Secret Police State. It is the first complete description of the Nazi “Deep State” by its most senior defector, Pfeifer. We discuss a complete X-Ray of the structure of the Nazi Deep State and describe the international infiltration of Nazis into key institutions in every country in the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
Beyond Joan of Arc and Agincourt: How the 100 Years War Crushed Medieval Europe and Launched its Global Order
Modern France and Britain were forged in the fires of the Hundred Years War, a century-long conflict that produced deadly English longbowmen, Joan of Arc’s heavenly visions, and a massive death toll from Scotland to the Low Countries. The traditional beginning and end of the Hund ... Show More
58m 41s
Oct 7
Reverse Ellis Island: American Migrants Who Fought for Mussolini and Built Stalin’s USSR
America saw a significant reverse-migration in the 1800s and 1900s, with 20–50% of Italian immigrants returning to Italy as ritornati and tens of thousands of Americans, including ideologues and workers, moving to Germany, Italy, and the USSR in the 1930s seeking political or eco ... Show More
38m 33s
Oct 2
Don’t Use Rome as a Model of Why Societies Collapse; Use Crime Syndicates and Somalia Instead
12,000 years ago, human history changed forever when the egalitarian groups of hunter-gathering humans began to settle down and organize themselves into hierarchies. The few dominated the many, seizing control through violence. What emerged were “Goliaths”: large societies built ... Show More
49m 42s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2023
Nazi Germany: the myth of the innocent bystander
In 1945, after defeat in the Second World War, many Germans claimed to have known nothing about what had happened to their fellow Jewish citizens – and with that, the idea of the ‘innocent bystander’ was born. But just how true was this claim? Delving into a rich archive of perso ... Show More
37m 18s
Jan 2024
405. The Nazis in Power: The Nuremberg Rallies (Part 2)
“We did not lose the war because our artillery gave out, but because the weapons of our mind didn’t fire”In September 1934, the Nazis held their sixth annual party conference in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. The location held a symbolic resonance for the party, being not only t ... Show More
55m 5s
Oct 2017
EP1 Imperial Germany vs Nazi Germany
Dan once said that he thought Germany's First World War military was superior to Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht. He is often asked to elaborate, so he does in this show (note:this “pilot” show was previously posted on YouTube) Notes: The Pity Of War: Explaining World War I by Niall Fer ... Show More
52m 4s
Jan 2024
404. The Nazis in Power: The Night of the Long Knives (Part 1)
“Hitler had entered Röhm’s bedroom alone with a whip in his hand. Behind him had stood two detectives holding pistols, with the safety catch removed, at the ready…”The 30th of June 1934 saw a seismic moment unfold in the early years of the Third Reich. With the Führer and his par ... Show More
57m 8s
Jul 2020
The death of Heinrich Himmler
One of Hitler's most important henchmen was caught by British troops in the chaos of post-war Germany just after WW2 had ended in Europe. A British soldier described to the BBC how the leading Nazi bit down on a cyanide capsule and died. Gordon Corera has been listening to the ar ... Show More
10m 17s
Apr 2023
Hitler
On this episode of Talking History, as part of our series on the history of totalitarian dictators, we're looking at the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and finding out why he lost the Second World War so spectacularly. Featuring: Prof Frank McDonough, specialist on the history of ... Show More
53m 46s
May 2017
Hitler’s Early Rise and the Night of the Long Knives
Over the course of several days in 1934, Adolf Hitler, who was at the time the Nazi Party Leader and Reich Chancellor, directed an action which eliminated all of his political enemies and enabled him to declare himself Fuhrer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.ihear ... Show More
31m 4s
Sep 2018
75 - The Rise of Hitler and National Socialism
September 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the Munich agreement, where the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to Germany to meet Hitler; in an attempt to avert war. He famously returned with an agreement which he believed would deliver ‘peace in our time’. It got ... Show More
1h 4m
Mar 2023
The (Nazi) Hess Conspiracies (Rudolf Hess)
During WWII, Rudolph Hess, a close aide to Hitler, made a secret flight to Scotland, where he was imprisoned. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss who Hess was, why he crossed enemy lines, and the allegations of conspiracies involving British and Nazi leaders. The post The (Nazi ... Show More
1h 15m