Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"Silesian Station" is a fast-paced account of the Third Reich's march toward all out war in the summer and fall of 1939. Author David Downing's protagonist, John Russell, is an Anglo-American journalist who winds up with a foot in every political camp as he tries to protect his German family from being swept up in the coming onslaught. The plot line in this book is driven forward with an almost breathless narrative that includes many intriguing details of how ordinary Germans were living and coping in the pre-war years of Hitler's Reich.
A lot of first-rate research had to have been done by author Downing to put together the exciting and persuasive story that runs from page one. There are fascinating details about the Silesian border areas where the German invasion of Poland eventually takes place--including credible descriptions of how local Nazi party offiicials dominated social life down to the village level. This inevitably involved the state-sponsored bullying and eventual destruction of Jewish communities and individuals. That persecution and the many other forms of it practiced by the Nazis is threaded carefully throughout this account of espionage and international duplicity by the various governments that employ protagonist Russell in this story.
"Silesian Station" is right up there with the writing of Alan Furst, Philip Kerr and, at times, even William Shirer. An excellent read with few false notes by a gifted writer.
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