For Volk and Fuhrer: Robey Leibbrandt & Operation Weissdorn - Hans Strydom

For Volk and Fuhrer: Robey Leibbrandt & Operation Weissdorn - Hans Strydom

Hardcover, ISBN 9780868500348
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 1982 First Edition
Used - Very Good. Protected with a Cellophane cover.

With war clouds gathering over Europe the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin was a glittering showpiece for Nazi Germany. It was here that the young South African boxer Robey Leibbrandt shook the hand of Adolf Hitler. It was a moment that changed his life. Leibbrandt was caught up in the ideology of National Socialism and he became an ardent Nazi, prepared to do anything to serve the Fuhrer.

At the expense of the Reich he underwent extensive training in sabotage and espionage which culminated in his appointment to spearhead Operation Weissdorn – the overthrow of Jan Smuts’s coalition government, the assasination of Smuts himself and the establishment of a National Socialist republic in South Africa. This is the remarkable story of Leibbrandt’s high-risk mission, a true life drama played out against the background of a divided nation at war. There are few South Africans who are even aware of Operation Weiss-dorn, let alone how very close it came to succeeding. It is also the story of the courageous Jan Taillard, appointed by Smuts to flush Leibbrandt out, his dogged pursuit of his prey and the extraordinary circumstances of his eventual success.