SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK
A page-turner found at Costco: “A groundbreaking World War II narrative wrapped in a riveting detective story,” The Devil’s Diary, Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich, delves into a diary of a member of Hitler’s inner circle.
The diary itself was found hidden in a Bavarian castle at the end of World War II. Its nearly 500 pages reveal the seeds of the Nazi philosophy that led to the Holocaust. Alfred Rosenberg himself was tried and convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg and was executed. That’s when the diary disappeared and did not reappear for 50 years.
Author Robert K. Wittman was an FBI agent when the chief archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Museum contacted the agency to report the diary was being offered by a private collector for a million dollars. The Devil’s Diary reads like a detective novel, full of twists and turns, eccentric characters and unlikely discoveries.
(The original review in the June 13 Must Read Alaska newsletter contained review material from HarperCollins, not intended to represent itself as original work -SD.)