If you want the inside scoop on the secret police during Nazi Germany, this is the book. The author defected prior to the invasion of Poland, so there isn't a lot of coverage of the actual war, but this gives insight to the machinations of the deep state in Nazi Germany.

It is dry and full of names, dates, and places, but it is amazing that this much information was able to be smuggled out of the country during the war. The author, known as the "man of a thousand names," was no typical secret agent.

Now we know a lot about the back-biting that went on in the inner sanctums of the Nazi government, but this account is extremely detailed. The high level of paranoia was only enhanced by the double and triple agents.

My thanks to NetGalley and Eglantyne Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is Heinrich Pfeifer’s first publication. Drunk on Power Vol 1: A Senior Defector’s Inside Account of the Nazi Secret Police State was published in late September of this year. It is the 70th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! I categorize this book as G. Heinrich Pfeifer wrote this book while living in Switzerland shortly after WWII ended. He was assassinated in 1949 by Nazi sympathizers. Pfeifer was known as the “man of a thousand names.” He is known to have used at least 20 aliases. This book was first published under the alias of ‘Heinrich Orb’. Pfeifer was a journalist before the war and became one of the leaders within the Nazi SD (Security Police of the SS and Gestapo). He had joined the Nazi party in 1929, eventually reporting directly to Himmler’s chief deputy, Reinhard Heydrich. During this time, any action that served the state was considered lawful.

Pfeifer traveled widely, picking up several languages and accomplishing many daring and incredible missions. Heydrich insisted that Pfeifer work under a pseudonym, even in his office. Pfeifer’s outlook changed after The Night of the Long Knives in 1934. He defected to Switzerland in 1938 and aided Allied intelligence.

I enjoyed the 19+ hours I spent reading this 530-page WWII history. The book was published in German in 1945. This edition has been translated, and more than 250 illustrations have been added. I found the book to be interesting, but it was also dry and hard to read. Pfeifer does talk a lot about the infighting and rivalries within the Nazi leadership. It is surprising how much success was achieved with so much divisiveness between the leaders. The book is more of a research reference. The chosen cover art is OK. I am not sure what image could be better. I give it a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

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4 stars. Very interesting read. I definitely learned a lot about the horrible events of the Holocaust and inside the evil mind of one of the members that inflicted this horrible pain. A little bit too lengthy for my taste but was an important read.

The material itself is too complicated to rate, so I'll rate the translation and compilation instead. Both very well done, with no spelling difficulties that I noticed. This is a dark book at times, the more so because the events described are true. I'm not sure how much was edited by the translator or author, but this is a good addition to the scholarly field.