John Batchel.

This excerpt from a four-hour conversation I had with the author Charles Spicer,

his new book, Coffee with Hitler,

The Untold Story of the Amateur Spies Who Tried to Civilize the Nazis.

This particular passage is about the Auster conspiracy, 1938,

an attempt by opponents of Hitler and the National Socialists who overwhelm their apparatus in Berlin using the police elements and other security elements.

1938, the Khazas Beli, as Charles teaches us, was the attack on Czechoslovakia that was imminent.

However, the Uster conspiracy needed Hitler to attack.

That would have brought forth those who saw this was madness.

This was putting Germany into a place where there was tragedy ahead.

They needed Czechoslovakia to be attacked, not for there to be appeasement. And Charles explains

how close it came, and then Chamberlain. Here's Charles Spicer, coffee with Hitler, the

untold story of the amateur spies who tried to civilize the Nazis.

And again, just like 1936, a missed opportunity to stop the crisis before it begins.

Stop it. Save the 20th century. It didn't happen, but close. Absolutely. And I think the 38

Ostra conspiracy was the one that had the most chance of success. Because, you know, put put

simply, they had arranged for the Berlin police force to come on side. And all of the infantry

units stationed around Berlin.

So the idea of arresting Hitler in Berlin looks like it would have been executable,

if you see what I mean, because it would be very difficult for anyone to come to his rescue

if you had the entire police force and the army on the region on your side.

And they were nixed by Chamberlain coming on his aeroplane because that robbed the conspiracy of its Casasbelli,

...