Reinhard "Hangman" Heydrich was one of the most ruthless members of the Nazi regime. Head of the dreaded SD (Sicherheitsdienst, or security service), he was a principal behind the bloody Night of the Long Knives when the leaders of the rival paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung, or stormtroopers) were murdered. Even more ominously, Heydrich was highly influential in coming up with the "Final Solution" that lead to the Holocaust. He reported directly to SS leader Heinrich Himmler until he was assassinated near Prague in 1942.
One can only imagine how the war might have gone differently if Heydrich had survived. Or, one can read The Man with the Iron Heart, where author Harry Turtledove has posited just such a "What If?" scenario. Here, a slight change in events-Heydrich commanding his driver to leave the scene upon being attacked rather than sticking around to fight-is the difference between life and death for the Hangman.
Perhaps it is his brush with death that gives Heydrich second sight, but as the war begins to appear lost in the ensuing years, he prevails upon Himmler to do prepare for the inevitable defeat by stockpiling weapons and specially trained men for a resistance effort against the invading allies. Of course, Hitler must know nothing of the effort, lest he label it defeatism and Himmler and Heydrich traitors.
And so, after the fall of Berlin and the death of the Fuhrer, the "victorious" allies fall under attack by Heydrich's "Werewolves", or resistance fighters. Well ensconced in an underground mountain retreat, Heydrich plans the attacks and gives the orders that make them happen. At first, the allies see them as a nuisance more than a threat. But as the suicide attacks and bombings continue, the allies-especially the United States-must take the threat seriously.
That's because back home, a movement is growing to bring the troops home and end the occupation of Germany. Founded by Diana McGraw, an Indiana housewife whose son was killed by Nazi partisans after the war was "finished", the peace movement grows larger and larger as the casualties continue to mount. And its voice is being heard, as the Republicans in congress challenge President Truman to declare the mission accomplished and bring the boys home. But Truman fears that is playing right into Heydrich's hands-and may mean a return of the Nazis to power in Germany.
It's obvious from early on Turtledove has patterned The Man with the Iron Heart after the current war in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, guerilla warfare in Vietnam-and the author admits as much in an afterward section. But the concept has merit-what would have happened to American resolve after four long years of fighting had the Nazis not simply given up as they did?
As is often the case with Turtledove's novels, the path not taken shares much with actual events in the real world. And in fact, there really was a German "werewolf" resistance effort following the war, though it was poorly organized and never as effective as the author envisions it under Heydrich. And also as his wont, Turtledove sprinkles in a number of real-life characters along with his own to make the action more realistic.
But we never can shake the sense while reading that the book is a bit allegorical and that Turtledove is lecturing us that it would be just as bad an idea for the US to pull out of Iraq as it would be had we left Germany shortly after World War II. Much of that has to do with the Diana McGraw character, who is a dead ringer for Cindy Sheehan, even to the point of becoming a gadfly to Truman just as Sheehan was for George Bush.
Then too, the werewolves themselves are a problem here in the way that Turtledove develops them. While the novel works when Nazi partisans are attacking American and Soviet troops with rockets and bombs, it is much less so when they're committing suicide bombings and hijackings across Europe. After all, such attackers in the Middle East and Asia were usually motivated by the promise of a speedy trip to Paradise in the afterlife-something Nazi ideology could never match.
But in the final analysis, The Man with the Iron Heart is very much an interesting and thought provoking read. The clever ending punctuates the book as a one-off flight of fancy, but also leaves the door open for a sequel (and once Harry churns more than one novel out on a given theme, you know you're in for the long haul).
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