Sisters in Resistance

In a tale as twisted as any spy thriller, find out how three women were drawn together to deliver critical evidence of Axis war crimes to Allied forces during World War II: ';Mazzeo is a fascinating storyteller' (New York Journal of Books).In 1944, the war had reached itsclimax incontinentalEurope. News of secret diaries kept by Italys former Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness.What wasnt reported, however, was how three womena Fascists daughter, a German spy, and an American socialiterisked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allied forces, who would use the papers as key evidence against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials.Just a year earlier, Edda Mussolini, Benito Mussolinis daughter, had given Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husbands journals to the press.Knowing the diaries will expose Nazi lies and create a foundation for a criminal war crimes prosecution, Hitler and Mussolini vow to do everything in their power to see the diaries destroyedeven if it means liquidating Mussolini's daughter. To do this, they ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries location. As the seducer becomes the seduced, however, Hilde shifts her loyalties and becomes a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this fails, Edda flees to Switzerland with Hilde's daring assistance to keep Cianos final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies.When the head of United States' intelligence, Alan Dulles, learns of Eddas escape, he sends in socialite Frances De Chollet, an ';accidental' spy, assigned by chance to a mission that would change her life. Her task is to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Against all expectations, what develops is a rich and humanizing friendship between the two women. One step ahead of the Gestapo agents who are hunting Edda, together they succeed in preserving one of the most important historic documents of the Second World War.Drawing from indepth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed parts of this true story, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this littleknown moment in cultural history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Francess involvement, certain convictions would never have been possible at Nuremberg. Sisters in Resistance is a powerful look at womens intelligence work during WWII, a moving story of unlikely wartime friendships, and an inspirational investigation into three people who, navigated the place where truth, loyalty, justice, and betrayal collide.