The Man Who Came Back, first published in 1958, reads like a modern political thriller. This astonishing - but true - story not only relates the dramatic details of John's youthful opposition against the Nazis, but also gives a full account of his part in the great German wartime conspiracy and bomb plot against Hitler in July 1944. The description of John's hair's-breadth escape to Britain, and his work for the British Black Propaganda organization at Bletchley Park, threw light for the first time on many well-kept war secrets.
Returning to his defeated and divided Fatherland as Chief of West German Intelli¬gence, John was soon involved in the frantic underground warfare of rival espionage organizations; he was also caught up in the East-West conflict of conscience which harassed many of his compatriots. His mysterious 'disappearance' from West Germany and emergence in Com¬munist East Germany, his equally baffling return to the West, and his controversial trial, coincided with important stages in Germany's postwar development.
Was Otto John a criminal and a traitor, or a hero and martyr? That is the question which this exciting book probes. It was a question that concerned not only the fate of one man but the future of Germany, Europe, and, perhaps, the peace of the world.
