Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Schneider Zalman Neufeld
Guest: Gershom Gorenberg, author of War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East
Date: January 26, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores Gershom Gorenberg’s book War of Shadows, delving into the secret intelligence and codebreaking battles that shaped the North African and Middle Eastern theaters of World War II. The discussion covers Nazi ambitions in the region, Allied cryptography breakthroughs, espionage drama on all sides, and the downstream consequences of these clandestine struggles. Neufeld and Gorenberg weave together military, political, and human stories from a tense period when the outcome of global conflict was anything but certain.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

How Close Were the Nazis to Conquering the Middle East?

• Gorenberg’s inspiration originated from a friend’s story about the British evacuation from Palestine, underscoring how precariously close the Axis came to conquering the Middle East (02:53).
• Italy, under Mussolini, initiated the front in North Africa, seeking a "new Roman Empire" (04:36).
• Hitler dispatched Rommel and the German Panzer Corps to rescue failing Italians, which then became a plan to sweep across the Middle East (06:08).

The Vichy French Role and Shifting Colonial Control

• After France's surrender, Vichy-controlled territories in the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon) and North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) became potential Axis strongholds (06:20).
• Britain sent forces to seize Syria and Libya, turning them over to Free French leadership (06:55).

The Enigma Machine and Allied Cryptography

• Gorenberg describes Enigma’s technical sophistication and why the Germans considered it unbreakable (07:59).
  • Enigma had “a number which you would write as a 5 followed by 92 zeros” for possible wirings (10:36).
  • Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski was the first to crack its method, then handed the secret to the British before WWII (12:20).
  • Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking center, built on the Poles’ achievement and became “this hyper-secret high-tech startup whose business was breaking Enigma” (13:40).

Alan Turing’s Role

• Turing designed a machine to test Enigma settings rapidly, not single-handedly breaking the code (14:15).
  • "Turing’s work was... part of a team... his major contribution is he came up with the design for a machine..." (14:16).
• Gordon Welchman improved Turing’s design.
• Key codebreaking involved exploiting repeated German phrases (“nothing to report”, “Heil Hitler”), which was a security flaw due to overconfidence in Enigma (15:45).

Axis Espionage: Italian Successes in Code Theft

• Italy’s codebreaking agencies lagged technologically, but were adept at infiltrating embassies (17:20).
  • Through clandestine safecracking and forging keys, Italy secured codebooks from embassies, even within the Vatican (18:20).

The Nazi Final Solution’s Looming Threat to the Middle East

• An SS Einsatzkommando, led by veteran exterminator Walter Rauff, was dispatched to prepare genocide operations against Jews in Egypt, Palestine, and potentially beyond (21:39).
  • “His assignment was to carry out what the SS called executive measures, which essentially meant mass murder...” (22:38).
• The plan was thwarted only by the British victory at El Alamein (24:06).

Jewish Community Responses in Palestine

• Despite British-imposed immigration restrictions (the “White Paper”), the mainstream Jewish leadership in Palestine supported the Allied war effort as “my enemy’s enemy is a greater enemy” (24:53).
• A radical minority, Lehi (the Stern Gang), briefly sought support from Axis powers but had negligible impact.

Jewish-British Intelligence Collaboration

• German-born Jews in Palestine formed commando units, posing as German soldiers for deep raids (27:18).
• British Special Operations Executive trained Jewish militias in partisan tactics in anticipation of a Nazi victory in Palestine (28:17).

Major Personalities

Erwin Rommel

• Rommel, often portrayed heroically, “worshipped Hitler” and was deeply involved in Nazi operations (30:35).
• His alleged involvement in the July 1944 plot against Hitler is historically debated; his suicide was coerced by the regime to avoid public embarrassment (32:50).

Haj Amin al-Husseini

• Palestinian nationalist and former Mufti of Jerusalem; collaborated with Axis, mostly as a Nazi propaganda tool—not as a shaper of policy (33:48).

King Farouk of Egypt

• Farouk, young and inexperienced, played both sides; suspected of tipping German intelligence about British moves (36:04).
• British ultimately orchestrated a governmental coup to secure Allied interests, but this undermined both Farouk and the new pro-British administration, sowing seeds for future upheaval (37:30).

Historical Agency, Contingency, and Research

• Gorenberg underscores the anxious uncertainty of wartime decision makers, who “had to guess... and the stakes were enormous” (39:18).
  • “They did not know how it was going to turn out... as if they knew the spoilers... but they didn’t.” (40:30)

Research Methodology & Challenges

• Still-classified British intelligence papers, archival fragments in Italy, Germany, Israel, and private collections: Gorenberg stitched together his narrative from scattered documentary puzzle pieces (42:06).
  • “Putting together jigsaw puzzle pieces that had been scattered across half the globe...” (43:30)

Human Weakness as the Perennial Flaw

• Even “unbreakable” codes were rendered vulnerable by simple human errors—poor embassy security, passwords written down, etc.—a vulnerability just as present today (46:17).

The Value – and Limits – of Intelligence

• Intelligence impact hinges on clarity, open-minded commanders, and the resources to act:
  • Japanese codebreaking before Pearl Harbor (“all the warnings in the world aren't useful if you can’t or won’t act on them”) (50:34).
  • Allied victory at El Alamein and at Midway are “textbook cases” of intelligence tipping the scales (53:40).
• History lacks control groups; we cannot ever know “what would have happened” otherwise (55:17).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gorenberg on Nazi confidence in Enigma:

  “Enigma was unbreakable. It was perfectly secure. What happened was, it was perfectly secure as long as... somebody didn’t look at the problem in a different way.” (10:49)

• On the uncertainty of historical outcomes:

  “We tend to look at the past through the lens of what we already know as if everybody already knew the spoilers, as if they knew what the next paragraph of history was going to be. But they didn’t.” (40:30)

• On the problem of human error in technological security:

  “The flaw in all of these great machines is that they are used by human beings. The technology gets better and better; the human beings are the same human beings.” (48:44)

• On the historian’s limits:

  “History is not a scientific lab. There is no control group. You can't run the war twice, once with this information and once without it.” (55:17)

• On forgotten heroes:

  “Inside of those forgotten stories are forgotten people who were incredible heroes.... I dedicated my book to the memory of forgotten heroes.” (59:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:53 – Gorenberg’s motivation and research journey
• 04:36 – Italian and German plans for the Middle East
• 06:20 – Vichy French territories and British responses
• 07:59 – The Enigma machine explained
• 14:15 – Turing’s contribution and codebreaking teamwork
• 17:20 – How Axis powers infiltrated Allied communications
• 21:39 – Nazi plans for the Final Solution in the Middle East
• 24:53 – Jewish political and military alignment in Palestine
• 27:18 – Jewish participation in Allied intelligence and commando raids
• 30:35 – The real Erwin Rommel and his Nazi ties
• 33:48 – Haj Amin al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis
• 36:04 – King Farouk’s equivocation and British intervention
• 39:18 – The policymaker’s dilemma and historical contingency
• 42:06 – Archival challenges and methodology
• 46:17 – Human error as the Achilles’ heel of security
• 50:34 – Limits of intelligence, and successes at El Alamein and Midway
• 55:17 – The impossibility of historical “what-if” analysis
• 56:51 – Gorenberg on the broader lessons and changing histories

Conclusion

Gorenberg and Neufeld’s conversation reveals the deep interconnections between espionage, human error, and historical contingency in shaping the outcomes of WWII in the Middle East. The episode emphasizes both the drama of secret intelligence operations and the vulnerability and unpredictability inherent in all technological and political undertakings. Gorenberg’s meticulous archive work and narrative flair highlight the contributions of many—especially the unsung and largely forgotten—who shaped the fate of the modern Middle East.

For listeners interested in WWII, intelligence history, the Middle East, or the interplay between technology and human weakness, this episode—and Gorenberg’s book—are highly recommended.