In 1942, eight men are sent from Nazi Germany to infiltrate America. Their mission: to sabotage critical infrastructure. Their problem: they’re idiots. Operation Pastorius soon devolves into one of the most baffling failures of World War II.
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Further Reading
The tale of Operation Pastorius is told in They Came To Kill: The Story of Eight Nazi Saboteurs in America, by Eugene Rachlis, and Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America, by Michael Dobbs. The classic experiment of the smoke-filled room is Bibb Latane and John M Darley’s Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. And if you think you might have seen Joseph Schmidt, please contact J. Edgar Hoover.
