This is the dramatic but little-known story of a group of prominent Nazi SS hostages transported from various concentration camps to a remote Alpine valley in the final days of the Third Reich. Five Irishmen were among the 160 prisoners whom Himmler and other SS leaders attempted to use as barter to save the regime or, as a final resort, themselves.

As well as eminent international statesmen, aristocrats, and clergy, the group contained opposition German generals and civilian relatives of those who had plotted against Hitler. They were held with Russian, Italian, and Polish special prisoners whose existence was a state secret. They lived in constant danger of execution, a fate some did not escape, including Stalin’s son, who died following a fracas with the Irish prisoners. Theirs is an astonishing and epic tale.

Tom Wall is a retired official of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and is a master’s graduate of UCD. He is a regular contributor of essays and reviews on historical themes for Dublin Review of Books.