All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler

by Rebecca Donner

An ordinary citizen who finds a leaflet in her mailbox can report the offense to the local police station. The Gestapo relies on citizens like this to assist in policing neighborhoods and rooting out the resistance. As the number of snitches and gossips and snoops and denouncers increases, the Gestapo develops a classification system, distinguishing between an Informationsperson (information person), a Wahrmann (truth man), a Gewährsmann (informer), a Gegnermann (opponent man), a Zuverlässigerperson (reliable person), and an Auskunftmann (information man). At the top of the hierarchy are elite informers called Vertrauensmänner (men of confidence), designated as “VM” in Gestapo reports. VM are paid Gestapo spies who write their reports in code and deposit them in designated postboxes. Often, they masquerade as Hitler’s enemies. In the language of espionage, they are moles. The most skillful VM penetrate a resistance group’s inner core and befriend its members, earning their trust, learning their secrets, reporting it all to the Gestapo.