The head of the Abwehr was Wilhelm Canaris. Knowing Dohnanyi’s position on Hitler, Canaris appointed Dohnanyi to his staff and asked him to compile a file of the Nazis’ atrocities. A year later, when the war against Poland was launched, Dohnanyi documented the barbarity of the SS Einsatzgruppen, even though many of the top generals themselves knew nothing about it.
