Otto Strasser in Paradise: A Nazi in Nova Scotia by H. Millard Wright

Otto Strasser in Paradise: A Nazi in Nova Scotia

H. Millard Wright

Nonfiction: History, World War II, 1950s, Nova Scotia, Politics
$16.95
160 pages
6" x 9" Trade Paperback
Includes photographs
ISBN 978-1-897426-25-8
(Available in April 2011)

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Otto Strasser along with other top Nazis such as his brother, Gregor Strasser, Goebbels, Goering, Hess and a few others, laid plans to take over Europe and then the world. But Otto eventually disagreed with Adolph Hitler on various issues in the National Socialist Party and was ejected from its ranks and formed the Black Front, a breakaway Nazi movement. Gregor Strasser was murdered by Hitler, who feared his influence in the Nazi Party. And Otto, who could well have been the leader of the German government but for some dramatic twists of fate, ran through Europe with Hitler's hitmen hot on his heels. So how did he end up living in bucolic, rural Nova Scotia for 13 years, from 1942 to 1955?

Strasser continued to criticize Hitler from outside Germany. Britain whisked him out of harm's way and sent him to Canada where he remained from 1941 to 1955, literally a prisoner. The Canadian government prohibited him from publishing articles; his mail was censored and the RCMP kept him under surveillance. By the time he was allowed to return to Germany, he was largely forgotten. He died in 1974, a dispirited and disheartened man.

Much has been written about Otto Strasser, but little about his years in Bridgetown, Clarence and Paradise, Nova Scotia. It is this period of his life that this narrative explores.

H. Millard Wright was born and grew up in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. He had a successful business career, becoming a vice-president and board member of L.E. Shaw Ltd. and president of Clayton Developments. He is a past president of the Halifax Board of Trade, a past director of the Maritime Chamber of Commerce, past director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and past director of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council. He formed his own company, Colonial Scientific Ltd., in 1971 and retired in 1992. He has published eight books.