Reviewing '' 1938 : Hitler ’s Gamble '' in '' Spectator Magazine '' , Graham Stewart said : " Giles MacDonogh has repeatedly shown himself to be in the front rank of British scholars of German history . The depth of his human understanding , the judiciousness of his pickings from source material and the quality of his writing make this book at once gripping and grave . " MacDonogh criticised the 2004 German film Downfall for sympathetic portrayals of Wilhelm Mohnke and Ernst-Günther Schenck . Mohnke was rumoured , but never proven , to have ordered the execution of a group of British POWs in the Wormhoudt massacre near Dunkirk in 1940 , while Schenck 's experiments with medicinal plants in 1938 allegedly led to the deaths of a number of concentration camp prisoners . In response , the film 's director stated he did his own research and did not find the allegations as to Schenck convincing . Mohnke strongly denied the accusations against him , telling historian Thomas Fischer , " I issued no orders not to take English prisoners or to execute prisoners . " His latest book is '' The Great Battles '' ( 2010 )
Wormhoudt massacre
Wormhoudt massacre
Giles MacDonogh