Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada's Greatest Spy

The thrilling true story of agent A12, the earliest enemy of the Nazis

“Brilliantly researched. . . . A page-turner, one of those books not to be missed.” —Rosemary Sullivan, author of Stalin’s Daughter

“Who knew that a Canadian was the first to warn the world what the Nazis were up to, and to do it years before anyone else was even talking about Nazis? Winthrop Bell is a name you should know, and thanks to Jason Bell and his deep-dive research, you now will.” —Peter Mansbridge

In public life, Dr. Winthrop Bell of Halifax was a Harvard philosophy professor and wealthy businessman. But as MI6 secret agent A12, he evaded gunfire and shook off pursuers to break open the emerging Nazi conspiracy in 1919 Berlin. His reports, the first warning of the Nazi plot for WWII, went directly to the man known as C, the mysterious founder of MI6. Throughout this, a powerful fascist politician quietly worked to suppress Bell’s alerts. Nevertheless, agent A12’s intelligence sabotaged the Nazis in ways that are only now being revealed.

Bell became a spy once again in the face of WWII. In 1939, he was the first to crack Hitler’s deadliest secret code: the Holocaust. But the führer was a popular politician who said he wanted peace. Could anyone believe Bell’s shocking warning? Fighting an epic intelligence war from Ukraine, Russia and Poland to France, Germany, Canada and Washington, DC, A12 was the real-life 007, waging a single-handed fight against madmen bent on destroying the world. Without Bell’s astounding courage, the Nazis might just have won the war. 

Informed by recently declassified documents, Cracking the Nazi Code is the first book to illuminate the astonishing exploits of Winthrop Bell, agent A12.

JASON BELL, PhD, is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He has served as a Fulbright professor in Germany and taught at universities in Belgium, the United States and Canada. His first book, Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada’s Greatest Spy, was a national bestseller.