Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust (Paperback)

Units described as being formed by the Nazi SS leaders Himmler and Heydrich immediately before the invasion of the East/Soviet Union and which followed the advancing German Armies.

Special squads cited in this work as often consisting of many professional, "educated" men such as lawyers, doctors, architects etc., and who are shown here to have participated in an acutely "personal" manner of murder where some 1.5 million men, women and children were barbarically executed by shooting.

The book describes how the bodies of their victims were disposed of in "killing pits" (often antitank ditches, natural ravines or freshly dug pits). The text revealing how many of the mass graves each contained numerous thousands of innocent victims, frequently shot one by one and buried layer upon layer.

One such massacre quoted in this study as being carried out in the aforementioned manner is that at Babi Yar. A ravine where Jewish men, women, children & the elderly are demonstrated here to have been systematically machinegunned in a two day period of execution.

Numerous photographs are also provided showing how some of the 1.5 million innocent Jews and innocent Poles and Russians were marched to such "pits" as these before being lined up and summarily executed. The book also describes the beginning of the use of mobile gas "killing vans" where the victims carried in sealed areas to the rear were subjected to the vehicles' exhaust fumes.

The graphic detail provided in this work is in itself difficult to read and might upset many readers, but the author makes no effort to trivialise the suffering of the utterly defenceless victims and the cold blooded barbarity of their executors.

Many eyewitness accounts and testimonies of those who participated in the slaughters have been uncovered and are used to provide an essential reference and authenticity to the context of this presentation.

Early on in the book the writer provides a commentary on the nature of violence and how these "ordinary" men became capable of carrying out such atrocities. The study further documents the impact of these mass murders on the individual perpetrators and the ensuing psychological traumas that many endured. Some readers might disagree with the conclusions drawn here or like myself feel uneasy with the section of the book which tries to fathom the mindset of these murderers.

The study also makes specific mention of how Adolf Hitler cherished a fanatic hatred of the Jews and how he personally ensured that the highest priority was placed on their total elimination. The book likewise analyses how Hitler also intended to enslave and destroy with privation the far more numerous Slavic peoples as well. This is an extremely powerful book and a major contribution towards the study of the Holocaust. Recommended.

The book looks at the role of the Einsatzgruppen and how it was formed, organized and deployed as well as some of its key players. It attempts to explain how men became able to carry out such mass executions by applying criminological explanations of brutalization and exploring other environmental factors the murderers were subjected to. However it does so without defending them or excusing their actions.

The author also examines some of the most important atrocities committed by these killing squads such as, amongst others, Babi Yar and Rumbula. In doing so he goes into extremely graphic detail as recounted by the few who survived, and even some of those carrying out the killings, of how the murders were actually done. I guarantee the detail will make you feel sick to your stomach.

The book draws to an end by examining the psychological suffering of the killers and the need for the Nazi regime to find a better more humane way (for the killers that is, not the victims) of killing countless innocent people. The invention of the death camps at Chelmno, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka (and later Auschwitz-Birkenau) was their answer. The Holocaust invented!