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Masters of Death

The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust

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Masters of Death

Written by: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
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About this listen

In Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar. These massive crimes have been generally overlooked or underestimated by Holocaust historians, who have focused on the gas chambers.

In this painstaking account, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes profiles the eastern campaign's architects as well as its "ordinary" soldiers and policemen and helps us understand how such men were conditioned to carry out mass murder. Marshaling a vast array of documents and the testimony of perpetrators and survivors, this book is an essential contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust and World War II.

©2002 Richard Rhodes (P)2017 Tantor 20th Century Germany Judaism Wars & Conflicts Military War Holocaust Imperialism Hungary Prisoners of War
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What the critics say

"Rhodes, a Pulitzer winner for The Making of the Atomic Bomb, has pulled together a mountain of research on the mass murders of Jews perpetrated by the Einsatzgruppen...Rhodes holds the mirror up." ( Publishers Weekly)

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Profile Image for Duane Dewey MacLEOD

Deeply disturbing. A must read for humanity.

Neil's narration was gripping. I watched a program on Netflix ( Einsatzgruppen: The Nazi Death Squads ) which I now know is an informative summary of the history of the death squads in eastern Europe during the early 1940s and would recommend people watch this prior to listening to this book. It puts a human face on the those murdered, and those few who survived the Nazi led Holocaust. Those faces and images will be with you the whole time you listen to this book.

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Profile Image for Derek

Speculative and disjointed

Speculative and disjointed, unfortunately. Some good information, but it bounces between historical facts and psychological theories without much structure.

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