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In the Name of Humanity: The Secret Deal to End the Holocaust
On November 25, 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz heard a deafening explosion. Emerging from their barracks, they witnessed the crematoria and gas chambers--part of the largest killing machine in human history--come crashing down. Most assumed they had fallen victim to inmate sabotage and thousands silently cheered. However, the Final Solution's most efficient murder apparatus had not been felled by Jews, but rather by the ruthless architect of mass genocide, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. It was an edict that has puzzled historians for more than six decades.
Holocaust historian and New York Times bestselling author Max Wallace--a veteran interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation--draws on an explosive cache of recently declassified documents and an account from the only living eyewitness to unravel the mystery. He uncovers an astounding story involving the secret negotiations of an unlikely trio--a former fascist President of Switzerland, a courageous Orthodox Jewish woman, and Himmler's Finnish osteopath--to end the Holocaust, aided by clandestine Swedish and American intelligence efforts. He documents their efforts to deceive Himmler, who, as Germany's defeat loomed, sought to enter an alliance with the West against the Soviet Union. By exploiting that fantasy and persuading Himmler to betray Hitler's orders, the group helped to prevent the liquidation of tens of thousands of Jews during the last months of the Second World War, and thwarted Hitler's plan to take "every last Jew" down with the Reich.
Deeply researched and dramatically recounted, In the Name of Humanity is a remarkable tale of bravery and audacious tactics that will help rewrite the history of the Holocaust.
Holocaust historian and New York Times bestselling author Max Wallace--a veteran interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation--draws on an explosive cache of recently declassified documents and an account from the only living eyewitness to unravel the mystery. He uncovers an astounding story involving the secret negotiations of an unlikely trio--a former fascist President of Switzerland, a courageous Orthodox Jewish woman, and Himmler's Finnish osteopath--to end the Holocaust, aided by clandestine Swedish and American intelligence efforts. He documents their efforts to deceive Himmler, who, as Germany's defeat loomed, sought to enter an alliance with the West against the Soviet Union. By exploiting that fantasy and persuading Himmler to betray Hitler's orders, the group helped to prevent the liquidation of tens of thousands of Jews during the last months of the Second World War, and thwarted Hitler's plan to take "every last Jew" down with the Reich.
Deeply researched and dramatically recounted, In the Name of Humanity is a remarkable tale of bravery and audacious tactics that will help rewrite the history of the Holocaust.
564 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 22, 2017
156 people are currently reading
452 people want to read
About the author
Max Wallace
22 books51 followersMAX WALLACE is a writer and journalist. His book The American Axis, about the Nazi affiliations of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, was endorsed by two-time Pulitzer-winner Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Wallace co-authored the New York Timesbestseller Love & Death, about the final days of Kurt Cobain. Earlier, he wrote Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America. Ali himself wrote the foreword. From 1996-2000, Wallace worked for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation documenting the video testimonies of Holocaust survivors. As a journalist, Wallace has contributed to the Sunday New York Times as a guest columnist as well as the BBC. He has appeared three times on NBC's Today, as well as on Dateline NBC, Anderson Cooper 360°, CBS This Morning, and Good Morning America, plus numerous appearances on CSPAN's Book TV.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 30, 2018
In the Name of Humanity deals with a secret, until recently uncovered, deal that quickly ended the Holocaust. A deal that would end up saving thousands of Jewish lives and thwarted Hitler's plan to take down every Jew with the Reich. It also explains why Heinrich Himmler would order the destruction of the crematoria – the Final Solution's most efficient murder apparatus, an edict that has puzzled historians for decades. Max Wallace effectively chronicles the secret missions, attempts and negotiations that were initiated to help rescue the thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, in hope for a quick end to the Holocaust.
The cast of characters that broker this deal were unlikely heroes, as most heroes are, who worked tirelessly and often dangerously in their mission of mercy. Recha Sternbuch, an Orthodox Jewish woman based in Switzerland led the rescue committee with her husband, Isaac; Paul Gruninger, a Swiss police captain who aided the Sternbuchs in smuggling Jewish refugees across the border into Switzerland, which later cost him his job; Jean-Marie Musy, the former President of Switzerland who used his influence towards a rescue mission of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis; and Felix Kersten, the Finnish-born osteopath and masseur who had Himmler as one of his clients, and virtually convinced the Nazi leader towards the negotiated agreement that would bring an early end to the genocide.
On the other side of the deal was Heinrich Himmler, who while easily influenced towards an agreement was fanatically meticulous enough that he would never associate himself with. However, it was eventually shown that Himmler's motivation was rather selfish. He wanted to save his own skin and convince the western Allies that if he could avert the systematic murder of more Jews in the camps against Hitler's order, he somehow believed that Germany, Britain and the U.S. could focus their attention on fighting the quickly advancing Russian army and defeat the spread of Communism that would gobble up most of Europe.
This historic account was research thoroughly and Wallace had conducted countless interviews with survivors and experts to make the book flow well and in some parts read like a fiction spy thriller, but sadly, it was all too real. It took lots of work to bring this book into light and I am thankful for Wallace for doing so.
All in all, In the Name of Humanity was an excellent read with an outstanding grip on history. It shows the quiet desperation of attempts by Jews to rescue their kin in Nazi occupied territories. Wallace should be commended for his research and writing skills to bring about a very readable book and to shed light on a much forgotten chapter in the history of the Holocaust.
The cast of characters that broker this deal were unlikely heroes, as most heroes are, who worked tirelessly and often dangerously in their mission of mercy. Recha Sternbuch, an Orthodox Jewish woman based in Switzerland led the rescue committee with her husband, Isaac; Paul Gruninger, a Swiss police captain who aided the Sternbuchs in smuggling Jewish refugees across the border into Switzerland, which later cost him his job; Jean-Marie Musy, the former President of Switzerland who used his influence towards a rescue mission of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis; and Felix Kersten, the Finnish-born osteopath and masseur who had Himmler as one of his clients, and virtually convinced the Nazi leader towards the negotiated agreement that would bring an early end to the genocide.
On the other side of the deal was Heinrich Himmler, who while easily influenced towards an agreement was fanatically meticulous enough that he would never associate himself with. However, it was eventually shown that Himmler's motivation was rather selfish. He wanted to save his own skin and convince the western Allies that if he could avert the systematic murder of more Jews in the camps against Hitler's order, he somehow believed that Germany, Britain and the U.S. could focus their attention on fighting the quickly advancing Russian army and defeat the spread of Communism that would gobble up most of Europe.
This historic account was research thoroughly and Wallace had conducted countless interviews with survivors and experts to make the book flow well and in some parts read like a fiction spy thriller, but sadly, it was all too real. It took lots of work to bring this book into light and I am thankful for Wallace for doing so.
All in all, In the Name of Humanity was an excellent read with an outstanding grip on history. It shows the quiet desperation of attempts by Jews to rescue their kin in Nazi occupied territories. Wallace should be commended for his research and writing skills to bring about a very readable book and to shed light on a much forgotten chapter in the history of the Holocaust.
September 6, 2017
Het is dat je weet dat de man op de cover een geweldadige man was die heel veel doden op zijn geweten heeft, een man zonder geweten, maar als je dat niet had geweten, dan had je geloofd dat het een man met een klein hartje was die onder andere de kinderen op de cover, die zich duidelijk van niets bewust waren, gered zou hebben.
Het is een heel interessant boek over een puzzelstuk van een geschiedenis die niemand wist, die niemand had gezocht achter een van de meest gehate kopstukken uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
Het boek verteld van hoe Hitler aan de macht kwam in Duitsland en hoe Himmler zijn rechterhand werd, uit wat voor gezin Himmler kwam en waarom hij een hekel aan Joden had, maar tegen het eind van de oorlog toch welwillender werd om ze te bevrijden. Hoe dat kwam, waarom en door wie. Het boek verteld ook het verhaal van een heel erg moedige, sterke vrouw die samen met haar man zoveel mogelijk Joden heeft geholpen, ook na de oorlog, hoe ze dat deed en hoe ze er over dacht dat ze dat deed.
Het is een schokkend verhaal, maar toch goed dat het is geschreven, opdat men er hopelijk van kan leren, dat zoiets nooit meer mag gebeuren.
Het is een verhaal van niet de moed opgeven, probeer te onderhandelen als het moet, ook al is het met de vijand, een verhaal van angst voor de vijand, maar het is tevens een verhaal van dat je eigenlijk niemand kan vertrouwen, omdat, als het erop aan komt, men je verraadt, juist van de mensen die je het niet verwacht.
Minpuntje is dat de noten achterin staan in plaats van onderaan de bewuste pagina.
De foto's zijn een mooie aanvulling van het boek.
Kortom, dit boek is echt een aanrader als je geïnteresseerd bent in de verhalen over de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
Lees verder op https://surfingann.blogspot.nl/2017/0....
Het is een heel interessant boek over een puzzelstuk van een geschiedenis die niemand wist, die niemand had gezocht achter een van de meest gehate kopstukken uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
Het boek verteld van hoe Hitler aan de macht kwam in Duitsland en hoe Himmler zijn rechterhand werd, uit wat voor gezin Himmler kwam en waarom hij een hekel aan Joden had, maar tegen het eind van de oorlog toch welwillender werd om ze te bevrijden. Hoe dat kwam, waarom en door wie. Het boek verteld ook het verhaal van een heel erg moedige, sterke vrouw die samen met haar man zoveel mogelijk Joden heeft geholpen, ook na de oorlog, hoe ze dat deed en hoe ze er over dacht dat ze dat deed.
Het is een schokkend verhaal, maar toch goed dat het is geschreven, opdat men er hopelijk van kan leren, dat zoiets nooit meer mag gebeuren.
Het is een verhaal van niet de moed opgeven, probeer te onderhandelen als het moet, ook al is het met de vijand, een verhaal van angst voor de vijand, maar het is tevens een verhaal van dat je eigenlijk niemand kan vertrouwen, omdat, als het erop aan komt, men je verraadt, juist van de mensen die je het niet verwacht.
Minpuntje is dat de noten achterin staan in plaats van onderaan de bewuste pagina.
De foto's zijn een mooie aanvulling van het boek.
Kortom, dit boek is echt een aanrader als je geïnteresseerd bent in de verhalen over de Tweede Wereldoorlog.
Lees verder op https://surfingann.blogspot.nl/2017/0....
July 19, 2021
Excellently researched, but a little ambition.
Really fascinating. So much here I did not know about. Most of what I've read about the Holocaust are stories of experiences in concentration camps or ghettoes, or accounts of mass killing and torture, or otherwise general accounts of mass perception in America or Britain about what was happening in Europe. But this book shows that there was so much more going on behind the scenes, be they efforts to smuggle refugees into other countries, negotiations with high ranking Nazi officials to deport Jews, or political wrangling by Western countries to allow in refugees. Most of these efforts were for naught, but there are many heroes and villains involved, and their stories are intriguing.
Some parts read like an exciting narrative, but others are bogged down by details. I don't usually mind details if they are woven into a well-told narrative. But this book often feels like the work of a researcher rather than a storyteller.
I think this shortcoming is not the fault of any lack of style or finesse on the part of the author. I think it is more the fault of the topics covered in this book being too far-ranging. The author could have devoted an entire book to the immigration policy of the West towards Jews in the 1930s, and entire book to the American reaction to news of the Holocaust, and entire book to rescue efforts during the war, and entire book to negotiations with Himmler, an entire book about the concentration camps during the final days of the war... But this book tries to do all of this, and there are too many stories to tell for them to be woven together into a single narrative.
Still, the research of this book is impressive, and there is so much eye-opening information that I could never have imagives. Overall, I'd call this book more informative than it was enjoyable to read.
Really fascinating. So much here I did not know about. Most of what I've read about the Holocaust are stories of experiences in concentration camps or ghettoes, or accounts of mass killing and torture, or otherwise general accounts of mass perception in America or Britain about what was happening in Europe. But this book shows that there was so much more going on behind the scenes, be they efforts to smuggle refugees into other countries, negotiations with high ranking Nazi officials to deport Jews, or political wrangling by Western countries to allow in refugees. Most of these efforts were for naught, but there are many heroes and villains involved, and their stories are intriguing.
Some parts read like an exciting narrative, but others are bogged down by details. I don't usually mind details if they are woven into a well-told narrative. But this book often feels like the work of a researcher rather than a storyteller.
I think this shortcoming is not the fault of any lack of style or finesse on the part of the author. I think it is more the fault of the topics covered in this book being too far-ranging. The author could have devoted an entire book to the immigration policy of the West towards Jews in the 1930s, and entire book to the American reaction to news of the Holocaust, and entire book to rescue efforts during the war, and entire book to negotiations with Himmler, an entire book about the concentration camps during the final days of the war... But this book tries to do all of this, and there are too many stories to tell for them to be woven together into a single narrative.
Still, the research of this book is impressive, and there is so much eye-opening information that I could never have imagives. Overall, I'd call this book more informative than it was enjoyable to read.
March 28, 2018
(4.5, actually)
This carefully researched book focusses on the behind-the-scenes work done by many, and especially on the Orthodox Jews who worked from the beginnings of the Warsaw ghetto, right through the final days of the war, first to help Jewish people emigrate to safe havens, and then to stave off Hitler’s final orders to explode the remaining concentration camps so that no remaining Jews would survive. I learned for the first time (perhaps I should be ashamed to admit this ignorance) of the disgusting collusion among Western nations to reject any overtures to allow Jews to come to their countries; early on (and this is well documented) Himmler was willing to allow ‘The Final Solution’ to be based on all the Jews emigrating instead of being murdered. When Western powers made it clear that they were unwilling to take them, Hitler moved on with his original plans. The way this actually unfolded is riveting, and the work done tirelessly by Recha Sternbuch, an Orthodox Jew, and many others provides a counterpoint of hope in the face of the evil being done by Hitler and the complicity of the Allies in turning away from the suffering humanity that they could have helped.
The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is that the author rarely included dates in the text, even though the narrative moved back and forth in time; also, it would have been very helpful for a ‘cast of characters’ to be listed - like they do in a Russian novel!
This carefully researched book focusses on the behind-the-scenes work done by many, and especially on the Orthodox Jews who worked from the beginnings of the Warsaw ghetto, right through the final days of the war, first to help Jewish people emigrate to safe havens, and then to stave off Hitler’s final orders to explode the remaining concentration camps so that no remaining Jews would survive. I learned for the first time (perhaps I should be ashamed to admit this ignorance) of the disgusting collusion among Western nations to reject any overtures to allow Jews to come to their countries; early on (and this is well documented) Himmler was willing to allow ‘The Final Solution’ to be based on all the Jews emigrating instead of being murdered. When Western powers made it clear that they were unwilling to take them, Hitler moved on with his original plans. The way this actually unfolded is riveting, and the work done tirelessly by Recha Sternbuch, an Orthodox Jew, and many others provides a counterpoint of hope in the face of the evil being done by Hitler and the complicity of the Allies in turning away from the suffering humanity that they could have helped.
The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is that the author rarely included dates in the text, even though the narrative moved back and forth in time; also, it would have been very helpful for a ‘cast of characters’ to be listed - like they do in a Russian novel!
October 29, 2017
This book comprehensively lays out the sadly muddled, often competitive and increasingly desperate attempts by Jews to rescue their kin in Nazi occupied countries. In depth and immensely educational on a part of history that is often totally overlooked.
March 11, 2018
(4.5 stars) That was one heavy read. I had no idea about any of the negotiations that took place during WWII for the release of Jewish people in camps or on the brink of being deported. An extremely eye-opening read, though very dense and detailed.
August 30, 2023
HOW THE HOLOCAUST REALLY ENDED
The seemingly unstoppable orgy of murder called the Holocaust probably didn’t end when or how you thought it did. What really happened has come to light in mutually inconsistent accounts in some of the books written about World War II’s final months. But, as best I can tell, none of the authors of those books dug as deeply into the question of how the Holocaust ended as has Canadian Holocaust scholar Max Wallace in his 2017 book, In the Name of Humanity. It’s a tour de force of historical scholarship and an eye-opening look at when, why, and how the killing stopped.
HEINRICH HIMMLER AND THREE UNLIKELY OUTSIDERS
“The Holocaust only ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany.” That’s the conventional wisdom. You can read it almost anywhere in the history books. But it’s not true. In fact, with only rare exceptions, the Nazis’ murderous rampage stopped in November 1944, five months before V-E Day. And it ended because the homicidal men surrounding Adolf Hitler had fallen out among themselves, knowing full well that they’d lost the war.
At the center of the internecine conflict was SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s heir apparent and the architect of the Final Solution. Wallace shows that he put a stop to the killing for reasons of his own. But it took outsiders to convince him to do so. The decision saved tens of thousands of Jews—and “none were aware that they likely owed their lives to an elderly Swiss fascist, a formidable ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman, and a corpulent Finnish osteopath.” Although many others tried to bring influence to bear, these three played the most critical roles in persuading Himmler to end the Holocaust. And the story of how they did so in the face of foot-dragging from the Allied powers is nothing less than astonishing.
THE THREE UNLIKELY PEOPLE WHO HELPED END THE HOLOCAUST
Under no other circumstances could the three central characters in this story have come together in common purpose.
THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWISH WOMAN
Recha Sternbuch (1905-71) was the daughter of Markus Rottenberg, a Polish Ultra-Orthodox rabbi known throughout Europe. In 1928, she moved to Switzerland to join her new husband, Yitzhak Sternbuch, a successful businessman, and became a Swiss citizen. They took up residence in Montreux, which became the base of her ferocious campaign—fully supported by her husband—to rescue Jews threatened by the Nazis. On several occasions she risked her life to confront German soldiers and officials. She served time in Swiss prison. Despite the danger, she enlisted countless others in Central Europe and the United States to rescue thousands of Slovak and Hungarian Jews. And her cable to America brought word about the Holocaust for the first time to the Roosevelt administration and the world’s press.
THE ELDERLY SWISS FASCIST
Jean-Marie Musy (1876-1952) had retired in 1934 as a member and sometime president of the Federal Council of Switzerland. He was a fascist and an anti-Semite but deplored the senseless murder of the Jews by the Nazis. In a desperate attempt to call a halt to the Holocaust in the spring of 1944, Recha Sternbuch enlisted his help in contacting Heinrich Himmler. They hoped to persuade him to deport rather than kill Jews—and ultimately succeeded. But they had help.
THE CORPULENT FINNISH OSTEOPATH
In the final analysis, it was Himmler’s Finnish masseur, Felix Kersten (1898-1960), who tipped the scales in prevailing on the Reichsführer to defy Adolf Hitler and shut down the killing machine. Together with Musy, and a campaign by Orthodox rabbis orchestrated by Recha Sternbuch, Kersten somehow managed to talk the formidable Nazi leader into blowing up the crematoria at Auschwitz and stop the murder of Jews at concentration camps throughout what was left of German territory. What was going through Himmler’s mind at the time is anybody’s guess. But the facts on the ground are indisputable.
A COMPLEX STORY WITH HUNDREDS OF PLAYERS ENGAGED
The story Max Wallace tells is, unsurprisingly, far more complicated than the three preceding paragraphs convey. Scores, and ultimately, hundreds of other people tried to rescue the surviving Jews along with—or in fierce opposition to—Sternbuch, Musy, and Kersten.
Other players in the story included German, Swiss, Slovak, Hungarian, Swedish, British, and American officials. Plus representatives of the World Jewish Congress. The American War Refugee Board. The International Committee of the Red Cross. The British and American armies. And the Nazis themselves at the top of the heap, including Adolf Hitler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Adolf Eichmann, and Walter Schellenberg. In fact, Wallace’s story is so complicated that its contours emerge clearly only upon close reading.
AN ABUNDANCE OF GRANULAR DETAIL
In the run-up to the story of the war’s final months, Wallace writes in great detail about the power dynamics within the Nazi hierarchy. His focus is on the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), the SS unit commanded by Reinhard Heydrich (and later Ernst Kaltenbrunner) that included both the Gestapo and Kripo (criminal police). Adolf Eichmann worked for the Gestapo and was thus an RSHA official. Walter Schellenberg headed the SS foreign intelligence unit that late in the war absorbed the Abwehr. Like the others, he answered to Himmler. Wallace supplies capsule biographies of all four men as well as Himmler. And all four played important roles in ending the Holocaust, most of them supporting Himmler’s decision, with Kaltenbrunner pulling strings to continue the killing.
There is similar detail about the dynamics within the British and American governments in the face of demands that they take action to end the Holocaust. Demands that we know all too well today they stoutly refused to meet. Wallace paints an especially dark picture of the inaction and active resistance within the US State Department. It’s a shameful story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Max Wallace has written six nonfiction books on a variety of subjects but is best known as a Holocaust historian. He is the former Executive Director of the Anne and Max Bailey Centre for Holocaust studies in Montreal. And during the 1990s he worked for several years with Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, recording the video testimonies of Holocaust survivors, as he reveals in this book. Wallace was born in the United States but is a Canadian citizen.
The seemingly unstoppable orgy of murder called the Holocaust probably didn’t end when or how you thought it did. What really happened has come to light in mutually inconsistent accounts in some of the books written about World War II’s final months. But, as best I can tell, none of the authors of those books dug as deeply into the question of how the Holocaust ended as has Canadian Holocaust scholar Max Wallace in his 2017 book, In the Name of Humanity. It’s a tour de force of historical scholarship and an eye-opening look at when, why, and how the killing stopped.
HEINRICH HIMMLER AND THREE UNLIKELY OUTSIDERS
“The Holocaust only ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany.” That’s the conventional wisdom. You can read it almost anywhere in the history books. But it’s not true. In fact, with only rare exceptions, the Nazis’ murderous rampage stopped in November 1944, five months before V-E Day. And it ended because the homicidal men surrounding Adolf Hitler had fallen out among themselves, knowing full well that they’d lost the war.
At the center of the internecine conflict was SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s heir apparent and the architect of the Final Solution. Wallace shows that he put a stop to the killing for reasons of his own. But it took outsiders to convince him to do so. The decision saved tens of thousands of Jews—and “none were aware that they likely owed their lives to an elderly Swiss fascist, a formidable ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman, and a corpulent Finnish osteopath.” Although many others tried to bring influence to bear, these three played the most critical roles in persuading Himmler to end the Holocaust. And the story of how they did so in the face of foot-dragging from the Allied powers is nothing less than astonishing.
THE THREE UNLIKELY PEOPLE WHO HELPED END THE HOLOCAUST
Under no other circumstances could the three central characters in this story have come together in common purpose.
THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWISH WOMAN
Recha Sternbuch (1905-71) was the daughter of Markus Rottenberg, a Polish Ultra-Orthodox rabbi known throughout Europe. In 1928, she moved to Switzerland to join her new husband, Yitzhak Sternbuch, a successful businessman, and became a Swiss citizen. They took up residence in Montreux, which became the base of her ferocious campaign—fully supported by her husband—to rescue Jews threatened by the Nazis. On several occasions she risked her life to confront German soldiers and officials. She served time in Swiss prison. Despite the danger, she enlisted countless others in Central Europe and the United States to rescue thousands of Slovak and Hungarian Jews. And her cable to America brought word about the Holocaust for the first time to the Roosevelt administration and the world’s press.
THE ELDERLY SWISS FASCIST
Jean-Marie Musy (1876-1952) had retired in 1934 as a member and sometime president of the Federal Council of Switzerland. He was a fascist and an anti-Semite but deplored the senseless murder of the Jews by the Nazis. In a desperate attempt to call a halt to the Holocaust in the spring of 1944, Recha Sternbuch enlisted his help in contacting Heinrich Himmler. They hoped to persuade him to deport rather than kill Jews—and ultimately succeeded. But they had help.
THE CORPULENT FINNISH OSTEOPATH
In the final analysis, it was Himmler’s Finnish masseur, Felix Kersten (1898-1960), who tipped the scales in prevailing on the Reichsführer to defy Adolf Hitler and shut down the killing machine. Together with Musy, and a campaign by Orthodox rabbis orchestrated by Recha Sternbuch, Kersten somehow managed to talk the formidable Nazi leader into blowing up the crematoria at Auschwitz and stop the murder of Jews at concentration camps throughout what was left of German territory. What was going through Himmler’s mind at the time is anybody’s guess. But the facts on the ground are indisputable.
A COMPLEX STORY WITH HUNDREDS OF PLAYERS ENGAGED
The story Max Wallace tells is, unsurprisingly, far more complicated than the three preceding paragraphs convey. Scores, and ultimately, hundreds of other people tried to rescue the surviving Jews along with—or in fierce opposition to—Sternbuch, Musy, and Kersten.
Other players in the story included German, Swiss, Slovak, Hungarian, Swedish, British, and American officials. Plus representatives of the World Jewish Congress. The American War Refugee Board. The International Committee of the Red Cross. The British and American armies. And the Nazis themselves at the top of the heap, including Adolf Hitler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Adolf Eichmann, and Walter Schellenberg. In fact, Wallace’s story is so complicated that its contours emerge clearly only upon close reading.
AN ABUNDANCE OF GRANULAR DETAIL
In the run-up to the story of the war’s final months, Wallace writes in great detail about the power dynamics within the Nazi hierarchy. His focus is on the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), the SS unit commanded by Reinhard Heydrich (and later Ernst Kaltenbrunner) that included both the Gestapo and Kripo (criminal police). Adolf Eichmann worked for the Gestapo and was thus an RSHA official. Walter Schellenberg headed the SS foreign intelligence unit that late in the war absorbed the Abwehr. Like the others, he answered to Himmler. Wallace supplies capsule biographies of all four men as well as Himmler. And all four played important roles in ending the Holocaust, most of them supporting Himmler’s decision, with Kaltenbrunner pulling strings to continue the killing.
There is similar detail about the dynamics within the British and American governments in the face of demands that they take action to end the Holocaust. Demands that we know all too well today they stoutly refused to meet. Wallace paints an especially dark picture of the inaction and active resistance within the US State Department. It’s a shameful story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Max Wallace has written six nonfiction books on a variety of subjects but is best known as a Holocaust historian. He is the former Executive Director of the Anne and Max Bailey Centre for Holocaust studies in Montreal. And during the 1990s he worked for several years with Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, recording the video testimonies of Holocaust survivors, as he reveals in this book. Wallace was born in the United States but is a Canadian citizen.
September 30, 2018
This book is a fairly elaborate and detailed account of the small but brave groups of people that decided to help save Jewish people during the Holocaust. The book is extremely detailed and it’s conclusions are fairly backed up by interviews, records, and opinions taken from people who witnessed it first-hand.
One of the problems with it is that it has more evidence than needed, so some entries from the book can prove to be somewhat uninteresting. Large parts of the book have unnecessary evidence or information so the account can be a bit unsatisfactory at times.
Most of the book focuses on how a single but brave Jewish women named Recha Sternbuch along with the help of her family, managed to save hundreds of Jewish people. The book also tells a side of the Holocaust that most people would have never imagined possible, the story of how the Reichsfurer-SS managed to save hundreds, if not thousands of Jewish people through his greed, during the Holocaust.
One of the problems with it is that it has more evidence than needed, so some entries from the book can prove to be somewhat uninteresting. Large parts of the book have unnecessary evidence or information so the account can be a bit unsatisfactory at times.
Most of the book focuses on how a single but brave Jewish women named Recha Sternbuch along with the help of her family, managed to save hundreds of Jewish people. The book also tells a side of the Holocaust that most people would have never imagined possible, the story of how the Reichsfurer-SS managed to save hundreds, if not thousands of Jewish people through his greed, during the Holocaust.
November 6, 2020
Text from the book: "The uncomfortable reality is that, while much of the world abandoned the Jews and the American leadership dithered, a small disparate group came together to rescue the remnants of European Jewry. The rescuers included Zionists and anti-Zionists; Orthodox and secular Jews; pariahs...and even some Nazis. The motives...are still murky, as are their results."
"The blame for every concentration death, of course, ultimately rests with the Nazis whose despicable policies placed people there." Even at the late stages of the war, winter of 1945, ..."the fate of the European Jews had still hardly pierced the consciences of the Allied leaders."
I believe that the hero of this historical work is Recha Sternbuch, and her husband, who devoted their lives to the rescue of Jews.
"The blame for every concentration death, of course, ultimately rests with the Nazis whose despicable policies placed people there." Even at the late stages of the war, winter of 1945, ..."the fate of the European Jews had still hardly pierced the consciences of the Allied leaders."
I believe that the hero of this historical work is Recha Sternbuch, and her husband, who devoted their lives to the rescue of Jews.
December 11, 2017
Pretty dense history, but really enjoyed. The author has an exceptional grip on the subject-matter, and I learned a lot about a subject that I thought I already knew a lot about. Excellent book and research.
March 17, 2018
Amazing the history we are unaware of ,A most amazing woman .In parts it was so intense that I had to take breaks from reading it .
June 6, 2021
This book is the story of the efforts of numerous individuals and organizations that mobilized to try and save European Jewry from the Holocaust. The book begins with the efforts of Recha Sternburch and her husband, Issac, who began smuggling Jews out of Germany before the extermination process was even formalized. Mainly through the use of forged passports, they got Jews out Germany after such events as the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht.
As the extermination became organized after January,1942,these efforts intensified. We are introduced to others who took up the mission: Peter Bergson, Raoul Wallenberg, Jean-Marie Musy, Saly Mayer and Joel Brand. We follow negotiations with various German SS officials to stop the extermination of the Jews and get them released. Often these efforts involved ransom in money or goods.
We also see how these efforts were stymied by American and British officials who often denied the reports of escaped survivors. These officials tried to stop ransom payments as treasonous and said the best way to save the Jews was to win the war. Rivalries between various elements in the Jewish community: ie Zionists, orthodox or reform factions often hindered rescue efforts.
This book is a well researched and vital accounting of the worst episodes of genocide in history.
As the extermination became organized after January,1942,these efforts intensified. We are introduced to others who took up the mission: Peter Bergson, Raoul Wallenberg, Jean-Marie Musy, Saly Mayer and Joel Brand. We follow negotiations with various German SS officials to stop the extermination of the Jews and get them released. Often these efforts involved ransom in money or goods.
We also see how these efforts were stymied by American and British officials who often denied the reports of escaped survivors. These officials tried to stop ransom payments as treasonous and said the best way to save the Jews was to win the war. Rivalries between various elements in the Jewish community: ie Zionists, orthodox or reform factions often hindered rescue efforts.
This book is a well researched and vital accounting of the worst episodes of genocide in history.
February 12, 2020
I read a great number of WWII and holocaust books, both literature and non-fiction. I was very interested in this title which purported to reveal previously unknown negotiations to "end the holocaust". Having recently completed biographies of Heinrich Himmer and Reinhold Heydrich, two of the most powerful architects of the "final solution", I hoped to discover an amazing "new" history. The author lost credibility with me immediately when he stated that Heydrich had been "gunned down" in Vienna. He died of injuries from an attack, but not from bullet wounds. The title states that it depicts private meetings to end the holocaust. What "may" have been influenced by the negotiations was the final solution, not the holocaust. The final solution was the "planned" murder of people in concentration camps, or SS Einsatzkommando mass killings and other actions. The holocaust refers to the millions of Jewish people and other undesirables who lost their lives thru murder, of course, but also death by forced labor, starvation, and disease. Though the Auschwitz killing machine was dismantled when the book's negotiations were happening, the loss of life in the holocaust continued through the end of the war and beyond. If Himmler ordered the end of exterminations in Auschwitz because of these talks and to demonstrate his willingness to "end the holocaust", the crematoria and gas chambers would have been left intact to show that he COULD have kept killing people but chose to stop. The total destruction of evidence and the forced march of the remaining Auschwitz inmates who could still walk demonstrate that Himmler still wished the holocaust to continue. Germany was losing the war. Himmler acted to attempt to save his own neck, not to end the holocaust. That said, the book lists numerous individuals who negotiated with Himmler and / or his subordinates late in the war and did manage to ransom about 2,000 people. My review in no way diminishes their efforts. Jews and other "undesirables" were being rescued / ransomed throughout the war. This book adds names that are not as familiar to us as Irena Sendler, Oskar Schindler, or Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews. My disagreement is with the claim that the individuals discussed in this book should be given credit for "ending the holocaust". Kristi & Abby Tabby
November 14, 2021
Hitler a cruel dictator and his men
I enjoyed hearing about the devotion these people had to save as many people as they could regardless of the danger of being killed themselves . They showed the world the route to true compassion and love ❤️
I enjoyed hearing about the devotion these people had to save as many people as they could regardless of the danger of being killed themselves . They showed the world the route to true compassion and love ❤️
November 21, 2024
A book of historians as much as it is of history, this investigative work digs deep into a very nich part of Holocaust history to reveal some of the most fascinating, if biased, accounts of rescuing Jews during the war.
January 21, 2019
I doubt most people have a clue how much was done to try to buy the lives of the European Jews. I only knew of one or two of these attempts & none of the earliest ones. Very eye opening.
June 5, 2019
A masterfully told account of a relatively little known chapter within the history of this enormous tragedy of human civilization.
March 21, 2022
Excellent read about the war and the plight of the Jewish community in several European countries.
January 1, 2023
Very interesting, especially the information about Himmler. Also learned more about Ernst Kaltenbrunner than I had ever read before.
January 17, 2023
Learned quite a bit of new stuff, both the good and the bad about trying to address and fight the Final Solution.
May 14, 2024
Good read! And it good to see this information finally get printed.
March 27, 2025
Solid background. Very thorough.
January 16, 2018
Bijna ongezien een oorlogsboek dat ik niet uitlees en terug breng naar de Bib. Is het omdat ik met de verhuis me niet echt kan concentreren ik denk het niet. Het is de stijl en tevens de inhoud die me niet kan bekoren. Ik geef het dus 1 sterretje maar dan echt een heel pover sterretje.
August 6, 2020
Zeer interessant boek!
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