The Devil's Doctor: Felix Kersten & the Secret Plot to Turn Himmler Against Hitler

by John H. Waller

In 5/40, as Nazi panzers overran the Netherlands, Felix Kersten received a summons he couldn't refuse. A prosperous physical therapist who'd ministered to the Dutch royal family, he was asked to forsake his adopted home in the Netherlands to become personal physician to Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. While others might have spent the ensuing years paying fearful obeisance to this monstrous master, Kersten discovered he'd the means to manipulate the surprisingly naive Himmler. In doing so, he saved thousands of lives & actually persuaded Himmler to join a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler. The Devil's Doctor tells the true story of how one brave man did everything he could to turn the corrupt & maniacal Nazi power structure against itself & prevent the slaughter of thousands. This tale shows that a person's courageous determination can make a difference.

Genres: History, Biography, War, Holocaust, Germany

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about the personal physician to Heinrich Himmler. It had alot of insight and personal information regarding both Himmler and Hitler. He actually savedthe lives of over 60,000 Jews in concentration camps by persuading Himmler to join in a plot to overthrow Hitler.
His story is very intriguing and he is truly an authorative on his subject.

[Jenny Hellman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jotkut kirjat kaulaa vain läpi.
Tähän voi kyllä myös vaikuttaa YLE Areenan radio-ohjelma.

[G Ream · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to see how one man influenced evil incarnate on behalf of thousands of people he didn’t know. He also had to fight against a label as a Nazi sympathizer.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is as much a book about Walter Schellenberg, a high-ranking SD (Sicherheitsdienst, Amt VI) intelligence officer, as it is about Felix Kersten, both of them being most intimately involved with manipulating their boss, Heinrich Himmler, often in collusion with one another.

I had hoped for more information about Himmler's peculiar religious ideas. He had been, like Hitler, raised Catholic, but had turned against Christianity, substituting for it another faith complex containing a hodgepodge of ideas drawn from various sources. This book, however, makes bare mention of such except in reference to his favored astrologer, Wilhelm Wulff.

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting. Uncommon knowledge about Himmler's anti-fascist doctor and how he had a hand (generally through Himmler) in saving thousands.

offers a portrait of a little-known hero of the war-a therapist whose work brought him into the center if Hitler's morally depraved regime. The doctor used his influence to sway Hitler's henchman not to enslave and kill thousands of people.