The Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War II

by Ian Buruma

Ian Buruma's spellbinding account of three near-mythic figures - a Dutch fixer, a Manchu princess, and Himmler's masseur - who may have been con artists and collaborators under Japanese and German rule, or true heroes, or something in between.

On the face of it, the three characters in this book seem to have little in common--aside from the fact that each committed wartime acts that led some to see them as national heroes, and others as villains. All three were mythmakers, larger-than-life storytellers, for whom the truth was beside the point. Felix Kersten was a plump Finnish pleasure-seeker who became Heinrich Himmler's indispensable personal masseur - Himmler calling him his "magic Buddha." Kersten presented himself after the war as a resistance hero who convinced Himmler to save countless people from mass murder. Kawashima Yoshiko, a gender-fluid Manchu princess, spied for the Japanese secret police in China, and was mythologized by the Japanese as a heroic combination of Mata Hari and Joan of Arc. Friedrich Weinreb was a Hasidic Jew in Holland who took large amounts of money from fellow Jews in an imaginary scheme to save them from deportation, while in fact betraying some of them to the German secret police. Sentenced after the war as a con artist, he was regarded regarded by supporters as the "Dutch Dreyfus."

All three figures have been vilified and mythologized, out of a never-ending need, Ian Buruma argues, to see history, and particularly war, and above all World War II, as a neat story of angels and devils. The Collaborators is a fascinating reconstruction of what in fact we can know about these incredible figures and what will always remain out of reach. What emerges is all the more mesmerizing for being painted in chiaroscuro. In times of life-and-death stakes, the truth quickly gets buried under lies and self-deception. Now, when demagogues abroad and at home are assaulting the truth once more, the stories of the collaborators and their lessons are indispensable.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Japan, War, China, Asia

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2023

About the author

Ian Buruma is a British-Dutch writer and academic, much of whose work focuses on the culture of Asia, particularly that of 20th-century Japan, where he lived and worked for many years.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ian Buruma is a fascinating, intelligent and incredibly astute observer and commentator. If you have read anything by him then you will not be surprised at the brilliance of this book, if you haven't then I encourage you, once you have finished 'The Collaborators', to search out any of his previous books. I would be surprised if you were disappointed in any of them.

This title of the book is self explanatory - collaborators - people who chose the wrong side in WWII. But these are not the main actors in 'collaboration' as it occurred during WWII, they are not even low grade monsters like Louis Darquier de Pellepoix (for more on him read Carmen Callil's superb 'Bad Faith') these are people who made bad choices.

Before saying anything further I want to quote what an Irish politician, Oliver J. Flannagan, said in 1938 about easing the barriers to Jewish immigration to Ireland:

"They (the Jews) crucified our Saviour 1,900 years ago and they have been crucifying us every day of the week".

That there were people holding unpleasant views in Ireland in 1938 just like there are today is not noteworthy; the complete absence of disagreement and silence of politicians of every party, of the Catholic Church on every level from the Primate in Armagh to humble parish priests, and commentators on newspapers, magazines and periodicals (with the sterling exception of Hubert Butler), is damning proof that those peoples lucky enough to have avoided Nazi occupation are in no position to believe that they would have behaved in a better way.

None of the collaborators Buruma discusses Kawashima Yoshiko, a Manchu princess - the character 'Easter Jewel' in Bertolucci's 1987 film 'The Last Emperor' is based on her legend not her life - who allied herself with the Japenese and their puppet state Manchuuo; Felix Kersten, Himmler's masseur; and Frederich Weinreb, who one of fleeced fellow Jews by promising them illusory protection. The inclusion of Yoshiko, while fascinating, appears peripheral, despite Buruma's deep knowledge of Japanese history and culture, to the other two subjects.

Both Kersten and Weinreb have backstories that began in the Russian empire but their post WWII careers inextricably intertwined with the postwar history of the Netherlands to first bury the shame and questionable actions of the years of occupation and later as means of exposing them.

Kersten provided the fodder for the first by revealing that he had saved the entire population of the Netherlands from deportation to Poland. This totally fictitious claim allowed Kersten back into the bosom of Dutch royal family who happily awarded him honours for the proof that 'all' Dutch citizens were potential victims of the Nazis. When everybody 'could' be a victim you didn't worry about acknowledging individual groups, i.e. the Jews. Weinreb, the man who deceived his fellow Dutch Jews with false promises and almost certainly turned some over to the Nazi's and was tried for it immediately after the war managed to rewrite history and present himself in the 1960's as unjustifiably maligned by the truly guilty and a Dutch 'Dreyfus'.

I am not going to go into the fascinating details of the deceits, betrayals and most importantly the fabrications of Kersten and Weinreb and the credulity with which their lies were received (in Kersten's case by Hugh Trevor Roper - a man whose partiality to finding truth in frauds was not confined to the Hitler diaries debacle - see my review of Adam Sisman's 'Hugh Trevor Roper: A Life'). But their lies were accepted because they served a purpose even if they were different at different times. In Kersten's case his self promoting and transparently dishonest memoirs continue to be quoted in numerous mediocre WWII books and TV documentaries - in 2021 plans were announced for a major Hollywood film based on them starring Woody Harrelson.

This is a brilliant book which examines the moral uncertainties which only history clarifies into right and wrong and by providing a first class examination of the evidence behind all three subjects (none of them are served even adequately by English language sources - and Wikipedia is more than usually unreliable on all of them). If after reading this book you are still that not only would you choose the right side in the past but that you are choosing the right side now I will remind you of the silence of the Irish in 1938 to the words I quoted earlier of Oliver T. Flanagan. It would have cost nothing and risked nothing to speak out against them but no one did.

[Alain · Rating 5 out of 5]

do you know when you start hating the protagonists in a book, because they become so real and so hatable and all you want is their quick elimination off the scene…until you realize it’s a book, then you wonder if you would have done things differently if you had been alive when Hitler and all the rats were killing millions of innocent people in Europe, and the Imperial Army was doing the same, more or less, in East and Southeast Asia…well, it was 3am last night (this morning) when I said goodbye to Ian Buruma’s last book—then held on to it a little longer, like when one says goodbye to a friend…thank you Mr Buruma—to the next time!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR

The Collaborators by Ian Buruma tells the story of three liars from World War 2. Each had their reasons; each rewrote their own lies; each ultimately believed their own lies. While history cannot forget what they were a party to, Buruma shows how they weren’t outliers. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The Collaborators by Ian Buruma

When people look at the past, they lose some of the complexity of what it takes to be a human being. Often, we’re reading about heroes or villains. Those people are easy to fit into black and white categories even if that fitting reduces their complexity. But what about those helped the heroes or supported the villains? Do we label them as good or bad? While it would be easy to do so, it’s overly simplistic. Human motivation is often complex and less based on reason than we like to admit. We all know and acknowledge this; yet, we also believe that if we were in a historical horror, we’d act in what today would be the ‘correct’ manner. We would do the right thing. We’re nothing like the ‘bad guys.’ In The Collaborators by Ian Buruma, readers are given a look into the lives of the supporters of the villains. Himmler’s masseuse, a Manchu princess used as Japanese propaganda, and a Jew who fleeced other Jews out of money promising them safety while leaving them to fate are the focus of this book. Buruma looks at how their lives led them to the positions they found themselves in. He also relays their accounts of their actions and how they justified their own actions. It’s a look into how one finds themselves on the wrong side of history and the all too human path that led there.

Felix Kerstin is a Dutch masseuse who becomes part of Heinrich Himmler’s inner circle by relieving the Nazi's stomach cramps. Felix enjoys the good life that comes with serving the powerful. He has money, influence, estates, and travels the world. Kawashima Yoshiko is born a Manchu princess but quickly becomes a tool of the powerful, colonial Japanese. She does her best to navigate the world she’s thrust into with myth, with story-telling, and, ultimately, lying to herself. Yoshiko attempts to play both sides, but that’s a line few can walk well. In the end, she couldn’t. Friedrich Weinreb was a European Jew whose family moved around as antisemitism rose on the pre-war continent. Weinreb, seemingly clear-eyed about what was happening, ended up running a scam in Holland. Some he may have saved. Some he gave to the SS. Kawashima doesn’t survive the war; she’s executed but lives on as myth. Weinreb and Kerstin survive the war; they go on to write memoirs that explain their side of things. What’s common between the three is how they rationalized their actions, their lives, and their complicity.

Kawashima, Weinreb, and Kerstin are the subject of Buruma’s study into the nature of people. The Collaborators uses World War 2 as a backdrop to the story of these individuals’ lives. None of them were soldiers, civilian decision makers, or military personnel. Each navigated the situation they were in with the knowledge they had available. In lesser hands, this book would have dragged the three across simplistic, binary morals. Instead, Buruma takes the reader into the nitty gritty of reality. He paints each simply as doing the best they can with what they’ve got. Buruma’s nuanced narrative brings forth the humanity in each of these three without skimping on the harm they witnessed and occasionally caused. While they aren’t painted as monsters, none of the three leave the book looking good.

The Collaborators by Ian Buruma is a historical narrative featuring Felix Kerstin, Kawashima Yoshiko, and Friedrich Weinreb. Each chapter features, at least, two of the three. Often, they all appear in the chapter. Buruma begins with their early life and moves through the war to the ending. There are often digressions that give a lot of information that eventually tie the reader back into the section at hand. This book is packed with information, and it’s a slow read worth taking the time to pay attention. Have a search engine on hand for further context and referencing.

Excellent Historical Writing

Ian Buruma is a great writer. Of course, over his life he’s honed his craft to razor-like sharpness. The prose serves the information while being more than just a recounting of the facts. Bad historical writing reads like a list; Buruma’s writing reads like a story, yet, also not like a story. In The Collaborators, his descriptions create photographs, like the reader is looking through a scrapbook.

Buruma being a historian is quick to point out the limits of our knowledge in his writing. If little is known about a subject, he clearly states that. Where he’s extrapolating, it’s evident as opposed to when he’s drawing from the historical record. Buruma labels when the story is being recounted from a clearly biased account, and, most importantly, he’s able to call a lie, a lie. While he has his own biases (who doesn’t?), Buruma is attempting lay the information out there as objectively as possible. Surely, there’s information he’s left out for whatever reason that others would use as evidence of him pushing his own agenda. (Because everything is political and everyone has an agenda, right? eyeroll emoji) Buruma being clear with the reader about the limits of his and our knowledge is important. In a day and age when research means watching a crackpot on YouTube, Buruma’s inclusion of historiography makes this valuable as an example of historical work product as well.

Occasionally, Buruma inserts himself into the book. While he wasn’t part of that generation, he lived among them and had access to people in his own family. While I typically don’t like author insertion, it works here. I can’t exactly explain why, but I think it’s because Buruma’s previous writing built up enough good well and trained me to expect the tangent to have an impact on the main point that I just accepted it.

A Modern Interpretation of a Historical Fact

The story of Kawashima Yoshiko is fascinating for many reasons. However, I want to highlight Buruma’s treatment of what to modern eyes feels like a non-traditional gender identity. The historical record treats Kawashima as a woman, and Buruma does as well. However, he notes that her behavior fits better under what we today would call a non-binary gender identity. Without being able to ask her, Buruma treats Kawashima as she was treated in her time. But she clearly enjoyed presenting as both female and male at differing times in her life. Maybe she was gender fluid. It’s beyond our ability to know at the moment. However, I like that Buruma indicates this because modern readers will recognize some of those traits about her. Buruma also indicates why he uses the ‘she/her’ pronouns when discussing Kawashima so as to avoid someone thinking he’s misgendering her. I think it’s important to put this disclaimer down to say that Kawashima’s actions through her life have many interpretations. Since we have as much myth and fabrication as we do fact, we can’t really know how she felt. (Also, I don’t know if early 20th century Japanese or Manchu cultures had the concept of gender fluid/non-binary. If you do know, please, let me know in the comments.) But we can point out that her actions may have had more meaning than we understand. Humans are often more complex than they appear from the outside, and rarely do modern people attribute complexity to those in the past.

Also, I think it’s important that Buruma notes this in light of contemporary, partisan hostility to trans/non-binary/genderfluid people. As political powers attempt to erase these people from our lives, they indicate that non-traditional gender identities are modern inventions, which, of course, they’re not. Noting that, nonetheless, shows that there’s more to history that attribute to it. We may think only a binary gender identity applied to the past, but that doesn’t mean we’re correct. It means that we only see the examples that prove our point. And if we look at how the past treated nonconforming individuals, we may see more of these individuals popping up in societal reactions.

Epilogue

The Collaborators by Ian Buruma is a great book. I loved learning about these three individuals; so, when I say the epilogue was my favorite part, I’m not trying to down play the rest of the book. In the epilogue, the reader gets Buruma’s philosophical musings on history, truth, good and evil, living lies, and, also, sums up the book. In light of today’s shallow understanding of historical revisionism, Buruma’s epilogue argues clearly for the need to revisit, reinterpret, and dig deeper into the research. As the American Right continues its attack on education that it doesn’t agree with and as the American Far Left continues to ignore the lessons of the fall of Communism, its important for historians who work with the historical record to remind us what truth is, what role history plays, and what its limits are. Buruma correctly notes that belief that there is one and only one truth is a lie. It’s a lie that too many embrace to further their political ends. Modern pundits are more like Kerstin, Kawashima, and Weinreb than they’d like to admit. They push lies; they lie to themselves, their audiences, and their bosses. In doing so, they cause damage to put money in their pocket. Hopefully, history sees them as The Collaborators that they are.

Conclusion

Ian Buruma’s The Collaborators is another wonderful book from an accomplished author. His work continues to surpass my expectations, and while there’s much to learn in The Collaborators, Bururma’s ability to showcase Kerstin’s, Kawashima’s, and Weinreb’s humanity is marvelous. He takes what are traditionally the ‘bad people’ and shows they were just people. Highly recommended.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Collaborators tells the story of Felix Kersten a Dutch masseur for Heinrich Himmler; Kawashima Yoshiko a Manchu princess who spied for the Japanese secret police; and Friedrich Weinreb, a Hassidic Jew who betrayed many Jews to the German secret police for money.

This was a well researched and informative book.
While the book held my interest, I had higher expectations and thought I would enjoy it a lot more than I actually did.

A history fan would definitely want to pick this one up.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about the dangers of fraudulent self-identity, both to the individual and to others. Three fascinating case studies reveal different degrees of collaboration, and different motives, but all united by the self-invention of the motivators, and their shaky identity in childhood. It is a great study in human nature and a worth book, well worth reading.

[David Margetts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Were there 'good people' and 'bad people' during WWII, or as this book illustrates, the situation is much more nuanced, with a significantly wide spectrum of 'grey'. How would we behave in Nazi Germany or Occupied states? It is easy to imagine we would be heroically 'resisting' and yet the reality is much less clear. Would we like most people try to stay neutral and 'look the other way', or we would we maybe be an 'opportunist' in respect of our work or businesses? When does co-operation become collaboration, and were some 'compromised' or did they volunteer? What is acceptable in order to 'survive' and protect one's family, and to what extent were people naive and unaware, or simply complicit? Sometimes it may just simply like being the frog in the 'heated' water, whilst for others it may have been a conscious decision to support the Nazis.
The book prompts us to ponder these questions and to understand that background, situation, experiences, nurture and character can have significant impacts.
Above all it exposes the frailty of human nature, the desire to survive (often at any cost) and the need to protect reputations.
It shows our human weaknesses of greed, gluttony, deceit, lust, pride, self-centredness, laziness etc often exacerbated in extreme situations such as war and where 'power' and 'dominion' over others becomes more easily accessible.
The three 'collaborators' identified in the book display most if not all the above to different degrees and in different ways. All took the opportunity of war and collaboration to meet their personal needs. All were masters of deception and prone to massive self deception and rationalisation of their acts (particularly afterwards). Yoshiko was probably the most deluded and the best at creating myths and legends concerning her motivations and actions, and probably the most benign. Kersten was probably the most egocentric, self serving of the three, a hedonist, and drawn to power and influence, whilst Weinreb the most disreputable and most guilty of war crimes and the cause of death to so many innocent victims.
The book whilst focussing on these three 'collaborators'. does contain clear messages for the present and future, as the notion of truth becomes widely debated. Truth of course is a very relative concept depending on our experiences, references, values, and therefore subject to interpretation. The collaborators through self deception and rationalisation created their own truths. They did this partly from fear, partly to survive, partly out of hubris and conceit, and partly to boost their own fortunes. That said as Vaclav Havel 'when ideology of any kind cannot be challenged, we live in falsehood'. To live in the truth we must be free and vice versa. The definition of a dictatorship by Havel was the compulsion to repeat official lives, even when we are in the full knowledge that they are lies. (Russia / China / Cuba / Venezuela etc) The first step towards living in truth is to refuse to play this game......but for most that is nigh impossible.
All three are to be condemned for conning not only others but also themselves, believing in their own propaganda and rationalising their behaviours. They lost their identity by turning their lives into a fiction.
None of our protagonists come out of it very well, yet it seems Yoshiko was mainly a dreamer, a fantasist, a 'Walter Mitty' attention seeker, not least due to her traumatic childhood. Kersten was the obvious opportunist who sought out wealth, luxury, protection, influence and power, without any scruples....for him it was all about Felix. Weinreb has to be the most despicable, who went even further in allowing his prejudices, hatred, and desire for wealth to enable him to knowingly betray so many. All were in their own ways talented, skilful and intelligent individuals who could have enjoyed very different productive, profitable and ethical lives, had they chosen different paths and made different decisions. But again, who knows how we would act and behave in similar circumstances? ,

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating topic handled with great style and delicacy -- masterfully non judgmental. Buruma has chosen three very interesting people in Himmler's Finnish masseur Felix Kersten, the complex China-born Manchu Princess Yoshiko Kawashima -- who was not only confused by her loyalties but her sexuality and whose adoptive Japanese father is suspected of abusing her -- and perhaps most controversially Netherlands-based Jew Friedrich Weinreb to some the Dutch Dreyfus but to many others a fraudster who helped the Gestapo round up his fellow Jews. To Buruma all three are what the Germans term 'Hochstapler' (fraud, bluffer, con artist) more modern versions of Baron Munchausen. Only one of the three was executed, another received a prison term. However, as Buruma aptly points out "Bad things can be done with good intentions, and bad people can sometimes do good. Moral judgment has to deal with degrees....none of the three was utterly depraved. They were all too human, especially in their frailties....human weakness is more interesting to me than saintliness or heroism, perhaps because it is easier to imagine oneself as a sinner than a saint." Superbly written it is liberally sprinkled with tasteful dry humour especially the parts surrounding bon vivant Kersten and his claims to have worked wonders to influence Himmler through his magic hands in stopping other horrific war crimes. This is an account of how Kersten managed to get his large German estate declared extra-territorial which permitted him to eat the produce on his farm -- strictly forbidden for German farmers due to rationing. Kersten realising he could be in trouble with the Gestapo if they find out and unless he succeeds in getting his estate declared non German pays a visit in early 1944 to (former chicken farmer) Himmler with a large ham..."Although not normally a meat eater, because of his care for living creatures, Himmler was happy to accept a slice of the finest German ham. Quite delicious, he exclaimed, but how the hell did Kersten get his hands on so much meat? Kersten told him the truth. Himmler went pale. The Reichsfuhrer SS had broken one of Nazi Germany's tightest regulations. Kersten said Himmler now had a choice: to be arrested for his transgression or keep quiet and grant extraterritorial rights to his Hartzwalde estate. Himmler dropped his head in shame and granted Kersten's wish. A good story, but....Himmler may have been a stickler for the rules, but the notion of the head of the SS being arrested for eating illicit ham is ridiculous." This is a fascinating book with three intriguing characters which only goes to prove Buruma's point that sinners are largely more interesting then saints...with some exceptions in bothj categories of course. Well worth a read and a case of what if we were caught up in similar circumstances and how would we behave.

[Riet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een interessant boek over drie personen die in WWII meewerkten met de Duitsers of de Japanners en daar later met veel fantasie hun eigen heroische verhaal van maakten. Het gaat om Felix Kersten, de persoonlijke masseur van Heinrich Himmler, Kawashima Yoshiko, een Manchu prinses en spionne en Friedrich Weinreb, een Hassisidische jood, die zijn eigen mensen oplichtte en aan de Duitsers verried. Over die laatste had ik al wel het nodige gelezen. De andere twee waren nieuw voor mij, waarbij die chinees/japanse prinses mij minder boeide. Alle drie waren ze ervan overtuigd het goede te doen; dat ze er zelf beter van werden was mooi meegenomen. Buruma noemt ze in goed Duits "Hochstaplers" en die vlag dekt de lading wel .
Een interessant boek, maar minder dan ik had gedacht. Buruma moet er wel veel research voor hebben gedaan.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating study of what "collaboration" means as seen in the lives of three individuals during World War II--Felix Kersten, Himmler's masseuse who managed to emerge in post-war Europe unscathed; Friedrich Weinreb, a Hasidic Jew in the Netherlands who took money from fellow Jews for false promises of escape and ended up in exile in Switzerland; and Kawashima Yoshiko, a Manchu princess who spied for the Japanese and was executed by the Chinese communists. Anyone interested in World War II in any way will want to read this riveting account.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. A dispassionate and vital description of the lives of 3 Hochstaplers as Germans (and the author) say. More accurately one might say self serving, self promoting gobshites. In the hands of a fine journalist this becomes 3 stories well told. Some harrowing detail though for me pages 178-9 describing some of the characters in a Dutch concentration camps, with the doctor who ends up treating his camp commandant terroriser after the war is saddening

[Mary Ellen Barringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I accidently downloaded with audio book, thinking it was a novel with the same title. I decided to give it ago.

As a reader of WWII, I found it extremely interesting. I learned much about the history of the China-Japan conflict. One of the individuals is a Jewish man who was Himmler's masseuse.

The book is excellently read by the author.

[Heather G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive!

I'd never heard of any of the subjects of this book until now, but their lives were fascinating and very well researched. I highly recommend this as an additional piece of history about WWII.

[Sue Hilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read the chapters on Kersten, having read his book last month. Unnecessarily long, sarcasm ran through it which immediately make me think it’s not professional or credible. Anyway, in a long convoluted way, he showed Kersten up to be a fraud.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 for me

[James T · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, so. Just another story about people’s adventures during WW2. You are given laborious background information of three people that is most irrelevant. In fact the entire book is irrelevant.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The three stories in the book were pretty interesting and ankle they didn't have much to do with each other except that they all happened in World War 2, he kept the thread together reasonably well.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the author writes with such care and precision; the three lives he explores are fascinating in their moral and factual ambiguity.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars