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A review by vegantrav
Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz by Thomas Harding
5.0
Hanns Alexander was a German Jew who fled his home in Berlin for England in the late 1930s as the Nazi persecution of German Jews escalated.
Rudolf Hoss was the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz where, during his time in command and by his own estimate, 2.5 to 3 million Jews, Poles, Russians, and political prisoners were murdered.
Hanns and Rudolf, written by Hanns's great-nephew, tells the story of these two men's lives and how they eventually intersected: after fleeing to England, Hanns joined the British military when the war began, and after the war, he was assigned to the War Crimes Investigation Team, and Hanns led the team that captured Rudolf.
Many of the reviews I read prior to taking up this book describe it as a thriller, as electrifying. In my estimation, it does not read as a thriller and is certainly not electrifying, but it is deeply fascinating and equally, especially as it describes Rudolf and how he carried out his genocidal duties, deeply disturbing.
There's a wealth of historical information in this novel that is often overlooked because we tend to see World War II and the Holocaust, now some seven decades later, in terms of an epic battle between good (the Jews and the Allies) and evil (the Nazis). What we don't see are the personal stories of the Jews, like Hanns, who were directly affected and who, in turn, affected these events, nor do we know much, if anything, about the psyches of the Nazis, like Hoss, who made possible this most horrid of human evils, and it is by bringing these details to light that Hanns and Rudolf is so informative, so captivating.
The way that the author personalizes the story of the war and the Holocaust in terms of these two men's lives makes this an amazing read.
Rudolf Hoss was the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz where, during his time in command and by his own estimate, 2.5 to 3 million Jews, Poles, Russians, and political prisoners were murdered.
Hanns and Rudolf, written by Hanns's great-nephew, tells the story of these two men's lives and how they eventually intersected: after fleeing to England, Hanns joined the British military when the war began, and after the war, he was assigned to the War Crimes Investigation Team, and Hanns led the team that captured Rudolf.
Many of the reviews I read prior to taking up this book describe it as a thriller, as electrifying. In my estimation, it does not read as a thriller and is certainly not electrifying, but it is deeply fascinating and equally, especially as it describes Rudolf and how he carried out his genocidal duties, deeply disturbing.
There's a wealth of historical information in this novel that is often overlooked because we tend to see World War II and the Holocaust, now some seven decades later, in terms of an epic battle between good (the Jews and the Allies) and evil (the Nazis). What we don't see are the personal stories of the Jews, like Hanns, who were directly affected and who, in turn, affected these events, nor do we know much, if anything, about the psyches of the Nazis, like Hoss, who made possible this most horrid of human evils, and it is by bringing these details to light that Hanns and Rudolf is so informative, so captivating.
The way that the author personalizes the story of the war and the Holocaust in terms of these two men's lives makes this an amazing read.