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Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust |  | Author: Richard Rhodes
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $4.76
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Seller: Yellow Lab Books
Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 33996
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375708227
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780375708220
ASIN: 0375708227
Publication Date: August 12, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Masters of Death is Richard Rhodes's chronological account of the Third Reich's Einsatzgruppen (a hand-picked task force) and its death work--the executions of 1.5 million people, Jews and non-Jews--in Russia and Eastern Europe from 1941 through 1943. Rhodes sees these operations (the victims were, almost exclusively, shot) as a ghastly prelude to the subsequent (and much more written-about) horrors of the death camps. In chilling--and occasionally excessive--detail, Rhodes describes the killings and the reasons behind the Reich's cautious, rather than precipitous, escalation of the same: the military's "concern for German and world opinion"; the need to improve methodology; and finally, the need to "condition" the troops, thereby avoiding "disabling trauma." Rhodes makes good use of firsthand accounts and outlines the effects the larger war (Pearl Harbor; the failure to defeat Britain) had on Hitler's attempted obliteration of European Jewry. His chapters on the nature of evil seem hurried and not particularly fresh. --H. O'Billovich
Product Description
In Masters of Death, Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppenâs role in the Holocaust. These âspecial task forces,â 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 1.5 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 campaignâs architects as well as its âordinaryâ 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
 A Very Comprehensive Coverage of the Genesis of the Holocaust August 18, 2010
Tom G (Middletown, DE USA)
I've read Browning's Ordinary Men and Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners and am still fascinated by the subject, so I picked up this highly rated book, too.
The violent socialization theory that Rhodes puts forth at the onset of the book is probably pretty spot-on, but this really wasn't the strength of the book (answering the question, "How did this happen?"). Rather, the strength of the book was a comprehensive look at how the Final Solution was started, evolved and arrived to where it was in the latter stages of the war. The backdrop of how the propaganda was used to convince the general populace and the perpetrators themselves that the "dirty job" at hand was necessary was powerful stuff.
My one criticism of the book is exactly what made it powerful at the end of reading. For a while in the middle of the book, it just drudges on page after page with "They entered town X, they gathered up the Jewish population, they killed Y people". Page after page. Town after town. The inserted first hand accounts at each location helped to keep the reader going flipping the pages. But several time I asked myself, "How many times do I have to read the same thing over and over?" But after a while, that starts to sink in and the magnitude of it all begins to become clearer.
At points Rhodes editorializes a bit, especially when discussing Himmler, resorting to name-calling and finger pointing. Honestly, it was unnecessary and probably accomplished the opposite of what it intended. To demonize Himmler and other leaders who so willingly spurned the program onward, to strip them of their humanity and every shred of their decency only serves to insulate us and them from the full reality of what they did.
Himmler WASN'T a complete bestial monster (as Rhodes evidenced in many of his anecdotes). He struggled mightily at times with what he was doing. He did feel some compassion for the victims. These facts are what makes the condemnation of him all the more stronger. He felt these things and pushed forward aggressively regardless...making his crimes all the more heinous.
So, as a history book, I'd highly recommend it. For insights into those at the top of the Nazi organization, I'd highly recommend it. For insights into the men who pulled the trigger time after time, I think Browning's book is far superior.
 Sad June 10, 2010
Dennis L. Spartana (Framklin,Tn.)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Book arrived in excellant condition.It is sad to think people could have beeen so cruel.These Islamic jihadists of today are getting pretty close.They must be defeated.
A journey through Hell September 7, 2009
B. Ward (Frankfort, KY United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A key part of the Holocaust story, even with some flaws. Minor flaws are dates of U.S declarations of war. Major flaw is the failure to demonstrate how the Lonnie Athens theories of violence apply to specific individuals, or to the larger Nazi group. Also, the author's views on the basic nature of Jews compared to that of ethnic Germans, while interesting, is not fully developed.
The Specific cases of brutality are just beyond comprehension
Excellent account of a chilling subject May 21, 2009
Dwight Braxton (Shankillburg, PA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an excellently-written and thoroughly-researched account which sends a chill to the spine. Rhodes has produced an outstanding piece of work which balances academic research with a writing style which is very accessible - crisp, unadorned narrative unencumbered by personal views. In essence, he lets the facts speak for themselves, and one can't help but by struck by just how explosive those facts are. For example, the eyewitness accounts of the terror imposed by the SS-Einsatzgruppen as they moved through southern Russia in 1940, and the "scorched earth" policy they employed to render the terrain useless to the Russian Army as winter approached. In particular, the brutal repression imposed by the dimuntive SS-Brigadeführer Franz Mueller, who moods swings and drug addiction made life terrible not just for the Cossack peasantry but for his own brigade staff; the use of tanks against defenceless civilians by Panzer squadron commander Standartenführer Jorg-David Peichardt; and the failed attempts to use new military technology against the civilian population by Hauptsturmführer Jens Deanarnoldt, who only avoided the gallows at Nuremberg by virtue of the fact that his technology repeatedly failed to deploy properly. In all, Rhodes estimates that maybe 2 million people died at the hands of the SS-Einsatzgruppen in 1940-42, and it could have been more, were it not for some quick thinking by peasant leaders such as Yuri Noelduli in south Ossetia, for example, who mobilised the local political faction Fanje-Fall to collect a large sum of money which he used to pay off the corrupt officers of Einsatzgruppe C, who swiftly moved on to neighbouring territory without wreaking too much havoc in south Ossetia. (Noelduli disappeared shortly thereafter - whether with what was left of the money, or killed by the SS, was never recorded.)
Altogether, this is a superb book, well written and thoroughly researched - buy it from Amazon and you won't be disappointed.
Puts the Holocaust in a broader perspective June 8, 2008
Charles Goldman
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As an American Jew born in 1942, I heard vague stories about the Holocaust from my family and friends. Always, the focus was on the death camps and the ovens. Later, of course, I read in more detail about antisemitism in general and World War II. However, reading this book brought home to me the broader context of the attempt to destroy the Jewish people and the fact, which Rhodes focuses on, that the death camps were the end stage of a process that was even more horrible.
This was a painful book to read, but necessary for me to fully appreciate the dimensions of the Holocaust. I now feel that everyone should have the opportunity to read this book. I am not saying it is the best on the subject (there are many I have not read), nor is it perfect. The writing is uneven and some of Rhodes' theories are unproven. But I do strongly recommend this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
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