Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust

by Richard Rhodes

Release Date: 07 May, 2002

Edition: Hardcover

Price:

More Info

Hard to read only because of content

"Masters of Death" author, Richard Rhodes, made the wise decision not to spare readers any of the gory details. It would be a disservice to the dead to in any way trivialize their suffering and unfair to minimize the twisted nature of the perpetrators' minds. Consequently, this thoroughly researched well- written book is a difficult read. I found myself constantly putting the book down to contemplate the horrors visited upon the victims and what manner of man could carry out such deeds.

Surely Rhodes has penned the definitive book on the Eisantzgruppen and the early stages of the Holocaust. Rhodes introduces the main characters behind the Final solution, most notably Heinrich Himmler and the biggest "problem" they faced in carrying out their mass slaughter -- how to kill dozens, hundreds, thousands of human beings. The manner in which they discussed this problem and the methods employed to solve it (concluding, finally, with poison gas in extermination camps) are at the crux of this examination of human evil.
"Masters of Death" is an important book for anyone curious about or a student of the Holocaust, World War II, the Nazis or of grander philosophical issues.

Horrific Example of Mass Murder

Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust by Richard Rhodes is one of the most difficult and disturbing books that I have ever read. It tells the story of the creation of the SS-Einsatzgruppen, the formations that were created by Himmler to kill the Jews, Poles and Russians that had the misfortune to fall behind the German lines. This is book about more than the mere numbers of the dead, although the numbers themselves are horrific. What makes the book so upsetting is the description of the way in which the deaths took place.

Rhodes is not writing about civilians who were killed as part of a military exercise. The SS-Einsatzgruppen were not military fighting formations; rather, they were tasked with the job of eliminating all Jews and other undesirables from lands occupied by the Nazi's. The descriptions include thousands of men, women and children lined up like in a grocery line and walked into pits to lie down one next to another where they were shot. They also include citizens of countries that were occupied who used the opportunity to round up Jewish citizens and kill them through the use of sledge hammers. These are just two examples, but they are representative of the dozens that are described by Rhodes. As one might tell, this is not bedtime reading.

Rhodes does an excellent job in describing the formation of the SS-Einsatzgruppen, as well as the men who formed it. What appears to be the underlying premise of the book is how could the men who carried out these terrible crimes have done so and kept even some semblance of sanity. Rhodes describes the heavy drinking and other diversions used as well as the peer pressure used to extract conformance. In this case conformance meant systematic close up murder of thousands. The basic tenant is that these men were habituated through a deliberate process. However, this explanation goes only so far. The acts of the SS-Einsatzgruppen were not an isolated incident such as the barbarity of the Japanese sacking of Nanking (See The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang), but a concerted, continuos effort over several years where men were forced to participate in the slaughter of innocent men, women and children head-on.

Rhodes explanation for the acts of the SS-Einsatzgruppen is left hallow. At times the barbarity of the acts overwhelms an attempt to explain the whys. And for that matter the whys may seem irrelevant. But Rhodes attempts to explain the whys and the hows is at a minimum a noble efforts. After finishing the book one does not have the answer, but that does not mitigate against the fact that this is a book worthy of reading.