After World War II, when a new German democracy was born in the western region of the vanquished Third Reich, tens of thousands of civil servants were hired to work for newly formed government agencies to get the new republic quickly on its feet. But there was an enormous flaw in the plan: no serious vetting system was put in place to keep war criminals out of government positions.Ex-Nazis—people who had been involved in mass murder, drafting antisemitic laws, and the persecution o...

A stirring true story of the journalists who dared to oppose Hitler—and the campaign waged against them.After serving in the First World War, Adolf Hitler encountered a serious obstacle to his plotting for power when the Munich Post, drawing on sources within the Nazi Party, began tracking the corruption and dark dreams of his inner circle. With leaked documents from Hitler's political rivals, who were shocked by his violent rhetoric and fearing the worst,...

The "deeply researched, groundbreaking" first comprehensive history of the Nazi concentration camps (Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker).In a landmark work of history, Nikolaus Wachsmann offers an unprecedented, integrated account of the Nazi concentration camps from their inception in 1933 through their demise, seventy years ago, in the spring of 1945. The Third Reich has been studied in more depth than virtually any other period in history, and yet until now the...

The stories of thirty war criminals who escaped accountability, from a historian praised for his "well written, scrupulously researched" work ( The New York Times).This deeply researched book traces the biographies of thirty "typical" perpetrators of the Holocaust—some well-known, some obscure—who survived World War II. Donald M. McKale reveals the shocking reality that the perpetrators were rarely, if ever, tried or punished for their crimes, and nearly a...

This "intriguing and chilling" WWII history follows thirteen ordinary German women who worked—and killed—on the Eastern Front ( Chicago Tribune).A National Book Award FinalistDrawing on twenty years of archival research and fieldwork, Wendy Lower introduces thirteen women who took jobs in Nazi-occupied Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. She presents startling evidence that these women were more than "desk murderers" or comforters of murde...

A searing account of a dark "chapter in U.S. Cold War history . . . to help the anti-Soviet aims of American intelligence and national security agencies" ( Library Journal).Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To th...

This biography delves into the fateful year of Hitler's imprisonment, in which he wrote the manifesto that would propel him to power.Before his terrible rise to power on the world stage, Adolf Hitler was convicted of treason for organizing the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. He spent much of the following year in prison. This was the time of his final transformation into the self-proclaimed savior and infallible leader who would interpret and distort Germany's hist...

A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happenWhy did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time.T...

The untold story of Nazi officers who escaped Germany after WWII with stolen treasure—and the Allied investigation to get it back.During the final days of World War II, German SS officers crammed trains, cars, and trucks full of gold, currency, and jewels, and headed for the mountains of Austria. Most of these men were eventually apprehended, but many managed to evade capture. The intensive postwar Allied investigation that followed recovered only a sliver of their ...

“A deepening of the story” of Schindler’s List: A Holocaust survivor recounts how he extracted Nazi intel for Oskar Schindler in this moving memoir of courage and resistance (New York Times Book Review).Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List popularized the true story of a German businessman who manipulated his Nazi connections and spent his personal fortune to save 1,200 Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust. But few know...

In this gripping narrative, John Koehler details the widespread activities of East Germany's Ministry for State Security, or "Stasi." The Stasi, which infiltrated every walk of East German life, suppressed political opposition, and caused the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of citizens, proved to be one of the most powerful secret police and espionage services in the world. Koehler methodically reviews the Stasi's activities within East Germany and overseas, including its programs fo...

Legal scholars shed light on the enormous impact of the Holocaust through analysis of ten important yet underreported Nazi trials.In the wake of the Second World War, the Allies faced the dilemma of how to respond to the unimaginable crime of the Holocaust. Even in an ideal world, it would have been impossible to bring all the perpetrators to trial. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to prosecute some.This book uncovers ten "forgotten trials" of the Holocaust,...