Synopses & Reviews
Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the twentieth century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany. He shouldered a major share of responsibility for some of the worst Nazi atrocities, and up to his assassination in Prague in 1942, he was widely seen as one of the most dangerous men in Nazi Germany. Yet Heydrich has received remarkably modest attention in the extensive literature of the Third Reich.
Robert Gerwarth weaves together little-known stories of Heydrich's private life with his deeds as head of the Nazi Reich Security Main Office. Fully exploring Heydrich's progression from a privileged middle-class youth to a rapacious mass murderer, Gerwarth sheds new light on the complexity of Heydrich's adult character, his motivations, the incremental steps that led to unimaginable atrocities, and the consequences of his murderous efforts toward re-creating the entire ethnic makeup of Europe.
Review
and#8220;[M]eticulously takes us inside the Third Reich, face to face with the Nazi hero, revealing as few texts do how the bureaucracy of evil worked.and#8221;and#8212;Kirkus Reviews
Review
and#8220;[A] probing biographyand#8230;Gerwarthand#8217;s fine study shows in chilling detail how genocide emerged from the practicalities of implementing a demented belief system.and#8221;and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
and#8220;This admirable biography makes plausible what actually happened and makes human what we might prefer to dismiss as monstrous.and#8221;and#8212;Timothy Snyder, Wall Street Journal
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“Robert Gerwarth has produced a thoroughly documented, scholarly, and eminently readable account of this mass murderer.”—The New Republic Publishers Weekly
Review
and#8220;Supremely enlightening.and#8221;and#8212;Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review
Review
“Gerwarth…offers a first rate biography of one of historys most notorious villains.”—Deseret News Kirkus Reviews
Review
and#8220;Gerwarthand#8217;s approach is subtle, painstaking and psychologically acute; it convincingly demonstrates that the historianand#8217;s tool of 'cold empathy' best clarifies the enduring question of what brings forth monsters.and#8221;and#8212;Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement (Books of the Year)
Review
and#8220;Hitlerand#8217;s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich by Robert Gerwarth is superb on the making of evil.and#8221;and#8212;Frank Dikotter, The Daily Telegraph (Books of the Year)
Review
and#8220;Robert Gerwarthand#8217;s Hitlerand#8217;s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich is the outstanding definitive scholarly and heartbreakingly horrible biography of the repellent mastermind of the Holocaust.and#8221;and#8212;Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine (Books of the Year)
Review
'Drawing on profound research, Robert Gerwarth presents a penetrating, authoritative analysis of the ruthless personality and murderous career of the man who directed the Third Reich's police state and became a driving-force in the programme to exterminate Europe's Jews.' - Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler Simon Sebag Montefiore - BBC History Magazine (Books of the Year)
Review
'Evil is a word used too lightly in our times and in historical review. Yet, in his splendid biography of Heydrich, Robert Gerwarth allows us to see what evil means in its subtlety and complexity, its seeming reasonableness on occasion, its starkness and its terror. Reading Hitler's Hangman makes plain why, in our eternal wrestling with the question where by the grace of God might we be going, historical reckoning, even for the most appalling of war criminals, is a more satisfactory and richer approach than is legal prosecution.' - R.J.B. Bosworth, author of Mussolini Ian Kershaw
Review
‘An excellent book on a major figure in the Nazi dictatorship, its secret police and the Holocaust. Gerwarths illumination of the development of the security complex under Heydrich, his actions in the Protectorate, and especially the war in the East, is of real value. - Tim Kirk, author of Nazi Germany Richard Bosworth
Review
“…two splendid biographies. There have been lives written before, but nothing to match the exceptional way that Peter Longerich and Robert Gerwarth…have gone about digging in the sources to root these two awful figures more firmly in the context that gave rise to some of the worst crimes of the modern age. It is unlikely that either of these biographies will be bettered.”—Richard Overy, The Sunday Telegraph (reviewed with ‘Heinrich Himmler: A Life by Peter Longerich) Richard J. Evans - Times Higher Education
Review
“[Gerwarth] opts for strategy of ‘cold empathy, engaging his subject with ‘critical distance while attempting to assess his behaviour in context rather than in the light of what we know it led to. This approach, in contrast to the sensational popular biographies, produces some genuine surprises.”—David Cesarani, Literary Review Richard Overy - The Sunday Telegraph
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"In an illuminating account, Robert Gerwarth relates new anecdotes from Heydrichs private life and his deeds as head of the Nazi Reich Security Main Office to shed light on his complex character."—Gavin Englebrecht, Northern Echo David Cesarani - Literary Review
Review
“With his cold intelligence and utter ruthlessness, it is sometimes suggested he would have made a redoubtable Fuhrer and formidable enemy. In this riveting biography, Gerwarth shows just how plausible that claim is.”—Guy Walters, The Mail on Sunday Gavin Englebrecht - Northern Echo
Review
“To write a truly splendid biography of a truly evil man is a remarkable achievement. Gerwarth develops a rounded picture of a personality who set out to establish a centralised SS state. He displays enough empathy for his subject not exactly to evoke sympathy (fortunately) but to make the seemingly incomprehensible comprehensible.”—Hew Strachan, Irish Times Guy Walters - The Mail on Sunday
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“At the subsequent grand public funeral, Nazi leaders eulogized Heydrich as the perfect Nazi. This intelligent and readable biography shows how he had made himself into one, and Gerwarth explains persuasively what motivated Heydrich to do so.”—Richard J. Evans, Times Higher Education Tim Kirk
Review
and#8220;Gerwarthand#8230;offers a first rate biography of one of historyand#8217;s most notorious villains.and#8221;and#8212;Deseret News
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"Gerwarth's mastery of primary sources and relevant secondary literature is impressive, and his integration of the most recent scholarship and historiographical perspectives on the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust make this fine biography even more compelling. An outstanding, exceptional book sure to become the standard account of one of the most infamous Nazi war criminals."and#8212;D.R. Snyder, Choice
Review
andldquo;An excellent inquiry into one of Hitlerandrsquo;s most fearsome paladins, the aide to Heinrich Himmler who played a key role in implementing the Holocaust. Gerwarth dispassionately examines Heydrichandrsquo;s rise and assassination, which resulted in a horrific series of Nazi reprisals in Czechoslovakia. The best account of Heydrich.andrdquo;andmdash;Jacob Heilbrunn,and#160;The Daily Beastand#160;
Review
and#8220;Bruce F. Pauley skillfully intertwines his familyand#8217;s experience of immigrating from Europe to the American Midwest with his own research on fascism and communism. The result is a captivating and truly transatlantic history of modern times.and#8221;and#8212;Gerald Steinacher, Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraskaand#8211;Lincoln and author of
Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justiceand#160;
Review
and#8220;Bruce F. Pauley writes with an accomplished historianand#8217;s eye for context and intergenerational change and has skillfully interwoven different narratives in his autobiography. This is great reading for people interested in immigrant heritage, coming of age in the Midwest in the 1950s, the transformative power of international education, Austria, or history as a profession.and#8221;and#8212;Lonnie R. Johnson, executive director of the Austrian-American Fulbright Commission in Vienna
Review
andquot;Pioneering History on Two Continents is as much an eye-opening portrayal of historyand#39;s tides as it is about one familyand#39;s determination to survive.andquot;andmdash;Midwest Book Review
Synopsis
A chilling biography of the head of Nazi Germanyand#8217;s terror apparatus, a key player in the Third Reich whose full story has never before been told
Synopsis
Bruce F. Pauley draws on his family and personal history to tell a story that examines the lives of Volga Germans during the eighteenth century, the pioneering experiences of his family in late nineteenth-century Nebraska, and the dramatic transformations that influenced the history profession during the second half of the twentieth century. An award-winning historian of anti-Semitism, Nazism, and totalitarianism Pauley helped shape historical interpretation from the 1970s to the and#8217;90s both in the United States and Central Europe.and#160;
Pioneering History on Two Continents provides an intimate look at the shifting approaches to the historianand#8217;s craft during a volatile period of world history, with an emphasis on twentieth-century Central European political, social, and diplomatic developments. It also examines the greater sweep of history through the authorand#8217;s firsthand experiences as well as those of his ancestors who participated in these global currents through their migration from Germany to the steppes of Russia to the Great Plains of the United States.
About the Author
Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at University College Dublin and Director of UCDs Centre for War Studies. He was educated in Berlin and Oxford and has held fellowships at Princeton, Harvard, the NIOD (Amsterdam) and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia. Among his earlier publications are the award-winning book The Bismarck Myth (2005) and several articles and anthologies focused on the history of political violence in twentieth-century Europe.