About book Masters Of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen And The Invention Of The Holocaust (2003)
The Grim Details …Six million is a number that will always be synonymous with the Holocaust. While it may shockingly convey the magnitude of loss, the figure somehow comes across as disturbingly clinical in the way it overshadows the multitude of hideous incidents that contributed to the final figure. Richard Rhodes’ MASTERS OF DEATH shines a light on the gut-wrenching atrocities committed by roving bands of German Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe to facilitate the Nazi pursuit of Jewish-free Lebensraum.I found MASTERS OF DEATH to be a chilling and addictive read. Rhodes divides the book to two parts: “The War in the East” and “Seven Departments of Hell”. The book’s first part provides background information on Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi plan to expand east (from Poland) and how a culture of violence is established. If anything, the first part prepares readers for what is to come in the second part, when the killing is described in graphic detail. Rhodes gives readers some insight as to how Himmler’s lust for violence was offset by his generally weak demeanor which ultimately led him to being a “desk murderer” who was adept at convincing others to murder because he couldn’t do it himself (much like today’s terrorist leaders).The second part of the book is simply ghastly. Rhodes spares no detail in describing the implementation of the Nazi extermination policy. The images drawn from those pages still remain vivid in my mind as I write this review. This part of the book accounts for the “early days” (prior to the death camps), when the Nazi’s were significantly “less proficient” in their methods of killing mass groups of people. Starting with pogroms in conquered localities, the methods progressed to group shootings of Jewish men deemed to be “partisans” or “looters” (the Nazi excuse that was used to urge locals to participate in the bloodshed). When these actions do not deliver satisfactory numbers, Jews are lured en-masse under the promise of evacuation, only to face being lined-up before prepared pits and ravines. The exclusion of women and children no longer applied, nor did the barbarous manner in which they were murdered … stripped of valuables/clothing, often forced to facilitate the digging of their own graves and fully aware of their fate as they witness others being murdered. Some of the killing squads even formulated their own unique/unconventional killing methods. This chapter reveals the shocking cruelty and disgusting immorality that fueled the Nazi quest for racial purity in their conquered territory. Rhodes frequently includes first-hand accounts of both perpetrators and victims.Throughout the book, I kept asking myself “how” and “why” so many men could willingly participate in such carnage. Rhodes early chapter on the cycle of violence echoes throughout the book as many men tried to rationalize their actions as “following orders”, “not wanting to appear weak”, being desensitized to the violence or admittedly brainwashed into believing that killing Jews was just. Surely, some struggled with their behavior (mostly when it involved killing elderly, sick, women and children), but their attempts to justify most always come across as pathetic and weak. One of the more disturbing aspects of the entire issue is that the vast majority of those participants who managed to survive the war anonymously slipped into post-war society without ever having to face consequences. For me, MASTERS OF DEATH eliminates any degree of sympathy when elderly men are brought forth to face charges of actions they committed in their formative years against the unarmed, weak and defenseless; it is hard not to appreciate the justice … and the irony.While the horrors of Germany’s concentration camps and death camps have been well-chronicled for over half a century in film and print, the actions of Himmler’s designated “killing squads” has been largely ignored by comparison. MASTERS OF DEATH provides a succinct analysis of both the planning and implementation of the Nazi’s goal to exterminate the Jews in Europe and offers an explanation as to how so many individuals willingly and mercilessly followed orders that demanded the mass killing of innocents … including the sick, the elderly … and children. I believe this book is truly an asset to those wanting to delve deeper in understanding the absolute vicious nature of the Nazi’s non-military behavior in the East.
Rhodes provides an in-depth and moving account of the actions of the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe and Russia during World War II. He examines everything from organization to motives behind killing to psychological damage. Of particular note are the two chapters that he devotes to the Reichsfuhrer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, which gives the reader a better understanding of Himmler's childhood and decisions made in adulthood.Rhodes is incredibly detailed in his descriptions of individual killing actions. Suffice to say that this book is not for someone with a weak stomach, as he discusses the killing of Jewish children, as well as men and women in a very graphic manner.I would argue that this is an important book in understanding the link between the restriction of German Jews' civil rights to the all-out killing which occurred in the Nazi death camps. As a World War II and Holocaust scholar, I find that this is one of the best books I've read on the Einsatzgruppen.I highly recommend this for anyone who is interested in the Holocaust in a scholarly fashion. I feel that in order to truly appreciate what this book offers, one should have at least an intermediate knowledge of World War II and the Holocaust, particularly on the Eastern front.
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Lords of Life and Death: 'Masters of Death' by Richard Rhodes is the disturbing account of the SS-Einsatzgruppen death squads that roamed the occupied territories of the eastern front of WW2. They were tasked with the liquidation of all Jews, as well as other enemies of the Third Reich such as partisans, gypsies, and communists. These death squads preceded the death camps that usually come to mind when speaking of the holocaust. Before the gas chambers and crematoriums, victims were simply rounded up, shot, and thrown into mass graves. Rhodes concludes that over a million men, women, and children were murdered in this way between 1941 and 1943. These events are recounted in graphic detail, capturing the experiences from the viewpoint of the victims, as well as the perpetrators. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found Rhodes' use of the "violent socialization" theory to be compelling. He describes this four-stage development of the violent individual, and convincingly argues how this process can be essentially "industrialized" and used to turn ordinary men into murderers. He uses this theory as a counter to the "eliminationist anti-semitism" theory espoused by such authors as Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. This theory essentially argues that because anti-semitism was so ingrained into German culture, that it was only a matter of time before something like the holocaust happened, and that the average German readily accepted these mass murders. Rhodes refutes this theory as simplistic, and reminds the reader that this was not your ordinary anti-semitism that manifested itself in the extermination of millions. Overall, I found this book to be very useful and enjoyable-inasmuch as a book on such a horrific topic can be-and although it is a bit redundant at times, I think it is a valuable contribution to Holocaust and/or Third Reich studies. With that said, the subject matter is unsettling, and it really brings home the absolute horror and criminality that this regime represented. Four stars for 'Masters of Death.'
—Graham
A horrific episode, incomprehensible in its depravity. The book draws you in, easy to follow though it's hard to get through and I almost couldn't. Hard to think that anything could ever be ok again in a world where this happened. There's a little insight though, into the main henchmen who brought about these horrors, and that it was largely Himmler responsible for this throughout the war. There's some intriguing info on how Jews previously had dealt with their less cultured, less medically advanced Gentile neighbors (through passive negotiation). Of course there's so much more to the the topic of treatment of European Jews in history but this book mostly covers pre-gas chamber killing methods in the early 1940's.
—Kate
tRhodes, Richard. MASTERS OF DEATH: THE SS EINSATZGRUPPEN AND THE INVENTION OF THE HOLOCAUST. (2002). No *. After about fifty pages into this history, I could no longer go on. The descriptions of the violence were too graphic for me. A previous book that I read by this author, “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” won a Pulitzer Prize. I don’t think that this one will receive a very wide audience.
—Tony
