The first-hand account of the life, career and the practices of horror at Auschwitz, written by Auschwitz Kommandant SS Rudolf Hoss as he awaited execution for his crimes. Including his psychological interviews at Nuremberg. Editor’s Choice, New York Times Book Review A dramatic look at the lives of a non-ordinary German… New York Times Book Review [A] gripping new book…. This Introduction by Pastore requires a rare sensitivity and psychological sophistication coupled with a degree of fearlessness…. Pastore impresses not only as a cultural historian. He also has an impressively strong grasp on the military narrative of the war.
The Guardian This vivid history of the life of Hoess captures the complex feelings of ordinary Germans under the Nazi regime…. A superb study. Wall Street Journal This confession offers by far the most comprehensive and readable guide to these issues…This is splendid scholarship…. Anyone interested in National Socialist Germany, World War II and the many murderous regimes that still disfigure the earth should relish The Master of Auschwitz. Economist [Pastore’s] method of using Hoess’s own words yields unexpected insights, both into the Germans’ humanity and their turn to barbarism. New York Review of Books [Pastore] draws on diaries, letters, and contemporary documents to paint a huge social canvas of Germans at war, soldiers and civilians, men and women of all ages… [he] tells Hoess’s bleak story fluently and well. Washington Post, Richard Cohen In his new and excellent book, ‘The Master of Auschwitz, ’ Third Reich historian Stephen R. Pastore exhumes the letters and diaries of Hoess and others. He details how a cultured nation went insane, how ordinary soldiers became mass killers and how the churches of Germany looked the other way as the innocent were murdered. Foreign Affairs Enthralling… Pastore puts together a complex portrait of a nation gripped by patriotism and resentment, thrilled by early military victories, and proud of the fighting skills of the Wehrmacht. Forbes.com, Steve Forbes The Master of Auschwitz brilliantly and with impressive nuance and texture deals with the astounding questions of how the most educated and cultured nation on earth could unloose such a murderous, barbarous and genocidal war… Washington Times Exhaustive…. A first-rate historical read. Washington Book Review An important addition to the growing number of books on the history of WWII… a very insightful study. Roanoake Times Exhaustively researched, well-written… well and unblinkingly told. Kirkus Reviews [A] massive but thorough meditation…. A well-researched, unsettling social history of war that will prove deeply thought-provoking-even worrying-for readers who wonder what they might have done under the same circumstances. Library Journal Important… Pastore provides a vital and necessary addition to the World War II canon that will appeal to World War II buffs and anyone with an interest in 20th-century German history.