Surely one of the best books I have read--like a thriller, but an appallingly all too real story. A magnificent achievement. ( )

IS evil innate or is it learned....is it like a seed waiting to be watered, that some do and some folks don't? This book is about 2 men, WW2 and opposite ends of the spectrum. One ran the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp and one tracked him down to make him pay for his sins. This book makes humans of them both by showing the workings of their minds. Truly interesting, in spots a little bit dragged out, but overall a worthwhile read. 3.5 well-written stars. ( )

An interesting addition to the many books on the holocaust but not one that adds a great deal to what we already know. However, the back story of the two men makes for an interesting comparison although the detective story section of the hunt for the Auschwitz commandant is not as gripping as the book's blurb suggests. ( )

"Packed with constant references to primary sources, this is an exhaustively researched telling of Hoss's rise to Kommandant and Alexander's somewhat surprising role as a Nazi hunter. "
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.com/2015/12/hanns-and-rudolf-thomas-harding.html ( )

Harding has written a homage to his great-uncle, Hanns Alexander, who, as Th.H. learned only at his funeral late in 2006, had tracked down and arrested Rudolf Höss (Höß), who, for many years, had been the Commandant of Auschwitz. Harding interweaves in this book the life-stories of the two men.
Rudolf Höss was born in 1901 to a German officer who had served in Africa, a patriotic German and devout Catholic on the edge of middle-class respectability. Hanns Alexander, born 1917, was the son of a prominent Jewish medical practitioner in Berlin in the 1920s. The upper-bourgeois family fled to Britain in the 1930s and H.A. succeeded in joining the British army (not a straight-forward undertaking for a German refugee; German refugees were generally interned). This book is to a large part an account of the respective lives of these two men and their families and a gripping tale of the hunt to track down Höss after the war.

The author uses the first name for both men throughout the book. He explains that, in doing so, he wishes to emphasise that both these men are human beings. Nevertheless, to a German this would simply be unacceptable.

Höss, who designed and supervised the efficient industrial-scale killing of millions, was not a sadistic monster but a man who was attached to and cared for his wife and children. So for me the central question is: How can a “normal person” become de-sensitised to the extent that he is capable to organize the ‘conveyor-belt’ killing of millions of human beings, to carry out this task unquestioning and to the utmost efficiency as ordered by his superiors?

In describing his youth, this book gives a hint of an answer, probably as well as any answer may at all be found: The foundation to Höss’ unquestioning obedience was probably instilled in early childhood by his father. In his own account, written 1946 in prison - except when protecting his family, Höss’ account of his life is generally considered trustworthy in contrast to documents by other prominent Nazis who lied to protect themselves - he calls his father a “fanatic and bigot” whom he feared and despised and describes his mother as distant. He had no playmates except a pony which he was given on his 7th birthday which he loved and took care of; the two became inseparable. Of course, he shares with many such a childhood and, being given a pony, it may even be considered privileged: there must have been many children growing up in very much worse circumstances. He later became a fanatic follower of Hitler as so many others.

A photograph taken at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen shows Anita Lasker who had survived Auschwitz by playing the cello in the camp orchestra.
In the last chapter, the author describes meeting on a visit to Auschwitz Rainer Höss , a grandson of Rudolf Höss. On finding out about his grandfather’s life, he broke with his family and befriended and was adopted by Eva Mozes Ko , who with her twin sister had survived the medical experiments of Dr. Mengele (just!).
The book could have been shortened; it would not have lost any of its dramatic impact. (VII / VIII-15) ( )