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Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz

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Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz by Thomas Harding

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By Thomas Harding

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE JQ WINGATE PRIZE 2015
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

‘A gripping thriller, an unspeakable crime, an essential history.’ JOHN LE CARRÉ
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Hanns Alexander was the son of a prosperous German family who fled Berlin for London in the 1930s, becoming an investigator of war crimes.

Rudolf Höss was a farmer and soldier who became the Kommandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp and oversaw the deaths of over a million men, women and children.

The hunt was on.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. Lieutenant Hanns Alexander is one of the lead investigators, Rudolf Höss his most elusive target.

In this book Thomas Harding reveals for the very first time the full account of Höss’ capture. Moving from the Middle-Eastern campaigns of the First World War to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s, to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, Hanns and Rudolf tells the story of two German men whose lives diverged, and intersected, in an astonishing way.

Reviews

14 Aug 2015

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If you have an interest in WWII history, this is certainly worth reading. Only a fraction of the men and women who were responsible for the murder of millions of innocent people were ever tracked down.

It is actually quite satisfying to the reader when Rudolf is captured. He is one of the few who admits his guilt and so makes it difficult for others to deny involvement. Although they do! Amazing how many guards at the concentration camps were simply 'minding the tea urn'.

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