Overview

In this pioneering biography of a frontline Holocaust perpetrator, Alex J. Kay uncovers the life of SS Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Filbert, responsible as the first head of SS-Einsatzkommando 9, a mobile killing squad, for the murder of more than 18,000 Soviet Jews - men, women and children - on the Eastern Front. He reveals how Filbert, following the political imprisonment of his older brother, set out to prove his own ideological allegiance by displaying particular radicalism in implementing the orders issued by Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich. He also examines Filbert's post-war experiences, first in hiding and then being captured, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment. Released early, Filbert went on to feature in a controversial film in the lead role of an SS mass murderer. The book provides compelling new insights into the mindset and motivations of the men, like Filbert, who rose through the ranks of the Nazi regime.

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9781316601426

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Reviews

'In this compelling biography of a key player in the implementation of the Holocaust, Alex J. Kay succeeds in explaining the extraordinary journey of Alfred Filbert to becoming a mass murderer. Sound in judgement and full of novel insights, the book is an important addition to the genre of perpetrator studies.' Robert Gerwarth, Professor of Modern History and Director, Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin 'In The Making of an SS Killer, Alex Kay recounts the fishtailing life of a typical Holocaust perpetrator - not a desk perpetrator, but a face-to-face killer - who staggered from jurisprudence to mass murder to corruption to imprisonment and eventually to modest movie stardom: an intriguing, disturbing, amazing book about the conjunction of lunacy, banality, unscrupulousness, and aggrandizement that allowed normal people to become mass murders.' Thomas Kuhne, Strassler Family Chair for the Study of Holocaust History and Professor of History, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University, Massachusetts 'A thought-provoking and richly documented journey into the mindset of an SS killer.' Mark Roseman, author of The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution (2002) 'One brother a Nazi murderer and the other a communist in a concentration camp: thus the history of the Filbert family. Alert to contingency as well as ideology, Alex Kay takes an important step towards understanding mass murder in this skillfully crafted book.' Timothy Snyder, author of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015) and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010)

One brother a Nazi murderer and the other a communist in a concentration camp: thus the history of the Filbert family. Alert to contingency as well as ideology, Alex Kay takes an important step towards understanding mass murder in this skillfully crafted book. Timothy Snyder, author of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015) and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010)

Author Information

Alex J. Kay is Senior Academic Coordinator at the Institute of Contemporary History, Berlin. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2005 from the Humboldt University, Berlin, and is author of Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940–1941 (2006) and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is also co-editor of Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization (2012) and was awarded the Journal of Contemporary History's first George L. Mosse Prize in 2006.

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