Soldiers of Evil: The Commandants of the Nazi Concentration Camps (English and Hebrew Edition)

Based on the author's Ph.D. dissertation at Boston University. They were soldiers and killers, trapped in the mystiques of military service & evil--commanders of the Nazi concentration camps. This book tells their story: who these men were, what led them to join the Nazi movement, & how they could function in the everyday routine of torture & death. 8 pages of photos. Gives a detailed description of the establishment and organization of the concentration camps and of life in the SS. Traces the life stories of many of the camp commandants, based on their SS personnel files and on interviews with the few commandants still living and with friends and relations of others. Concludes that, in general, they were men of mediocre ability and shallow personality; what distinguished them from other Germans was their attraction to the military life and their unquestioning identification with Nazism. Most of them volunteered for the SS out of personal and emotional motives. Some were sadistic; others merely "did their duty". They did not make policy, but transmitted it. They did not see their victims as human, and in the course of their SS careers they became inured, by stages, to greater and greater brutality. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) Tells What Led These Men To Join The Nazi Movement And How They Could Function In The Routine Of Torture And Death That Prevailed In Hitler's Concentration Camps. Joseph Kramer : From Dachau To Bergen-belsen -- The Undefeated Army -- Theodor Eicke And The Death's Head Formations -- Where Circumstances Led -- They Are Here To Die -- Conclusion. Tom Segev ; Translated By Haim Watzman. Translation Of: Ḥayale Ha-reshaʻ. Based On The Author's Thesis (ph.d.)--boston University. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 219-234. Contents Foreword Introduction 1. Joseph Kramer: From Dachau to Bergen-Belsen 2. The Undefeated Army 3. Theodor Eicke and the Death's Head Formations 4. Where Circumstances Led 5. “They Are Here to Die" Conclusion Notes Index