Rating: 
Summary: Hard to read only because of content
Review: "Masters of Death" author, Richard Rhodes, made the wise decision not to spare readers any of the gory details. It would be a disservice to the dead to in any way trivialize their suffering and unfair to minimize the twisted nature of the perpetrators' minds. Consequently, this thoroughly researched well- written book is a difficult read. I found myself constantly putting the book down to contemplate the horrors visited upon the victims and what manner of man could carry out such deeds.Surely Rhodes has penned the definitive book on the Eisantzgruppen and the early stages of the Holocaust. Rhodes introduces the main characters behind the Final solution, most notably Heinrich Himmler and the biggest "problem" they faced in carrying out their mass slaughter -- how to kill dozens, hundreds, thousands of human beings. The manner in which they discussed this problem and the methods employed to solve it (concluding, finally, with poison gas in extermination camps) are at the crux of this examination of human evil.
"Masters of Death" is an important book for anyone curious about or a student of the Holocaust, World War II, the Nazis or of grander philosophical issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Error impeaches author's credibility
Review: I bought this book on an occasion when my choices were to wait or to wait while reading and no other available book exceeded that rather low standard of appealing to me more than this one. I was therefore surprised to discover that this is a quite good book. There is enough gore to satiate the most fiendish of ghouls while providing analysis sufficient to challenge the intellect. But I come not to praise this book, but to criticize it. In a prior review, Mythbuster notes the error of stating that it was the US that declared war on Germany rather than the reality that Germany declared war on the US. When I read Mythbuster's review, I believed he was excessively nitpicking regarding a collateral issue but I was wrong. The author argues that it was the US's decision to declare war on Germany that fulfilled in Hitler's mind the precondition of the Holocaust that the Jews plunge the world into another world war and thus decided Hitler to exterminate not only the Eastern Jews but also the Jews of Western Europe. Although the author does not so argue, this error allows the argument that it was the United States rather than the Nazis who caused the Holocaust. While such an argument may be clearly facetious to the objective reader, the Holocaust deniers are well known to misquote or quote out of context Holocaust experts in their quest to absolve the Nazis of guilt. The author has thus added an arrow to the quiver of the pseudo-historians. Further this error on such a basic point causes one to question the veracity of details provided elsewhere in the book. Part of the strength of this book is the insight into the details of the lives and crimes of perpetrators and victims, but can we believe them? For example, Himmler is presented as being so traumatized by Hitler's order to exterminate the Eastern Jews in the spring of 1941 that he was forced to his bed by stomach cramps but can we rely on both the author's statements of fact and then his interpretation of those facts? As prior reviewer Barron Laycock notes, this book assumes rather than argues the functionalist rather than the intentionalist view of the Holocaust. That view will certainly anger some. (See Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners for a good argument of the intentionalist school.) The purpose of this book, however, is not to argue either the functionalist view or the intentionalist view, nor even to provide a history of the Holocaust. A major theme, if not the major theme, is the socialization of violence. Some of the theory is so obvious that one wonders why it must be stated but other aspects of the theory seem more grounded in speculation than in evidence, still more so once one gets to the error I have discussed in some detail above and which impeaches the credibility of the author enormously. Overall, this is a very interesting book and but for that one error, I would have given it five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Error impeaches author's credibility
Review: I bought this book on an occasion when my choices were to wait or to wait while reading and no other available book exceeded that rather low standard of appealing to me more than this one. I was therefore surprised to discover that this is a quite good book. There is enough gore to satiate the most fiendish of ghouls while providing analysis sufficient to challenge the intellect. But I come not to praise this book, but to criticize it. In a prior review, Mythbuster notes the error of stating that it was the US that declared war on Germany rather than the reality that Germany declared war on the US. When I read Mythbuster's review, I believed he was excessively nitpicking regarding a collateral issue but I was wrong. The author argues that it was the US's decision to declare war on Germany that fulfilled in Hitler's mind the precondition of the Holocaust that the Jews plunge the world into another world war and thus decided Hitler to exterminate not only the Eastern Jews but also the Jews of Western Europe. Although the author does not so argue, this error allows the argument that it was the United States rather than the Nazis who caused the Holocaust. While such an argument may be clearly facetious to the objective reader, the Holocaust deniers are well known to misquote or quote out of context Holocaust experts in their quest to absolve the Nazis of guilt. The author has thus added an arrow to the quiver of the pseudo-historians. Further this error on such a basic point causes one to question the veracity of details provided elsewhere in the book. Part of the strength of this book is the insight into the details of the lives and crimes of perpetrators and victims, but can we believe them? For example, Himmler is presented as being so traumatized by Hitler's order to exterminate the Eastern Jews in the spring of 1941 that he was forced to his bed by stomach cramps but can we rely on both the author's statements of fact and then his interpretation of those facts? As prior reviewer Barron Laycock notes, this book assumes rather than argues the functionalist rather than the intentionalist view of the Holocaust. That view will certainly anger some. (See Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners for a good argument of the intentionalist school.) The purpose of this book, however, is not to argue either the functionalist view or the intentionalist view, nor even to provide a history of the Holocaust. A major theme, if not the major theme, is the socialization of violence. Some of the theory is so obvious that one wonders why it must be stated but other aspects of the theory seem more grounded in speculation than in evidence, still more so once one gets to the error I have discussed in some detail above and which impeaches the credibility of the author enormously. Overall, this is a very interesting book and but for that one error, I would have given it five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent history lesson.
Review: I can't even begin to tell you everything that I learned from this book. "Masters of Death" was my text book for my "history of the world wars" class last semester. This book gives you an indepth look into the beginings of Himmler's S.S and their chilling crimes on humanity. "Masters of Death" is a well researched text that gives an uncanny perspective into the final solution with out beging repeative or dull. This book is full with eye witness acounts, survivor testimonies and statments from S.S officals. Backgrounds of S.S big wings like Himmler, Heydrich, and Eichmann are also included. This book doesn't pull any punches. It gives you exactly what happened how it happened. Be prepaired to read things that amaze and sadden you. This is a powerful book and you'll remember what you read long after your done. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Early Pase of the Holocaust on the Eastern Front
Review: Masters of Death is a difficult book to read, at times almost unbearable. It is an examination of the early years of the Holocaust, illuminating for the first time the monstrous evil of the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile death squads who followed along behind the Nazi combat troops, executing more than one and a half million innocent human beings. Rhodes shows us that educated German professionals commanded the killing teams carrying out such massive crimes as the massacre at the killing pits of Babi Yar. He has provided us with evidence of just how evil the Nazis were and how deep the depths of depravity can be
Rating:
Summary: Socialization to killing
Review: Masters of Death is a raw and disturbing account of the mobile killing squads that made their insidious way through the occupied territories of the east during the early years of the war. Victims were Jews, partisans, communist officials, and anyone else who happened to get in the way.
I've read most books on nazis and the holocaust, noticing that many of them contain the same stories. Rhodes, however, seems to have uncovered rare eyewitness and perpetrator testimonies, documents, and other research. He does not give watered down versions of events; it's no holds barred in graphic detail. (The story of the infants and toddlers that were locked in that shack were the most difficult pages I've ever read).
Some critics do not like the way Rhodes tends to digress. He throws in his own theories of the nature of evil and violence, sometimes making the reader wonder if this is a book on psychology, philosophy, or the Einsatzgruppen.
These horribly evil men were not made into monsters overnight. The mindset was gradually formed over many years: the years following WW1, when Germans developed an intense hatred of Jews and Bolshevism; and during the early days of the concentration camp system within Germany in the 1930s, when the "Deaths Head" units underwent their brutalization phase. Prisoners then were mainly dissidents, criminals, and social "undesirables." No, there was no mass slaughter at this time, but torture and executions were routine.
There were truly repugnant figures here. Under Himmler, Globocnick seemed to be in charge. I've read about him in other books, and I can tell you that he was a beast in human form, along with Christian Wirth, who oversaw the euthanasia program and helped to set up the "Operation Reinhard" death camps. (Surprisingly, Wirth is never mentioned in this book). Frederich Jeckeln is another official that makes the stomach churn. I don't think his level of cruelty and sadism could be surpassed. (He was known for his "sardine" method of killing.)
The ironic thing is that the brains behind this senseless slaughter- Himmler and Heydrich- were wimps in real life and would never have been able to pull a trigger on anyone.
Members of the Einsatzgruppen were from all socioeconomic levels, and not all of them were callous brutes. Some of them were unable to cope with their grisly task. There are bizarre accounts of nervous breakdowns, suicides, and descents into insanity.
Definitely one of the most powerful and gripping books to come along in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Bearing Witness to an Evil Universe
Review: Masters of Death is the most harrowing book I've ever come across. Many parts I had to repeat several times as I really couldn't believe what I'd just read. Some of the photographs are intensely distressing - beware, there are images you will never delete from your mind once you've seen them. I read the book for the reason that the author said he wrote it - to in a small way bear witness. Because the victims deserve their story to be told. Because although they died silently, the world should not be silent about their deaths. I was in mild shock when I finally finished reading. It was like emerging from an alternate evil universe. We use the word 'evil' too lightly these days. No horror writer could even start to imagine the scale, the scope, the terrible individual detail of these crimes. The magnitude of other mass killings during WWII - the millions later in the gas chambers, the suicidal infrantry assaults by the Red Army against the invading Nazis, not to mention the massive losses still resounding from WWI - for a while obscured the actions of the Einsatzgruppen. Only twenty thousand people shot here, thirty thousand people shot there. Many, many unnamed Babi Yars. Mass graves, unexhumed to this day, all over Eastern Europe. A method called 'Sardinenpackung' is perfected to fit bodies most efficiently into mass graves - a Kepler Conjecture for the evil universe. But each victim is shot singly, personally, up close - Adolf Eichmann, big picture logistics man for the Reich, is disgusted when brains splatter his coat as he inspects an execution. Some very discordant things hang in the air after this book. Not a few of the Einsatzgruppen members are distressed by having to kill babies and children, notwithstanding Hitler's rationalization that the children will just grow up to avenge their parents. Impersonal gassing techniques were then developed to prevent the child-murderers suffering psychological damage from their crimes, although Himmler used such distress to back up his assertions that the SS were really decent human beings at heart - there was just this 'Jewish Problem' and, you know, somebody had to do it. Heinrich Himmler, unfit weakling and squeamish runt, the very last person to be championing genetic quality, went unpunished, as did the vast majority of the Einsatzgruppen. Taking the coward's way out, he took cyanide when captured and was dumped in an unmarked grave. "It was no killing pit, but it would do."
Rating:
Summary: Horrific Example of Mass Murder
Review: Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust by Richard Rhodes is one of the most difficult and disturbing books that I have ever read. It tells the story of the creation of the SS-Einsatzgruppen, the formations that were created by Himmler to kill the Jews, Poles and Russians that had the misfortune to fall behind the German lines. This is book about more than the mere numbers of the dead, although the numbers themselves are horrific. What makes the book so upsetting is the description of the way in which the deaths took place. Rhodes is not writing about civilians who were killed as part of a military exercise. The SS-Einsatzgruppen were not military fighting formations; rather, they were tasked with the job of eliminating all Jews and other undesirables from lands occupied by the Nazi's. The descriptions include thousands of men, women and children lined up like in a grocery line and walked into pits to lie down one next to another where they were shot. They also include citizens of countries that were occupied who used the opportunity to round up Jewish citizens and kill them through the use of sledge hammers. These are just two examples, but they are representative of the dozens that are described by Rhodes. As one might tell, this is not bedtime reading. Rhodes does an excellent job in describing the formation of the SS-Einsatzgruppen, as well as the men who formed it. What appears to be the underlying premise of the book is how could the men who carried out these terrible crimes have done so and kept even some semblance of sanity. Rhodes describes the heavy drinking and other diversions used as well as the peer pressure used to extract conformance. In this case conformance meant systematic close up murder of thousands. The basic tenant is that these men were habituated through a deliberate process. However, this explanation goes only so far. The acts of the SS-Einsatzgruppen were not an isolated incident such as the barbarity of the Japanese sacking of Nanking (See The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang), but a concerted, continuos effort over several years where men were forced to participate in the slaughter of innocent men, women and children head-on. Rhodes explanation for the acts of the SS-Einsatzgruppen is left hallow. At times the barbarity of the acts overwhelms an attempt to explain the whys. And for that matter the whys may seem irrelevant. But Rhodes attempts to explain the whys and the hows is at a minimum a noble efforts. After finishing the book one does not have the answer, but that does not mitigate against the fact that this is a book worthy of reading.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written and insightful
Review: Rhodes is an excellent writer who manages to convey the Einsatzgruppen's activities with a good degree of accuracy. There are some minor mistakes, already mentioned by others, but the book offers a good introduction to the subject, especially as most of the other books on the Einsatzgruppen have not been translated into English. The book presents an overview of their activities, along with testimony from both victims, witnesses and perpetrators. The book provides a look at the higher level decisions and the ground level activities. The book probably serves best as a history for the general reader, although it does provide vivid descriptions and psychological insights that even the scholar would like. That it was written by a journalist is not that noticeable, although for a more detailed, scholarly approach, I would recommend the works of Krausnick (slightly obsolete), Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Ogorreck, Angrick, Streim, the Lageberichte published in Die Einsatzgruppen in der besetzten Sowjetunion, or the Ereignismeldungen available on microfilm from the National Archives in Washington.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Readable Look at a Neglected Topic
Review: The role that the Einsatzgruppen played in the formation of the Holocaust is a vitally important topic, but one that is often given short shrift by historians and journalists. This book, therefore, would be an important one even if it weren't so well-written and readable.
And it really is an excellent book. If it's not the most minutely-detailed or profound book in the world, it's very readable, as I said, and punches home the horror and tragedy of the story with considerable force. It's like Martin Gilbert's THE HOLOCAUST in that regard.
And Rhodes's use of Lonnie Athens's theories about the genesis of violent criminal behavior (so well-covered in WHY THEY KILL) gives the book an added dimension.
Is there any nonfiction American writer today with anything like Rhodes's diversity of interests, broad mind, and narrative skills? I can't think of anyone else who comes close.
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