8/12/2019 Masters of Death Book Review

1/2

Richard Rhodes.Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust.

New York: Vintage Books. 2003. 335 pp.

Masters of Death: The Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust, written by the

Pulitzer Prize-winning Richard Rhodes, is a grim and gruesomely graphic account of the SS-Einsatzgruppensrole in the extermination of over 1.5 million of Jews in Eastern Europe. The

overarching theme of violence toward others is highlighted in this book and one can gain aglimpse into careful cultivation of theEinsatzgruppenby the Nazi Party to become one of the

most successful killing squads recorded in modern history. His goals in writing the book were todescribe the use of the military units in the execution of Jews in the Holocaust and the specific

role that these military units played in the establishment of death camps (p. xii). Violence is

examined on different levels by Rhodes as he discusses the psychological aspects of the massmurdering; the side effects experienced by the perpetrators of the murdering; and the evolution

of murdering methods that theEinsatzgruppenemployed in order to reach the Final Solution of

the elimination the European Jewry.Rhodes addresses his theories of how the path to violence progressed within the Nazi party by

drawing upon documents from the Nuremburg Trial (pp. 283-304). It is through the testimoniespresented in the proceedings that he pieces together his theory of how theEinsatzgruppen

became the stepping stone toward industrializing the mass killing process. In this respect,

Rhodes provides a scholarly and well-researched account of the acts leading up to the attempt toannihilate all the Jews and the formation of concentration camps. At first, Rhodes explains how

the extinguishing of Soviet Jews began with the murdering of men and then progressed toward

the indiscriminate murdering of all ages (p. 136). It is here that Rhodes brings in some of his

thoughts about what kind of person it would take to casually kill another person, and if there areany shortcomings toMasters of Deathit would be the lack of hard evidence about what exactly it

is that makes regular citizens turn in cold killers (p. 113).

Furthermore, Rhodes explores the mental health side effects experienced by theEinsatzgruppen

that hindered the ability of some in the units to kill effectively and led some members of theEinsatzgruppento lose their nerves, refuse to carry out orders, and self-medicate with alcohol

(p.154). In order to solve this problem, the Einsatzgruppen elicited help from local citizens to kill

their own neighbors. Lastly, Rhodes explains that there became a strong desire for more cost-

effective, depersonalized, and quiet methods for the killing and disposal of the Jews which lentway to the formation of concentration camps and death by gassing (p.242).

To someone without a broad knowledge base of World War II history,Masters of Deathmight

prove to be a challenging read. This is because not all the background of important war events is

given and because some of the terminology presented is in the original may be confusing to

English readers due to words in German being characteristically long in nature. Words like

Sardinenpackung(packing bodies like sardines in a can) and Genickschss (a lethal shot in thehead) might be too cumbersome for some to wade through (p. 211). Otherwise, the information

is provided in a clear and succinct manner that is focused more toward the college educated andto those with a strong interest in Holocaust studies.

The book is significant to the Holocaust field, especially in regard to the study of Eastern

victims, because it attempts to explain how otherwise normal people can turn against their

neighbors and willingly kill another based on ethnicity which is a topic that has not been fullyexplored by historians. Furthermore,Masters of Deathcontributes to Holocaust studies by

8/12/2019 Masters of Death Book Review

2/2

documenting the numerous unpleasant stories that are difficult to approach in a delicate and

respectful manner that extend beyond what the general public normally think of the Holocaust as

being limited to ghettos and concentration camps. In general,Masters of Deathis money well

spent for the mature inquirer of the psychopathology of creating a mass killing operation and forthose who want to emphasize more with the plight of Jews during the Holocaust.