François Kersaudy

The astonishing true story of Heinrich Himmler's masseur who used his influence over the S. S. commander to save the lives of over a hundred thousand people, including sixty thousand Jews.'Remarkable' The Times'Extraordinary and gripping' Mail on Sunday, Book of the Week'Fascinating' Sunday PostOskar Schindler is well known for having saved a thousand Jews from Nazi extermination during World War II. Yet Felix Kersten, Heinrich Himmler's personal physician, remains almost unknown to this day. Only Kersten was able to relieve the Reichsführer of his crippling and chronic abdominal pains. Though despising the Nazis, he continued to work for Himmler throughout the war, using his position to pass intelligence to Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and demanding as payment from Himmler the liberation of victims sentenced to imprisonment or death. Drawing on unseen archive material from Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and Israel, François Kersaudy guides us in the footsteps of a man who exploited the politics of hatred and fear within the Third Reich to save the lives of over a hundred thousand people, including sixty thousand Jews.

The astonishing true story of Heinrich Himmler's masseur who used his influence over the S. S. commander to save the lives of over a hundred thousand people, including sixty thousand Jews.'Remarkable' The Times'Extraordinary and gripping' Mail on Sunday, Book of the Week'Fascinating' Sunday PostOskar Schindler is well known for having saved a thousand Jews from Nazi extermination during World War II. Yet Felix Kersten, Heinrich Himmler's personal physician, remains almost unknown to this day. Only Kersten was able to relieve the Reichsführer of his crippling and chronic abdominal pains. Though despising the Nazis, he continued to work for Himmler throughout the war, using his position to pass intelligence to Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and demanding as payment from Himmler the liberation of victims sentenced to imprisonment or death. Drawing on unseen archive material from Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and Israel, François Kersaudy guides us in the footsteps of a man who exploited the politics of hatred and fear within the Third Reich to save the lives of over a hundred thousand people, including sixty thousand Jews.

Felix Kersten drömde om att bli lantbrukare, han skulle komma att bli Heinrich Himmlers fysioterapeut. Mellan 1939 och 1945 kallade SS-chefen på den finska massören vid hela 200 tillfällen för behandling av sina svåra magsmärtor. Där alla läkare misslyckats kunde hans "magiska Buddha", som Himmler kom att kalla Kersten för, tillfälligt befria honom från smärtan. Himmler blev beroende av Kersten, ett beroende som Kersten valde att utnyttja för att rädda liv. Ett memorandum från Judiska Kongressen från 1947 fastslår att "Kersten lyckades rädda 100 000 liv i Tyskland, varav 60 000 judar och 40 000 politiska fångar av diverse nationaliteter (...) med risk för sitt eget liv". Få fick veta att de hade Kersten att tacka för att de överlevde. Kersten talade obehindrat ett tiotal språk och hans mycket speciella ställning hos Himmler, mitt i nazisternas högkvarter, gjorde honom till en ovärderlig informationskälla för de allierade. Kersten kom att spela en viktig roll även för Sverige, dels i räddningen av de s.k. "Warszawasvenskarna", men framför allt i De vita bussarnas räddningsaktionen. En inte helt okontroversiell roll, som Kersaudy kastar nytt ljus över.

In the late 1930s, as Europe moved toward war, the peaceful kingdom of Norway found itself strategically vital to the interests of Germany, France, and Great Britain. Though Norway was strictly neutral, in April 1940 Britain and France mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent supplies from reaching Germany. Immediately, the German Reich invaded the militarily weak Norway. Norway 1940 shows the country fighting valiantly, assisted by the Allies in a two-month campaign that has become a textbook example of confused aims and faulty coordination. François Kersaudy delved deeply into the archives of the nations involved to offer the most balanced account to date. He depicts the glaring political and military errors of the campaign and goes on to consider large questions about its conduct and consequences.