Top Nazi: SS General Karl Wolff--The Man Between Hitler and Himmler [Paperback]

Jochen von Lang (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1929631820 | ISBN-13: 978-1929631827 | Publication Date: November 16, 2010 | Edition: First Paperback Edition

While deeply involved in the Holocaust as Heinrich Himmler’s deputy for administration, Karl Wolff arranged for the transportation of three hundred thousand Jews from Poland to the Treblinka death camp in 1943. He was tried and given a short prison sentence in 1964. Wolff , even more than Reinhard Heydrich, could boast of having Hitler’s confidence. The Führer appointed Wolff as SS and police chief in northern Italy in 1943–1945 and ordered that he kidnap and take the Pope and the cardinals to Germany. Wolff was able to talk Hitler out of the plan and saved himself by negotiating the surrender of German armies with the OSS in Switzerland.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A German expert on the Third Reich gives us this dense but useful biography of one of Heinrich Himmler's right-hand men. A youthful veteran of WWI, Wolff was a bank officer and advertising agent during the '20s, but rose rapidly in the ranks of the SS after joining the Nazis in the early '30s. He spent much of his career as Himmler's chief of staff, and the author establishes his numerous connections to the Holocaust and dismisses his postwar claims of ignorance. Wolff was also something of a "fixer," arranging for a German racing driver to escape penalties for marrying a woman of Jewish ancestry and planning a gigantic castle to be the meeting place of the senior SS officers as a new order of Teutonic nights. In the second half of the war, Wolff participated in abortive negotiations with the Soviets for a separate peace, commanded the SS in Italy and was involved in plans to seize the pope. The author's extreme thoroughness makes the book primarily a scholarly resource, but it is also a worthwhile portrait of a criminal with complex motives. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jochen von Lang, born in 1925, a veteran journalist and historian, was the editor of Stern news magazine. His best known book is The Secretary, the only biography of Martin Bormann: The Man Who Manipulated Hitler. He is also known for an early report on Auschwitz death camp entitled "Assassin Like You and Me?"

Product Details

• Paperback: 428 pages
• Publisher: Enigma Books; First Paperback Edition edition (November 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929631820
• ISBN-13: 978-1929631827
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,072,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insights into WWII-Related Nazi Politics, December 26, 2007

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Top Nazi SS General Karl Wolff: The Man Between Hitler and Himmler (Hardcover)

There is much more to this book than the life of Karl Wolff and his successful evasion of blame for participation in the Holocaust. It gives much detail on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the Nazis.

Consider the origins of the forcibly-worn Jewish star: "Himmler explained to him [Wolff] why the mark of identification was necessary; it was because the world leader of the Jews, Chaim Weizmann, had called all the Jews on Earth to wage an active fight against National Socialism--that they had to mark them all as enemies of the regime." (p. 328).

Von Lang recounts Hitler's bitter antagonism towards the Catholic Church (p. 223). Himmler called Christianity the biggest plague that had befallen the Germans throughout their history (p. 41). Efforts were made to revive a form of pre-Christian Teutonic spirituality. Meanwhile, Nazi attempts to discredit the Catholic Church had a disturbing similarity to those of today in the USA. They focused on the uncovering and propagandizing of sex scandals within the Church (pp. 36-37). "Concubines (if the biblical naming of them is appropriate here) were the norm among top Nazi officers." (pp. 202-203). "Lutze...maintained that even Himmler had kept a homosexual in a leadership position for years--Gruppenfuhrer Kurt Wittje, sometimes head of the main SS office..." (p. 30)

The betrayal of Poland and other nations to the Soviet Union, culminating at Teheran and Yalta, is sometimes rationalized by the fear of a Soviet-Nazi separate peace if Stalin didn't get his way. Interestingly, details on such a would-be separate peace (pp. 361-371) indicate that all these proposals had occurred well before Teheran. So, if anything, a Soviet-Nazi armistice was largely a spent issue by the time of Teheran. And, of course, the Soviets all along had to fear a western-Nazi separate peace (p. 65, 282).

One of the proposed versions of the Soviet-Nazi separate peace included a protocol for the division of the world into spheres of influence (p. 369). It is sobering to realize that, what Stalin didn't get from the Nazis, he got (albeit in somewhat different form) from the likes of Churchill and Roosevelt, and at the captive-nations' expense.

The planned extermination of the Poles is sometimes denied owing to the lack of written documentation, as is the same regarding the plot to capture the Pope. This proves nothing. Von Lang comments: "That he never gave such an order in writing is not unusual; it was Hitler's practice to order crimes orally, just as he had avoided documenting the responsibility for the murder of the Jews." (p. 224)

The so-called Bavarian redoubt (or "Alpine redoubt") had actually been Hitler's bluff. There were, in the Alps, no prepared positions, no supplies stored, nor any industrial capacity for prolonged warfare. (pp. 343-344)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top Nazi, January 27, 2011

By 

Skip - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Top Nazi SS General Karl Wolff: The Man Between Hitler and Himmler (Hardcover)

Karl Wolf escaped justice by making a deal with the allies to turn over Italy with a surrender. Hitler would have had him shot If he knew//. Every newsreel footage Ive seen of Himmler the SS Chief, had Karl Wolf walking right behind him . He was Himmlers' number two man thru the whole time. He should have been hung for it. Don't agree with the Nazis or their murderous nature but the SS and miltary had fine uniforms and style. Our miltary has no classy uniforms or pomp like they did.The book is an easy read and well done . A study of an amoral man who needed a job//.