First published 2009
Maximilian Aue sits down to write his memoirs decades after the war. Born in 1913 to a German father and French mother, he rose to the rank of SS-Obersturmführer during World War II. His account takes readers through his direct participation in the Holocaust and Nazi persecution campaigns across occupied Europe. Aue describes the bureaucratic machinery of genocide from within, detailing the systematic murder of Jews and other victims through the eyes of a perpetrator. His narrative spans the major theaters of Nazi atrocity, from the Eastern Front to the concentration camps. The tension emerges from Aue's matter-of-fact recounting of horrific events and his attempts to rationalize his actions. At its core, this is a confrontation with how ordinary individuals become complicit in mass murder.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, 21st-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Europe, Germany
Period: World War II
1383 pages · Paperback · Berlin Verlag
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder