Kersten's Lists: A Saviour in the Depths of Hell

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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 Post

Oskar 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 Reichsfuhrer 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, Fran ois 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.

Reviews

A remarkable story that should be better known -- James Owen * The Times *
Extraordinary and gripping -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Mail on Sunday *
Extraordinary ... many more people would have perished under the Third Reich were it not for the healing hands of ... the little-known Felix Kersten * Strong Words Magazine *
Kersaudy shows the hidden Himmler, temperamental but inflexible, obstinate yet influenced by astrology, rational and irrational: a living contradiction. And Kersten used all his skills ... for good and for humanity * Le Point *

Author Bio

FRAN OIS KERSAUDY, OBE, FRSL, a former research fellow at Keble College, Oxford, and professor at the University of Paris I - Pantheon-Sorbonne. He speaks nine languages and is well known in France for his biography of Winston Churchill and his many books on Charles De Gaulle. His work published in English includes Churchill and De Gaulle and Norway, 1940.