It dawned on me that I was henceforth under his thumb. The vagaries of war had chained me to the man who, apart from Hitler, was considered to be the most powerful and the most dangerous of them all ...

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, Francois 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 forgotten story of Himmler's personal physical therapist, Felix Kersten, who saved the lives of 60,000 Jews during the Second World War.

About the Author
Francois Kersaudy is a former research fellow at Keble College, Oxford, and a professor at the University of Paris - Pantheon-Sorbonne. He celebrated for his prize-winning biography of Winston Churchill (Tallandier, 2000). His work published in English includes Churchill and De Gaulle and Norway, 1940. He speaks nine languages.

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 *
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 *
Extraordinary and gripping -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Mail on Sunday *



Book Information
ISBN 9781914495748
Author Francois Kersaudy
Format Hardback
Page Count 416
Imprint Mountain Leopard Press
Publisher Headline Publishing Group
Weight(grams) 640g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 158mm * 42mm