KURT GERSTEIN

by Saul Friedlander ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 1969

Kurt Gerstein was an SS lieutenant who died, apparently a suicide, in a French prison in 1945. He had been seized as a war criminal, despite his claims that he was, in reality, an agent for the Protestant Church of Germany charged with the gathering and dissemination of information on Nazi atrocities. He was tried posthumously by a war crimes court and found guilty of cooperating in the execution of countless Jews, though years later, another court exonerated him. He was doubtless a Nazi, and certainly an active collaborator in the Nazi holocaust; yet, to Bishop Dibelius, Gerstein was ""a convinced Christian"" and to Martin Niemoller he was a ""peculiar saint."" Such is the paradox which Mr. Friedlander attempts to unravel in this book by means of a mass of hitherto unpublished documents and the testimony of survivors who knew Gerstein. The author presents the evidence objectively enough, though he often seems to attach too much importance to Gerstein's own protestations of innocence, and too little to the fact that the SS lieutenant did participate, over a long period of time, in the attempted extermination of the Jews--whatever his motives may have been. Friedlander's conclusion, therefore, is that Gerstein was more sinned against than a sinner: "". . . his sacrifice appeared 'useless' and became 'guilt'."" The reader, however, may be persuaded by the same evidence only that most of the evil done in the world is done in good conscience. Such may indeed be, as Mr. Friedlander claims, ""the ambiguity of good""; but it is also co-equally ""the ambiguity of evil.

Pub Date: March 18, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION