Barbara Cherish's upbringing in Nazi-occupied Poland was
one of relative wealth and comfort. But her father's
senior position in the Nazi Party meant that she and her
brothers and sisters lived on a knife edge. In 1943 he
became commandant of perhaps the most infamous of all the
concentration camps: Auschwitz. The author tells her
father's story with clarity and without judgement,
detailing his relationship with his family and his
unceasing love for his mistress, as well as the very
separate life he led as a senior officer of the SS.
Captured by the US Army at the end of the War, he was
held at Dachau and Nuremberg before being extradited to
Poland. He was tried in the 'Auschwitz Trial' at Krakow,
found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity
and executed in January 1948. A unique insider's view of
the dark heart of the Third Reich, it is also a
heartbreaking tale of a family torn apart that will open
the eyes of even the most well-read historian.