Official Secrets

They were ordinary people not necessarily motivated by politics or hate. But they were killers on behalf of the German state, members of the Order Police and frontline ethnic cleansers in the massacres that became the Holocaust. Their role has long been underestimated or even overlooked by historians. Until now that is, in a major work which presents a wealth of fascinating new evidence on the planning of the greatest of all crimes.

Richard Breitman takes a detailed look at the thinking of the Nazi leaders, and at how the Holocaust was planned. He investigates the work of men such as the "able, but dull" Kurt Daluege whose role as head of the Order Police was far greater than many had previously believed. And he presents new evidence, much of it culled from files which have remained secret for half a century, showing just what the Allies know about the wholesale slaughter of 6 million Jews. The British code crackers who broke the German cyphers began to piece the story together from mid-1941. But the Government was preoccupied with World War II, not the beginning of the Holocaust, and disclosure that the facts were known would have alerted the enemy to the fact that coded German messages were being intercepted. Meanwhile, in the US, says Breitman: "many State Department officials chose not to believe or to act on what evidence they had."

Rich in detail, Official Secrets is a valuable addition to the wealth of published material on the Holocaust, presenting hitherto undisclosed information which has remained secret for far too long. --Stuart Russell

View other editions of Official Secrets.
View books by Richard Breitman.