The Making of an SS Killer

Alex J. Kay is Senior Academic Coordinator at the Institute of Contemporary History, Berlin. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2005 from the Humboldt University, Berlin, and is author of Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940–1941 (2006) and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is also co-editor of Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization (2012) and was awarded the Journal of Contemporary History's first George L. Mosse Prize in 2006.

• Introduction; 1. Childhood, youth and early adulthood, 1905–32; 2. Nazi Party membership and career in the SS Security Service, 1932–9; 3. Brother's imprisonment and career stagnation, 1939–41; 4. SS-Einsatzkommando 9 and deployment in the East, June-July 1941; 5. Genocide of Belarusian Jewry, July-October 1941; 6. Suspension from the Reich Security Main Office and reinstatement until the war's end, 1941–5; 7. Post-war submergence and reintegration into West German society, 1945–59; 8. Arrest and trial, February 1959–June 1962; 9. Imprisonment and early release, 1962–75; 10. Wundkanal and aftermath, 1975–90; Concluding thoughts; Sources and literature cited; Index.

'In this compelling biography of a key player in the implementation of the Holocaust, Alex J. Kay succeeds in explaining the extraordinary journey of Alfred Filbert to becoming a mass murderer. Sound in judgement and full of novel insights, the book is an important addition to the genre of perpetrator studies.' Robert Gerwarth, Professor of Modern History and Director, Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin