The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil

by Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, Keith Chester

Overview

He’s the worst Nazi war criminal you’ve never heard of

Sidekick to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and supervisor of Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, General Hans Kammler was responsible for the construction of Hitler’s slave labor sites and concentration camps. He personally altered the design of Auschwitz to increase crowding, ensuring that epidemic diseases would complement the work of the gas chambers.

Why has the world forgotten this monster? Kammler was declared dead after the war. But the aide who testified to Kammler’s supposed “suicide” never produced the general’s dog tags or any other proof of death.

Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, and Keith Chester have spent decades on the trail of the elusive Kammler, uncovering documents unseen since the 1940s and visiting the purported site of Kammler’s death, now in the Czech Republic.

Their astonishing discovery: US government documents prove that Hans Kammler was in American custody for months after the war—well after his officially declared suicide.

And what happened to him after that? Kammler was kept out of public view, never indicted or tried, but to what end? Did he cooperate with Nuremberg prosecutors investigating Nazi war crimes? Was he protected so the United States could benefit from his intimate knowledge of the Nazi rocket program and Germany’s secret weapons?

The Hidden Nazi is true history more harrowing—and shocking—than the most thrilling fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621577355
Publisher:	Regnery History
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Pages:	396
Sales rank:	151,985
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Dean Reuter is General Counsel of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and a fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. He was the editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security.

Colm Lowery is an award-winning lecturer in biomedical science at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, where he lectures in molecular biology and its application to bio-warfare and bioterrorism. He has published over forty peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and review articles.

Keith Chester is an investigative researcher and author. In 1999, he began researching aerial phenomena reported by Allied military pilots during the Second World War, an effort that culminated in the publication of Strange Company in 2007, the same year his focus turned to the mystery surrounding SS General Hans Kammler.

Table of Contents

Introduction Incredible xi

Chapter 1 "One of Himmler's Most Brutal and Most Ruthless Henchmen" 1

Chapter 2 Evil Deeds 41

Chapter 3 Vengeance 81

Chapter 4 On The Battlefield 111

Chapter 5 Saving the Technology for the Americans 147

Chapter 6 The Reveal 157

Chapter 7 The Final Days 191

Chapter 8 Nuclear Secrets 227

Chapter 9 Think Tank Kammler 261

Chapter 10 A Parallel Case 283

Chapter 11 The Kammler Deal 303

Acknowledgments 335

Notes 337

Index 401

Editorial Reviews

Remarkable. For sheer, dogged persistence alone, the authors of this extraordinary investigation deserve widespread recognition. They have shone a powerful and bright light on what may prove to be one of the last great secrets of the war.

Nick Cook

The Hidden Nazi by Dean Reuter is a stunning achievement. This tightly drawn portrait of SS General Hans Kammler takes the reader from his personal life as recalled in interviews with his son through his notorious work supervising construction of underground factories like Mittelwerk-Dora, where Wernher von Braun’s V-2 rockets were built, and at Auschwitz where this ruthless Nazi perfected the gas chambers. Throughout the book Reuter tells a riveting tale of horror, ending with Kammler’s escape from justice. But where to? Finally, I must complement the researchers Colm Lowery and Keith Chester for collecting a massive treasure trove of documents that made this excellent book possible.

Linda Hunt

Reuter, Lowery and Chester probe one of the enduring mysteries of World War II, the extent to which theUnited States absorbed and sought to utilize Nazi scientists in the race to develop the atom bomb. This is ariveting look into the awful tradeoff between pragmatism and justice.

Amity Shlaes

The Hidden Nazi is a must read, especially in this age of increasing Holocaust denial and minimization. Thehorrors of the Holocaust and their primary perpetrators must be documented so that future generations will have the evidence necessary to defend the truth.

Alan Dershowitz

The Hidden Nazi is a revelation: a spellbinding, at times harrowing new history of an epic we thought had been covered from every angle, trained on as ingenious and monstrous a villain as total, global war could produce — Hans Kammler. With the invaluable scholarship and perseverance of his colleagues Colm Lowery and Keith Chester, Dean Reuter delivers a riveting mix of first-person accounts and expert analysis, from the excruciating depths of the Nazi slave and death camps to the thrilling heights and annihilative aspirations of Nazi rocket science. And of course, the gripping, morally vexing mystery: to deal or not to deal with the devil who has something invaluable to trade?

Andrew C. McCarthy

"It’s strange that no one has yet written a biography of SS General Hans Kammler, one of the brutal masterminds of the German military-industrial complex and the Holocaust. But when you read The Hidden Nazi you will realize that until now no one had the knowledge, persistence, and sheer nerve that the authors brought to the job of unlocking the multiple mysteries surrounding this evil genius of the Third Reich. It’s a story where Schindler’s List meets Doctor Strangelove. Read it, be amazed and shocked by what Kammler did, and outraged by how he escaped final justice; but above all read The Hidden Nazi."

Arthur Herman

Justice delayed is justice denied? Not in this case. At long last, and at the skillful hands of Dean Reuter, aparticularly nasty Nazi has been brought before the bar of history for a lasting sort of justice—the measured but stern judgment of a meticulous historian.

George F. Will

Werner von Braun called him ‘the greatest rogue and adventurer I have ever seen.’ Albert Speer damned him as ‘one of Himmler’s most brutal and most ruthless henchmen.’ He engineered the Holocaust, built theconcentration camps, and perfected the gas chambers and crematoria. He pioneered slave labor and masterminded rocket, fighter jet, and secret wonder-weapon production. And at the end of World War II he vanished without a trace. Enigmatic SS General Hans Kammler is the most diabolic Nazi you’ve never heard of. Dean Reuter takes readers on a gripping, exciting, and suspenseful hunt in search of the mysterious war criminal. The Hidden Nazi is a fascinating forensic detective story that reads like a great crime thriller. Did Kammler fake his death and survive the war? How did he escape justice? Did America strike a deal with the Devil in exchange for his secrets? Splendidly written with verve and expertise, The Hidden Nazi is storytelling at its best. Dean Reuter and his co-authors combine superb narrative history with a riveting personal memoir of the harrowing psychological journey into Hans Kammler’s heart of darkness.

James L. Swanson

"Dean Reuter takes readers on a gripping, exciting and suspenseful hunt in search of the mysterious war criminal. The Hidden Nazi is a fascinating forensic detective story that reads like a great crime thriller. Did Kammler fake his death and survive the war? How did he escape justice? Did America strike a deal with the devil in exchange for his secrets Splendidly written with verve and expertise, The Hidden Nazi is storytelling at its best. Dean Reuter combines superb narrative history with a riveting personal memoir of his harrowing psychological journey into Hans Kammler’s heart of darkness."

JJAMES L. SWANSON Edgar Award-winning

Read More