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Published May 2018
496 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
Deeply researched and dramatically recounted, In the Name of Humanity is a remarkable tale of bravery and audacious tactics that will help rewrite the history of the Holocaust.
On November 25, 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz heard a deafening explosion. Emerging from their barracks, they witnessed the crematoria and gas chambers - part of the largest killing machine in human history- come crashing down. Most assumed they had fallen victim to inmate sabotage and thousands silently cheered. However, the Final Solution's most efficient murder apparatus had not been felled by Jews, but rather by the ruthless architect of mass genocide, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. It was an edict that has puzzled historians for more than six decades.
Holocaust historian and New York Times bestselling author Max Wallace - a veteran interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation - draws on an explosive cache of recently declassified documents and an account from the only living eyewitness to unravel the mystery.
He uncovers an astounding story involving the secret negotiations of an unlikely trio - a former fascist President of Switzerland, a courageous Orthodox Jewish woman, and Himmler's Finnish osteopath - to end the Holocaust, aided by clandestine Swedish and American intelligence efforts. He documents their efforts to deceive Himmler, who, as Germany's defeat loomed, sought to enter an alliance with the West against the Soviet Union.
By exploiting that fantasy and persuading Himmler to betray Hitler's orders, the group helped to prevent the liquidation of tens of thousands of Jews during the last months of the Second World War, and thwarted Hitler's plan to take "every last Jew" down with the Reich.
Shortlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor prize for literary nonfiction
"Starred Review. A riveting tale of the previously unknown and fascinating story of the unsung angels who strove to foil the Final Solution." - Kirkus
"This fascinating, largely untold account shows how an unlikely confluence of people and events saved the lives of a remnant of surviving European Jews." - Booklist
"Startlingly novel...examines the Holocaust from an angle most people have not had much opportunity to take...not just the familiar historical narrative of Nazi persecution ramping up into genocide, but how the world reacted to it." - Maclean's
"This book is an impressive piece of scholarship and a very compelling chapter of Holocaust history." - Canadian Jewish News
"A wonderfully engrossing example of hidden history." - Montreal Times
"Through exhaustive research and interviews, Max Wallace has uncovered an astounding story of resourcefulness, tact, and boldness by the unlikeliest of heroes and heroines. Their efforts at the end of World War II saved perhaps tens of thousands of Jewish lives. In the Name of Humanity is a remarkable work of scholarship, and a welcome and important addition to Holocaust history." - Anthony S. Pitch, author of Our Crime Was Being Jewish
"Max Wallace's book deserves a place among Holocaust historians and should change some of the assumptions around the end of the Holocaust." - Anna Porter, author of Kasztner's Train and Ghosts of Europe
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Photo: International Photo Imaging
Max Wallace is a Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and human rights activist, and the New York Times bestselling author of five books. His book In the Name of Humanity: The Secret Deal to End the Holocaust became a national bestseller and was shortlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize—Canada's most prestigious award for literary non-fiction. The book also won the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Award. As a journalist, he has contributed to the Sunday New York Times and the BBC. Since 2007, he has also worked with AMI-TV—a television network for blind and partially sighted people—to write hundreds of Described Video film and television scripts.
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