The Pharmacist of Auschwitz, Patricia Posner
The Pharmacist of Auschwitz, Patricia Posner
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The Pharmacist of Auschwitz
The Untold Story

Author: Patricia Posner

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 6 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/11/2017


Synopsis

The Pharmacist of Auschwitz is the little-known story of Victor Capesius, a Bayer pharmaceutical salesman from Romania who, at the age of thirty-five, joined the Nazi SS in 1943 and quickly became the chief pharmacist at the largest death camp, Auschwitz. Based in part on previously classified documents, Patricia Posner exposes Capesius's reign of terror at the camp, his escape from justice, and how a handful of courageous survivors and a single brave prosecutor finally brought him to trial for murder twenty years after the end of the war.

The Pharmacist of Auschwitz is much more, though, than a personal account of Capesius. It provides a spellbinding glimpse inside the devil's pact made between the Nazis and Germany's largest conglomerate, IG Farben, and its Bayer pharmaceutical subsidiary. The story is one of murder and greed, with its roots in the dark heart of the Holocaust.

Set against a backdrop ranging from Hitler's war to conquer Europe to the Final Solution to postwar Germany's tormented efforts to confront its dark past, Posner shows the appalling depths to which ordinary men descend when they are unrestrained by conscience or any sense of morality.

Contains mature themes.

About Patricia Posner

Patricia Posner is a British-born writer who has collaborated with her husband, the author Gerald Posner, on twelve nonfiction books, including Mengele: The Complete Story-a biography of Dr. Josef Mengele; Hitler's Children-a 1991 collection of interviews with the children of Nazi perpetrators; and God's Bankers-a financial history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Her work has appeared, among other places, in the Miami Herald, the Daily Beast, and Salon. She lives in Miami Beach.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gerald on February 05, 2017

I have an advantage. I have an advance copy since the author is my wife. So I might be biased, but I'd like to think that I also have the distance to critically judge this book in a straightforward and objective way. As an author of 12 books, two of them about Nazis and World War II, I know good sto......more

Goodreads review by Laura on May 25, 2018

I absolutely devoured this book; I couldn’t put it down. So much has been authored about the Holocaust and various Nazi war criminals, some more infamous than others. This is an exceptionally well researched book about one of the lesser known Nazis, a popular pharmacist turned murderer at Auschwitz.......more

Goodreads review by Suzi on July 18, 2017

I find it quite hard to rate non-fiction on the usual star scale as that is based on enjoyment, and this story is certainly not enjoyable in that sense. I found this book compelling and well written despite the appalling subject matter, it certainly uncovered more information on the other people inv......more