''Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History'' is a book written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about hunting
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
war criminals after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. It is the eighth book in the ''Killing'' series, following '' Killing Lincoln'', ''
Killing Kennedy
''Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot'' is a 2012 non-fiction book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the assassination of the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy. It is a follow-up to O'Reilly's 2011 book '' Killing Linc ...
Killing Patton
''Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General'' is a book written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the final year of World War II and the death of General George Patton, specifically whether it was an accid ...
'', ''
Killing Reagan
''Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency'' is a book written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It is the fifth in the ''Killing'' series, fol ...
'', ''
Killing the Rising Sun
''Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan'' is a book written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard about the Pacific War and concludes with details of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. It i ...
'', and '' Killing England''. The book was released on October 9, 2018.
Synopsis
''Killing the SS'' focuses on the hunt for Nazi war criminals, who escaped capture after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and bringing them to justice. The main focus is on war criminals
, the physician who conducted medical experiments at
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
;
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information ...
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primari ...
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. Other former SS members include,
Obersturmbannführer
__NOTOC__
''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ''Obersturm ...
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian-born German SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. During the war, he was involved in a number of operations, including th ...
and
Elfriede Rinkel
Elfriede Lina Rinkel (née Huth, 14 July 1922 – July 2018) was a Nazi guard at the Ravensbrück concentration camp from June 1944 until April 1945 handling an SS-trained guard dog.
Life
Ravensbrück was the Nazi's largest concentration camp ...
, who was a guard at Ravensbrück, the Nazis' largest concentration camp for women.
Reception
''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' gave the book two out of four stars and said, "There’s nothing particularly new here about the search for Adolf Hitler’s most notorious henchmen and women," but, it'll "no doubt, be a welcome addition to the best-selling series."
As of October 22, 2018, ''Killing the SS'' was among
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
's best sellers and at number one on the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' list of best-selling nonfiction. It also held the number one spot on the ''New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction'' list.