- Published: 15 February 2016
- ISBN: 9781784700164
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $39.99
Hitler's First Victims
And One Man’s Race for Justice
- Published: 15 February 2016
- ISBN: 9781784700164
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 304
- RRP: $39.99
An extraordinary, gripping and edifying story told extraordinarily well. I read it with a sense of amazement at the capacity of one good man to stand tall in the face of evil
Richard Bernstein, author of Dictatorship of Virtue
Finely researched and deeply disturbing
Alan Riding, author of And the Show Went On
Amazing … This is history come alive in your hands
Robert Littell, author of The Company
Horrifying and heartbreaking … By recounting such striking heroism, he allows us at least to ponder whether, had more good Germans come forward, it all might just have been stopped
David Margolick, author of Beyond Glory
All the more startling and important for bringing to life an episode so little known
Raymond Bonner, author of Anatomy of Injustice
Inspiring ... In the gathering shadow of the Holocaust, Josef Hartinger's dogged decency may redeem the German race
Geoffrey Robertson QC, author of Crimes Against Humanity
Gripping, revelatory account
Bookseller
Gripping – and thoroughly chilling … The haunting question at the heart of this book is this: if there had been a few more like Hartinger … was there any way the Nazi terror might have been averted? … a fascinating reconstruction
Telegraph
Frighteningly compelling ... the feel and pace of a court-room thriller. As it approaches its climax, you almost believe this dogged, decent man is going to win through ... superbly researched and tautly written
Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Mail Book of the Week
The genius of the book is to present Ryback’s thorough research as a kind of duel between Hartinger and Wäckerle, adopting some of the conventions of modern crime drama … few [Germans] have been held up as war heroes. Ryback’s brilliant book makes a powerful case for honouring Hartinger, an honest man in dishonest times
Roger Boyes, The Times
Forensic, unflinching and utterly compelling … the story of the first killings at Dachau has scarcely been more urgent
Glasgow Sunday Herald
Tremendous ... Ryback's tenacity as forensic researcher and huge storytelling flair make this a compelling page-turner
Independent
Gripping … anyone who thinks that Nazism came to power legally and without violence needs to read this account
Guardian
Absorbing
Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph