Odilo Globocnik, Hitler's Man in the East

Odilo Globocnik, a collaborator of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, was responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million people in three Polish camps: Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec. Along with Rudolf Hoess, Globocnik may be named as one of the first industrial-style killers in history. Betraying his homeland by conspiring with Hitler to destroy Austria's independence, he then launched the Generalplan-Ost and played a pivotal role in Aktion Reinhardt, directing the entire program from November 1939 to September 1943, and writing letters to Hitler detailing goods looted from his victims. Globocnik's Lublin Distrikt's gulag was not merely a vehicle for a well-organized pogrom; it also involved creating a highly organized network of ghettos. By the winter of 1943 nearly all of the Lublin Distrikt's Jews had been exterminated, leaving only skilled laborers used in Globocnik's industrial conglomerates. His ethnic cleansing teams, assisted by Ukrainian policing units, also cleared the Polish peasant farmers from the Zamosc Lands. Very little has been published on Globocnik, with particular neglect of his early life, political career, and, most importantly, the four years he spent in Lublin. This authoritative biography details every aspect of his life from his ancestry to his suicide after being captured. Information has been researched from more than forty international archives, Globocnik's SS file, extensive interviews with his lover Irmgard Rickheim and others, a wealth of letters both personal and formal, internal memos and official reports of the SS, diaries, and reminisces from survivors. Includes rare photographs, many from the collection of Irmgard Rickheim.