“Well-researched and convincing. . . . Present[s] a new picture which is emerging of the history of the Third Reich and its crimes.”—Times Literary Supplement
“Well-researched. . . . Should contribute to better understanding Nazi Germany and its crimes.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Through his examination of the hundreds of bureaucrats employed by the WVHA, Allen concludes that [Hannah Arendt’s] banality of evil thesis does not square with the historical evidence. Far from being Max Weber’s bureaucrats locked in an 'iron cage' . . . Allen finds that the 'ordinary' men in Nazi organizational institutions were ever cognizant of Nazi ideals and outdid each other to implement them.”—Jewish Book World
“Opens up a new realm for anyone interested in how professional expertise helps implement political policies.”—CHOICE
“Creatively mixing biographies, books, and pamphlets written by the perpetrators with engineering assessments, statistical reports, and archival WHVA records, Allen offers arguments that significantly advance our understanding of the Third Reich.”—Business History Review
"Allen’s admirably researched book provides a provocative theoretical contribution to hotly contested debates on the motivations, abilities, and actions of Nazi desk-job perpetrators . . . in particular and the broad nature of the National Socialist state in general. . . . Allen skillfully blends archival evidence with secondary accounts and displays both technological insight and human understanding in laying bare the evil machinations of [the WVHA].—Journal of Modern History
“Allen’s study, presenting crucial aspects of the history of the WVHA, proves to be a major contribution. . . . Well-researched and well-written . . . Adds significantly to the ongoing discussion about the motives of those men who actually ran the numerous bureaucracies in Nazi Germany.”—American Historical Review
“This impassioned, iconoclastic, and deeply researched book imparts new insight into the relative roles of ideological conviction and careerism in motivating the most vicious perpetrators of the Holocaust, the SS men who managed the concentration camps and the exploitation of inmate labor. Allen’s study is a major contribution to the histories of Nazi criminality and the German economy in wartime and deserves a wide and attentive readership.”—Peter Hayes, Northwestern University
“The WVHA has been a huge gap in existing scholarship on important institutions in the Third Reich, and engineers have hitherto escaped the scrutiny that has fallen on many other professions in Nazi Germany. In one book Allen has filled both of these gaps admirably. He convincingly exposes as entirely false the alleged dichotomy between apolitical, naive, task-absorbed technocrats and ideologically driven, highly politicized Nazi fanatics.”—Christopher Browning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
