Himmler: Hitler's Henchman, by Ian Baxter, is a chilling look at the person who on the outside looks like a bland administrator yet was internally driven to orchestrate cruel and inhuman atrocities.

While the sections that place the photographs in context is interesting, this is first and foremost a collection of photographs. Looked at alongside a history offers the reader a number of startling perspectives. What I mean by that is that I think readers will largely take slightly different thoughts away from this book. For me, it just kept stopping me in my tracks to see such mundane looking men coordinating such an evil organization. I think other readers may well be struck by other aspects.

I want to have this book handy and reread a biography of Himmler, probably Longerich's biography. I think having these newly available photographs will add to what I read. It is so easy to picture evil as a bunch of monsters, but evil can look like the man walking down the street or losing a reelection bid.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )