The Perfect Nazi; Uncovering My Grandfather's Secret Past

New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2011. First U.S. Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xiii, [2], 370 pages. Includes Acknowledgments, Preface, Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Chapters include Funeral in Berlin; SS Curriculum Vitae; Fathers and Sons, 1906-1922; Fulfillment! 1922-1926; Street-Fighting Man, 1926-933; Triumph of the Will, 1933-1937; Men in Black, 1937-1939; War! 1939-1944; Endgame, 1944-1946; Aftermath, 1946-1992; and Postscript. Martin Davidson is Commissioning Editor for history and business programming. Martin joined the BBC in 1988 and worked across series as diverse as The Late Show (1989-1993), A History Of British Art, Reputations and Decisive Weapons, before becoming executive producer of A History Of Britain, presented by Simon Schama. In 2001, he became head of history at RDF Media, responsible for Story Of The Novel, Spitfire Ace, Bomber Crew, Scrapheap Challenge and The Queen's Castle, among others. He returned to the BBC in 2005 as Commissioning Executive Producer, Independents, Specialist Factual, before becoming Acting Genre Commissioner, Specialist Factual, in March 2007. He was appointed Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual Programming In-house, in November 2007. In his current role, Martin commissions history and business for BBC One, Two and Four. Recent commissions include Andrew Marr's History Of Modern Britain, History Cold Case, The Virtual Revolution, The Love Of Money and Empire Of The Seas. He is a prolific author of nonfiction works such as The Perfect Nazi. Searching for the truth about his German grandfather, Martin Davidson discovered Hitler's Everyman: the enthusiastic fascist functionary, unquestioning, unrepentent, and chillingly ordinary. This book is a fascinating and extraordinary journey into the banality of evil at the heart of Nazism. If there ever was a personification of the banality of evil, it is Martin Davidson's Grandpa Bruno. It is two stories in one--both riveting--that of the dentist's transformation into unswerving SS officer and that of the grandson's appalled discovery. Woven together they make for unforgettable, haunting reading. Part personal quest, part family memoir, part World War II history- and one horrifying family secret. What if you found out that your grandfather-the man who had been a demanding, magnetic presence throughout your childhood-was a Nazi SS officer? This is the confession that Martin Davidson, already into middle age, received from his mother upon his grandfather Bruno Langbehn's death, and The Perfect Nazi is Davidson's exploration, using the skills he honed as a documentary producer for the BBC, of the truth behind this dark family secret. As Martin dove into his research, drawing on an astonishing cache of personal documents as well as eyewitness accounts of this historical period, he learned that Bruno's story moved lock-step in time with the rise and fall of the Nazi party. He realized that his grandfather was in many ways the "perfect Nazi," his individual experiences emblematic of the generation of Germans who would plunge the world into such darkness-and he discovered all that he would have to come to terms with.