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A sobering story of an industrial family's cold efficiency behind the design of the ovens at AuschwitzArchitects of Death tells the astonishing story of how the gas chambers and crematoria that facilitated the murder and incineration of more than one million people in the Holocaust were designed not by the Nazi SS, but by a small respectable family firm of German engineers. Topf and Sons designed and built the crematoria at the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Belzec, Dachau, Mauthausen, and Gusen. At its height, 66 Topf triple muffle ovens were in operation -- 46 of which were at Auschwitz. These were not Nazi sadists, but men who were playboys and the sons of train conductors. They were driven not by ideology, but by love affairs, personal ambition, and bitter personal rivalries.
About the Author
Karen Bartlett is a writer and journalist who grew up in Northumberland and is now based in London. She has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, WIRED, The Guardian, Newsweek and Time from Africa, India and the US, and has presented and produced for BBC Radio.
