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The gripping account of one historian's hunt for answers as he delves into the surprising life of an ordinary Nazi officer.
'Totally exhilarating' Philippe Sands
It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas sewn into its cushion.
The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger emerges as at once an ordinary man with a family and ambitions, and an active participant in the Nazi machinery of terror whose choices continue to reverberate today.
'Gripping, it unfolds like a detective story as an obscured past emerges into the light' Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass
'An absorbing work of historical detection... Riveting' Evening Standard
About the author
Daniel Lee is a historian of the Second World War and a specialist in the history of Jews in France and North Africa during the Holocaust. He is a Senior Lecturer in modern history at Queen Mary, University of London, and the author of Pétain's Jewish Children (2014). As a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker, Lee is a regular broadcaster on radio. He lives in north London.
Summary
The gripping account of one historian's hunt for answers as he delves into the surprising life of an ordinary Nazi officer.
'Totally exhilarating' Philippe Sands
It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas sewn into its cushion.
The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger emerges as at once an ordinary man with a family and ambitions, and an active participant in the Nazi machinery of terror whose choices continue to reverberate today.
'Gripping, it unfolds like a detective story as an obscured past emerges into the light' Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass
'An absorbing work of historical detection... Riveting' Evening Standard
Report
Beautiful and gripping, it unfolds like a detective story as an obscured past emerges into the light. Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family
