Architects of Death is a tough read due to the nature of the book - but it was really well written. I have read many books about the Holocaust but never one with this specific subject, the family who engineered the death camps themselves. It took me a while to read due to the heartbreaking topic but it was a great read. Please be prepared for graphic descriptions if you choose to pick up this book.

The entire world has been horrified, yet fascinated by the death camps. How could evil so perverse exist, and how could it have been quietly done, allowing for the extermination of millions.

This book dives into the story of those who were behind the construction and execution of the Concentration camps. It goes into what drove these men, how they rose through the ranks, and how the mastermind of the most evil construction came to life.

As a history teacher, I was fascinated by the story in this book, which shed more light into the background of the camps, and what motivations drove each of the men involved to more evil.

Not a comfortable read, but one that was enlightening nonetheless.

An important book, though it did not bring to the fore the Topf brothers in flesh and blood - and reduced them to heresay and caricatures. Topf machines and 'innovations' were used in concentration / detention camps but there is no documentary proof given (apart from a few pictures), and the statements of only one or two workers is used to confirm the same. Also the title declaring Topfs as 'architects of death' is wrong: instead a more rightful phrase would be that they were aiders, abettors, benefactors of a system of economy run on persecution and annihilation of minorities and prisoners.


Memorable passages:

The Topf and Sons memorial is unique in being the only Holocaust memorial on the historic site of a company. ‘This place as a special aura,’ Memorial Director Annegret Schule says. ‘We can show here how easy it is for a human being to ignore his responsibility towards his fellow human beings in his daily work. If I go to the memorial in Buchenwald I cannot identify myself with the SS, because I would never have become a member. But I can relate to people who harm other people by doing their normal jobs. This is happening all the time. Visitors are motivated to think about this. Processes that are competely normal within any companies have led to atrocities.’


Until the autumn of 1939, Oswiecim was an unassuming town with 12,000 non-Jews and 5,000 Jews in an industrial part of Upper Silesia with good railway connections. But the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 transformed the town’s fate in unimaginable ways. Suddenly the Nazi regime had three large, and completely self-created, problems to solve: how to find homes and land for the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of ‘ethnic Germans’ that it agreed with the Soviet Unibion would be allowed to emigrate from the Baltic states and northern Romania; how to manage a large Polish population (which the Nazis regarded as a sub-human species to be traded as slave labor); and what to do with Poland’s two million Jews. The first of these issues had been resolved by the spring of 1940. Poland was divided into two areas - the ‘New Reich,’ technically a part of Germany where ethnic Germans would live in homes and on land Poles had recently been evicted from, and the ‘General Government’ an area that encompassed Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin where Poles would live. Jews would initially be ‘relocated’ to ghettos within the cities - starting with the Lodz ghetto in February 1940. Oswiecim fell within the area designated as the ‘New Reich’ but its industrial landscape meant few ‘ethnic Germans’ would be resettled there. Instead the town was renamed Auschwitz, and its native population moved out to make way for a new concentration camp, initially planned on the site of an old barracks and horse-braking yard.


Yet when Auschwitz’s first and most important commandant stepped off the train on 30 April 1940; he surely had no idea that within the course of five years he would be presiding over the site of the biggest single mass murder in world history. Instead the dream of SS Haupturmfuhrer Rudolf Hoss was the create a model concentration camp, based on the lessons he had learned after six years’ service in the SS, first at Dachau and then Sachsenhausen.

Later Sander would weakly justify his behavior by claiming he was a ‘German engineer’, much like an engineer working in aircraft construction, who felt obliged to use his knowledge ‘in order to help Hitler’s Germany to victory, even if that resulted in the destruction of human life.’


Although furnace construction was excluded from the notice, the first order (from American military after the war) was for a crematorium oven for the city of Erfurt.


‘No one in our company was guilty of anything at all, either morally or objectively. It is no empty phrase when I describe my company and the entirety of its conduct throughout the twelve years of the Hitler regime with the phrase: ‘Morality without Power.’ - Ernst Wolfgang Topf, 1958

This is a biography of the Topf family of Erfurt, Germany and the family firm, Topf and Sons. The company's primary business was manufacturing brewing equipment. However, a division within the company manufactured ovens for crematoria. This division supplied ovens for Auschwitz and other extermination camps during the Nazi era. Most of the focus is on brothers Ludwig Topf Jr and Ernst Wolfgang Topf, who headed the company during the Nazi era, as well as senior employees who were complicit in the design and manufacture of the crematoria ovens and the ventilation systems for the gas chambers. There is more focus on Topf cousin Hartmut Topf than perhaps there should be. While he shares the Topf name, his grandfather left the firm long before the Third Reich came to power. However, he has been outspoken about the Topf family and its legacy, so it probably would have been difficult to write this book without including him. This book would be a good choice for readers looking for information about support for the Nazis among the general populace.

This review is based on an electronic advance reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

The author did a brilliant job of researching the history of the impact that the Topf and Son's company had on the Holocaust. They created crematoriums used in Nazi camps and were responsible for more than one million deaths. This book was heartbreaking to read, as is any book about this horrendous period in time, but it was a unique view into the lives of the men that were responsible for so much that happened during this time.

'Architects of Death' is the disturbing story of how one German company became complicit in the crimes of the the Third Reich. The specifics make for truly chilling reading. The once well respected firm of JA Topf & Sons, who built a whole variety of devices for use in a wealth of different industries, eventually became infamous for creating and supplying Nazi Germany with the ultimate human killing (gas chambers) and disposal machines (crematoria). The company didn't have any evil intentions but through being too wrapped up in themselves they became indifferent to what else was occurring right under their noses.

This has to one of the most spine-chilling books I have ever read. It beggars belief just how disgustingly cruel Topf & Sons were, and all for their own ends. Many books have been written about the Nazi's and their crimes, but as far as I know this is the only one that focuses in on the people who helped them achieve their aims. Well-written, meticulously researched, uncomfortable and altogether harrowing - this title takes a look at just one of the many people/organisations who supported Hitler and his cronies whilst carrying out these terrible crimes against humanity. A thoroughly compelling and informative read, but one that highlights the very worst that humanity has to offer.

It's worth noting that this is a particularly important book in todays society with the rise of far-right politics and populism. I truly hope that history does not repeat itself and we never see another tragedy on the scale of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, with the state of the world at present, this is something that could easily be repeated in the future. This book definitely serves as both a reminder and a warning to this generation and those that follow.

Many thanks to St. Martins press for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I have read a lot of books about World War II and Holocaust. Architects of Death is unlike any other book I have read on this time period. This book contains a great deal of information and most of deals with the company, Topf & Sons, that supplied the crematorium ovens that were used in Nazi concentration camps. Any book you read about the Holocaust is always hard to read because of what happened during this time period. But this book shows how one company, who's main income wasn't even from the ovens, helped not only to arm concentration camps with these ovens, but they went as far as working to make them as efficient as possible. I think that when looking at the Holocaust, it is easy to blame everything on the Nazi party, without thinking about companies, such as Topf & Sons, that helped make the Holocaust happen and on such a massive scale.

I think these types of books are important to read as it shows how even simple business man became a part of the horrific events that occurred during the Holocaust.

Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC of this book.

I have read a fair few books on the Holocaust prior to starting this one. I've also visited Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Dachau. I have a fair knowledge of what went on, how it started (been to Wannsee too), read about the perpetrators, the survivors and the stories of those who didn't. As regards to the methods of extermination, everyone knows about the gas but, apart from reading about the people who worked the ovens, the Sonderkommandos, I have never actually given much thought to the ovens themselves and how they came to be chosen, designed, modified and indeed improved to better serve their heinous task.
It's not an easy read by any means. None of the books on this topic are, or should be, but this one especially got to me in places and I did have to take breaks from it often. But, I hasten to add, I never once thought of giving up. It's too important a topic for it ever to get swept under the carpet. The memorials exist so that we do not forget what happened.
That a company can provide a product to do a task so horrible is one thing. But when they then go further to tweak the design to make it more efficient to cope with the sheer number of people... well, words on occasion fail me and they do here. Nothing I can say in a review will ever do the book the justice that it so deserves. For people with an interest in the subject, it will definitely add another layer to the atrocities. It's a book that I am glad I read as it definitely gave me more food for thought. But also, a book that I very much wish would never have been needed to be written.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

5 out of 5 Stars

I received a free Kindle copy of The Architects of Death by Karen Bartlett courtesy of Net Galley  and St. Martin's Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as  I have read a great deal about the holocaust, but never one that covered this subject. This is the first book by Karen Bartlett that I have read.

This book is well written and researched. The subtitle "The Family Who Engineered the Death Camps" is an accurate description of the contents of the book. It explains how the Topf family companies worked with the Nazi Government to design and install the ovens used for cremation of the victims of the holocaust. It also details how they worked to improve the efficiency of the ovens.

While this book is a very good read, the reader must be braced for some graphic descriptions of the process. I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in the holocaust as it addresses one facet that has not been covered before.

A dark, disturbing but well researched and presented account of how one firm collaborated with and profited from their collusion with the Third Reich. The Topf family firm , Topf and Sons became notorious as the producers and installers of the crematorium ovens used in concentration camps throughout the Reich controlled territories. Not only did they build and install the ovens, they had staff solely devoted to finding ways of making them more efficient , and expanded into ventilation systems for the gas chambers.
The author has gone to great effort to research her subject, and the result of that effort is a book that is rich in detail. Despite this, the detail never becomes dull or overwhelming, it is very well presented in a way that is easy to understand and engaging for the reader. While the subject matter obviously makes for difficult reading at times, this is a book that is worth reading, it certainly highlights how easy it is for a small company to become blinded by greed and lose all sense of humanity in the pursuit of money and power.

While this is the read, it also puts another face on the Holocaust and people who were involved in the construction and mass murderer of human beings. There are many lessons to be learned but it also gives people a deeper understanding and insight into how human beings could commit such atrocities. It illustrate that what drives evil is not just greed and narcissism, It's a combination of choices and beliefs.
It is another documentation that teaches us that history can repeat itself when it is ignored and forgotten in an effort to move on.

Thank You to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Architects of Death should be read by anyone and everyone that doesn't want to see history repeat itself.

I have read a lot of books about The Holocaust and concentration camps but this one really emphasized just how many people died in the camps. This book deals with a company, Topf and Sons, that supplied the crematoria ovens to the Nazis for use in the concentration camps. Not only did they supply them but they engineered ways to make them more efficient throughout the war. This was not the main sales revenue for the company and actually was a very small percentage of their income. So what motivated them to supply equipment that helped the Nazis to exterminate so many people.


Very interesting book.
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Well researched with direct quotes, Architects of Death neatly arranges the impact of Topf cremation services on the holocaust.

Architects of Death:The Family Who Engineered The Death Camps by Karen Bartlett is a very interesting addition to Holocaust studies.

The Holocaust is not something you can say you fully understand, all you can do is decrease your ignorance. A recent survey showed one third of Americans have either never heard of the Holocaust or did not believe six million people were murdered. In five years unless trends change, it will be fifty percent.

The Holocaust was a great economic wind fall for millions. When a Jew was shot or gassed, his property was sold to local people, not all Germans by any means, for a small fraction of the value. In everything from stolen art works to gold from teeth, non Jews made money. Case in point, when the Nazis took over France, Coco Channel tried to expropriate her Jewish partners share of the business who had financed her.

Bartlett wonderfully details how concentration camps depended on 100s of local businesses for their needs, from food, to Lumber, for wire, etc. Concentration Camp guards had jobs that exempted them from military duty. People were allowed to bring one suitcase with them. All they brought was supposed to be inventored and used for the war efforts but the guards stole much of the valuables. Of course the officers stole the most.

Big German firms like B M W, Bayer, Siemans, I. G. Farben, Krump and many others made use of slave labor. The SS regulated slave labor and the higher ups took advantage of this. The corporations paid bribes to make this happen.

Bartlett explains what was involved in designing crematoriums for the camp. Human bodies require a high temperature to burn. The Nazis wanted crematoriums with high capsity with as low a fuel requirement as possible. We learn of the strains this put on Talbot and Sons. The most sinister aspect of their work was in increasing the efficacy of gas chambers, increasing their kiling speed. Bartlett goes into a lot of fascinating detail about the inner workings of the company.

Architects of Death:The Family Who Engineered The Death Camps by Karen Bartlett will fascinate all into The Holocaust. I highly recommend this book to all libraries.

Mel u