“This surprising and artful book . . . entertains and enriches
our understanding of a terrible time.” Richard Breitman, author
of The Architect of Genocide The Nazi, the Painter and the
Forgotten Story of the SS Road G. H. Bennett Published by
Reaktion Books & distributed by the University of Chicago Press
Publication date: June 1, 2012 |ISBN: 978-1-86189-909-5 ||240
pages; 27 halftones ||Cloth • $29.00 | In 2006 a canister of
film was discovered in a church in the southwestern corner of
the United Kingdom. Its origin was a mystery, but its contents
were tantalizing—the grainy black and white footage showed
members of the German SS and police, led by an unidentified fat
man, building a road in the Ukraine and Crimea in 1943. The BBC
caused a sensation when it aired the footage, but the film gave
few clues to the protagonists or their task. In The Nazi, the
Painter, and the Forgotten Story of the SS Road, World War II
historian G. H. Bennett pieces together the story of the film
and its principal characters, u