The true story of Felix Kersten, Heinrich Himmler's doctor who saved more than 100,000 people of different nationalities, including sixty thousand Jews, putting his own life at risk, is reconstructed by the French historian François Kersaudy in the book 'Kersten's List.
A righteous man among the demons' published for Remembrance Day by Rizzoli in the translation by Andrea Zucchetti.
Kersaudy, in addition to having studied "Kersten's lists", drew on archives, memoirs, diaries, notes and depositions of the main protagonists to convey the story of an incredible man.
A renowned physiotherapist specializing in therapeutic massage, on the eve of the Second World War Kersten received the greats of Europe in his studios in Berlin and The Hague: magnates of finance, industry, politics and diplomacy.
In 1939 his life takes an unexpected turn when he is asked to visit Heinrich Himmler, the powerful Reichsführer of the SS.
The Nazi hierarch, once he discovered the healing power of his hands, the only one capable of calming the debilitating abdominal pain that had tormented him for years, will no longer be able to do without his services and will make him his irreplaceable personal doctor .
For his part, Felix Kersten, taking advantage of the trust and gratitude of the fanatic executioner, will manage to save many prisoners from Nazi hell.
Specializing in the Second World War, Kersaudy recounts a little-known episode in the history of the 20th century, expertly reconstructing the facts also thanks to his knowledge of German, English, Swedish, Danish and Dutch, and drawing on important sources document them.
in over 400 pages he reconstructs a complex and surprising human story in which terror, cowardice, generosity, fanaticism and heroism are intertwined.
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