The Beasts of Buchenwald: Karl & Ilse Koch, Human-Skin Lampshades, and the War-Crimes Trial of the Century (The Buchenwald Trilogy) - Hardcover

The Beasts of Buchenwald is the story of Karl and Ilse Koch, the brutal first commandant of Nazi Germany's most infamous concentration camp, and his equally brutal wife.

When one hears the words "Nazi Germany," images of concentration camps, mass death, and torture come to mind. And no concentration camp is more infamous than Buchenwald--a pitiless place where tens of thousands of human being died through overwork, disease, malnutrition, torture, medical experiments, and execution. Overseeing this empire of horror was SS Colonel Karl Koch and his wife and partner in crime, Ilse. Under their cruel regime, unspeakable acts were perpetrated, perhaps none more horrific than the skin of tattoed prisoners being transformed into book covers, lamsphades, and gloves. In this riveting and oftentimes revolting tale of crime and punishment, renowned historian Flint Whitlock looks back upon a period in human history when evil reigned unchecked and the inconceivable became commonplace.