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            The story of the Topf brothers is one of the most chilling examples of corporate complicity in the Holocaust.  Topf and Sons was the company who designed, built, and installed the ovens used to burn corpses in the concentration camps.  Far being disinterested bureaucrats, the company’s employees were actively involved in problem-solving and helping the Nazis to destroy the bodies of their victims.

            This really enlightening conversation with author Karen Bartlett lays bare the ways in which Topf engineers knowingly enabled Nazi mass murder.  It exp[lores the complexities of perpetrator choices as well as the ways in which their decendants approach the crimes of their family members.

              You can learn more about Topf & Sons as well at the Topf & Sons Memorial and Museum in Erfurt, Germany.

Karen Bartlett is a writer and journalist and the author of several books on the Holocaust. 

Her book on Topf & Sons is:
Bartlett, Karen.  Architects of Death: The Family Who Engineered the Holocaust (2018)

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You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.