Ernst Rohm

Eleanor Hancock does not seek to rehabilitate Rohm, but to investigate carefully the role of this central, though largely ignored, figure in the early Nazi leadership. Ernst Rohm was not a fanatical anti-Semite (in fact, his favorite opera singer was Jewish), but he was excessively loyal to his ultimate murderer, Adolf Hitler. The result was that he never acted upon requests to intervene in the persecution of Jews, or even of homosexuals like himself. Hancock's balanced assessment is unsparing in its criticism of Rohm, yet relentless in its pursuit of the motivation for his actions. She succeeds magnificently in laying to rest a number of the slurs cast at him by jealous Nazi rivals. Her prodigious hunt for surviving records has been complemented by interviews with contemporaries. She has produced a thorough and very thoughtful study of Ernst Rohm which will stand as the definitive biography for years to come.