This collection sheds new light on the actions and justifications of a likely participant in atrocities such as the Bialystock massacre and subsequent anti-partisan warfare. Using literary analysis, Schnell decodes allusions to reconstruct the hidden meaning of passages relating to the killing of Bolsheviks and Jews. The letters reveal a contrast between Müller's voice at the front and his persona at home, deconstructing the silence of the perpetrators. It is this explanation of the progression from “political soldier” to “reliable executioner” that makes the book an interesting and original addition to Holocaust scholarship.

Konrad Jarausch, The University of North Carolina at Chaple Hill, USA

Felix Schnell's close reading of an "ordinary" policeman's correspondence with his wife deftly shows how one perpetrator's self-perception and implicit racial beliefs pushed the "everyday business" of murder to the margins of intimate discourse-a striking theoretical and empirical study of self-representation during Hitler's war of annihilation in the East.

Edward B. Westermann, Regents Professor Emeritus of History, Texas A&M University, USA