Der SS-Staat

The standard work on Nazi crimes

As a confessed opponent of National Socialism, Eugen Kogon was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in September 1939, where he remained imprisoned until 1945. After his rescue, he worked as a chronicler for the US Army and simultaneously worked on a manuscript that he wanted to destroy several times due to its horrifying content. In 1946, he ultimately published the book "The SS State" - a comprehensive account of the atrocities of the concentration camps and the first historical analysis of the Nazi terror system. This unique report is based not only on 150 individual protocols but also on Kogon’s own experiences as a concentration camp inmate. Shocking, precise, and unrelenting, it describes one of the darkest chapters of our history, confronting the public for the first time with a reality that had previously been deemed unimaginable. A historical work of the highest order, it is still regarded today as the standard reference on Nazi crimes worldwide.