A personal look at how ordinary people became Nazi perpetrators. It tells the story of Bedzin, a small town near Auschwitz, its 'perfectly ordinary' local administrator, Udo Klausa, and his role in the unfolding stigmatization and degradation of the Jews under his authority, as well as the heroic attempts at resistance on the part of some of his victims. As Fulbrook constantly reminds us, Klausa's case is important because it is so typical in many ways, and she brings a personal aspect to the story as she has known the Klausa family all her life, but only discovered her subject's true role in the Third Reich a few years ago.

The story of a small town near Auschwitz and of its local Nazi administrator. An ordinary functionary and family man without whose help, and those of thousands like him, the murderous plans of the Nazi elite could never have been fully realized.