In April 1947, the body of Dr Gerhard Bast, the former head of the Gestapo in Linz, was found in an abandoned bunker near the Brenner Pass in northern Italy. Bast's son, Martin Pollack, the result of an affair with a married woman, was three at the time and grew up knowing nothing of the circumstances of his father's death or his involvement in Nazi atrocities. Here, he retraces Bast's childhood in southern Austria and reconstructs his subsequent career in the SS. As Pollack contemplates his father's photographs, personal effects and official documents, he attempts to understand his savage commitment to Nazi ideology. The ethics of his approach – honest, assiduous, and open – make this a valuable and compelling book.