Hanns and Rudolf

Hanns and Rudolf is a dual biography of Hanns Alexander and Rudolf Höss by British/American journalist Thomas Harding.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. One of the lead investigators is Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, a German Jew who is now serving in the British Army. Rudolf Höss is his most elusive target. As Kommandant of Auschwitz, Höss not only oversaw the murder of more than one million men, women, and children; he was the man who perfected Hitler’s program of mass extermination. Höss is on the run across a continent in ruins, the one man whose testimony can ensure justice at Nuremberg.

The book received favourable reviews from a variety of authors in the thriller genre. John Le Carré called it "'A gripping thriller, an unspeakable crime, an essential history, a scrupulously dispassionate narrator.' Equally, Frederick Forsyth described it as "'An extraordinary tale deriving from meticulous research – the story of how a Jew after 1945 almost single-handedly hunted down the Kommandant of Auschwitz."

It also received praised from historians. Ben Macintyre wrote: "Meticulously researched and deeply felt, Hanns and Rudolf is written with a suppressed fury at the vicious moral emptiness of men like Höss, who were only following orders." Max Hastings said "Fascinating and moving... This is a remarkable book, which deserves a wide readership."

Hanns and Rudolf was a The Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback in the UK, and a bestseller in Israel and Italy. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

In May 2014 it was announced that Hanns and Rudolf had been optioned by The Ink Factory Films and that the company is in talks with Sir Ronald Harwood to adapt the book.

Awards and honours

 * 2015 JQ-Wingate Literary Prize, shortlisted
 * 2013 Costa Book Awards, shortlisted (Biography).
 * 2013, August Times Book of the Week
 * 2014, May Waterstones Non Fiction Book of the Month
 * 2013 Book of the Year in The Sunday Times, Times, Telegraph, New Statesman, Observer and Guardian newspapers.

Editions

 * First UK edition: Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz, Random House, Great Britain, 2013, ISBN 978-0099559054
 * First US edition: Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew who tracked and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2013. ISBN 978-1476711850
 * German translation by Michael Schwelien : Hanns und Rudolf: Der deutsche Jude und die Jagd nach dem Kommandanten von Auschwitz, DTV, 2014, ISBN 978-3423280440

Notable reviews

 * The Economist August 31, 2013
 * Der Spiegel August 27, 2014
 * El Mundo October 21, 2014
 * Le Figaro April 10, 2014
 * The Times August 24, 2013