Overview
Hasta las figuras más temibles de la historia tienen sus debilidades, y la de Heinrich Himmler fue sin duda su médico, cuyas manos milagrosas eran las únicas capaces de aliviar sus insoportables calambres abdominales. Felix Kersten, nacido en Estonia y formado por un maestro tibetano en Finlandia, era uno de los fisioterapeutas más prestigiosos de los años treinta, con una agenda internacional de pacientes y un buen patrimonio. En 1939, recibió la petición de atender a Himmler y, tras vencer sus dudas iniciales, se convirtió en su médico personal o, en palabras del Reichsführer, en su «Buda mágico». En lugar de recibir honorarios, pidió que le remuneraran mediante la liberación de judíos y combatientes de la resistencia.
Todos conocemos a Oskar Schindler, que salvó a mil judíos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Pero sabemos mucho menos de la hazaña de Kersten y, sin embargo, el Congreso Judío Mundial estableció en 1947 que este hombre había salvado en Alemania a «unos cien mil prisioneros de distintas nacionalidades, entre ellos sesenta mil judíos, arriesgando su vida», una cifra sin duda subestimada.
Para seguirle los pasos a Kersten, François Kersaudy, gran especialista en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se ha sumergido en diarios, notas y declaraciones en seis lenguas de los principales protagonistas, y emplea todo este material para narrar de un modo admirable esta trama sin un ápice de ficción.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
The true story of Kersten’s list, an unknown tale of terror, fanaticism, generosity, and heroism.
Even the most terrifying personalities in history have weaknesses, and Heinrich Himmler’s was, surely, his personal physician, whose miraculous hands were the only capable of easing his unbearable abdominal cramps. Felix Kersten was born in Estonia and learned under the tutelage of a Tibetan master in Finland. He was one of the most prestigious physical therapists of the nineteen-thirties, with an international clientele and a sizeable estate. In 1939, he received a request to treat Himmler, and after overcoming his initial hesitation, became his personal physician, or in the words of the Reichsführer himself, his “magical Buda”. Instead of being given a fee, he asked to be paid by releasing jews and resistance fighters.
We all know Oskar Schindler, who saved a thousand jews during World War II. But we know much less about Kersten’s deeds. And yet, the World Jewish Congress stated in 1947 that, back in Germany, this man saved “about one hundred thousand prisoners of different nationalities—sixty thousand jews among them—by risking his own life.” No doubt, an underestimated figure.
To follow Kersten’s path, François Kersaudy, one of the leading experts in World War II, plunged into diaries, notes, and statements of the main protagonists, in six different languages, using all this material to admirably recount a storyline that doesn’t have a trace of fiction.
This book title, El médico de Himmler: El hombre que salvó a miles de personas del Holocausto / H immlers Physician, ISBN: 9788430624843, by François Kersaudy, published by PRH Grupo Editorial (June 21, 2022) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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