Daniel Lee certainly needs a round of applause for this book. It is so well researched and really interesting. In my opinion it should be read alongside other historical books about WW2.
An upholsterer stubbles across paper work stuffed in a chair. He explains to the owner that he will not touch the chair due to the Nazi connections. By a chance meeting Lee meets the owner of the chair and a journey of discovery begins into the life of Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart.
We learn of his life and his family and more about the Nazi regime.
This is a real life detective story told in a brilliant way that will grip you and bring emotions to the forefront.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

After finding documents concealed in an armchair what follows is the investigation into the person who hid the documents there, SS Officer Robert Griesinger.

This book is interesting, following the investigation into what lead a man to end up as part of the Third Reich was fascinating. The travels of Daniel Lee to find the history behind the armchair, the documents and Griesinger is well written. Overall I like this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII history.

Thank you to Random House UK for this advanced copy.

A late addition to a dinner party gives rise to the start of this investigation. A through and comprehensive look into one ss officers upbringing, family history and his career. From new Orleans to stuggart to Prague and later his descendants living in Switzerland. A fascinating glimpse in to what would of been an administrative role but still involved in the atrocities. How generations airbrushed the atrocious behaviour and even denied family members involment. An important piece of writing.

A really good interesting historical read. This book has obviously been very well researched. It is a fascinating read. I was expecting something a bit different going by the synopsis but I still found it intriguing.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I’m afraid I’m still unpersuaded about the purpose of this book. I appreciate the work and research that went into this but the problem with the banality of evil is that it’s banal. I found it difficult to keep persevering with the minutiae of the life of one of millions of people who have, throughout history, followed their cultural and inherited belief system or been selfish, immoral and stupid. The world seems fuller now of such people than it ever was, and I’m not sure I want to read about their lives either.
This man was a cog in a monstrous machine, to be sure, but the reason we read about Goering and Himmler and Goebbels with fascination, is because they made decisions we can barely grasp the inhumanity of and so we can try to learn how to spot and stop them in their ascent. However, when I look around and see world leaders now, I wonder if any lesson has been learnt. And if we haven’t learned from Hitler, what can we learn from an anonymous lawyer who never even saw a concentration camp?
A well-written book for those with an intense historical interest but I struggled with it.

This position belongs to quite a different type of literature I have been reading in recent years. The book is unique and one of the kind. It follows the journey of a researcher on her way to discover everything she can about one particular 'ordinary Nazi' connected with her family history.

The story itself is heavy on dates and specific information therefore I would categorize it as a biography. I was expecting more of the lighter type story yet it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book. The information in it are well researched and annotated at the end of the book but the book also includes a lot of guessing what could have happened.

I would recommend the book to anybody interested in WW2 and. biographies. Others may find it a bit heavy to read.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really interesting non-fiction read. It follows the journey of a WW2 historian as he attempts to trace the life of Robert Greisinger; a low-level Nazi and member of the SS, whose documents were recently found inside the cushion of an armchair when it was sent to be reupholstered.

The research is meticulous and the lives of the people in the book, including Greisinger, his family, colleagues and neighbours, are captured in painstaking detail. It made a vast and far-reaching topic very personal, and the author has real skill in tracking the impact that the Nazi regime had for families like Greisinger’s as well as his Jewish next door neighbours’. He may have been a small cog in an enormous wheel, but it is undeniable that the role of Greisinger and other “ordinary Nazis” like him amounted to one of the worst atrocities in human history.

There are no big twists or revelations, but that seems fitting for a man who was a low-level member of the Nazi regime. What I found most fascinating was the very fact that his home life and even work life were seemingly so “ordinary”, even mundane, despite the fact that his daily actions contributed to mass genocide. This book is an important and heartbreaking reminder of the reach that the Nazi regime had, not just for people at the time, but also for the generations that followed. A truly fascinating read.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In ‘The SS Officer’s Armchair’ Daniel Lee brings alive, in vivid fashion, the ‘banality of evil’ that was the everyday bureaucratic killing machine of Nazi Germany. This book is a triumph of meticulous research and dogged research and more importantly, is broadly accessible to all those with an interest in the dark days of 1933-1945. It begins with an armchair and the accidental discovery of concealed documents belonging to a Dr Robert Greisinger, Nazi lawyer in the occupied territory of what is now the Czech Republic. It would be tempting to say that Greisinger was no ordinary Nazi, but that was precisely what he was. The sobering truth, as Lee demonstrates, was that Greisinger, tangentially linked to the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’, was no aberration. Mass killing was the preserve of the typical ‘men in suits’, like Greisinger as well as the infamous killing squads of the East, when the conflict ominously entered Soviet territory. The Holocaust, when reduced it to its bare bones, was a bureaucratic puzzle to solve, free of the abstractions of humanity. The sad fact, as Lee conclusively demonstrates, was that many in Nazi Germany colluded in the mass murder of Jews and other so-called ‘undesirables’. What is perhaps more frightening is how solving the logistical problem of exterminating a whole race of people was reduced to a competitive sport, where bureaucratic functionaries, like Greisinger, used mass murder as a Trojan Horse for ever greater advancement in the Nazi hierarchy. Daniel Lee, in Dr Robert Greisinger, puts a human face to this casual - often unconscious evil but he also reminds us, that in another time, another place, that face could be our neighbour, our friend - more chillingly, perhaps our own.

A very informative book reminding the reader of the atrocities of the world wars and looking more in depth at one of the many 'minor' German officials under nazi occupation during war 2. There are many people who carried out the nazi orders who have been forgotten and not brought to the attention of the public - the author was able to piece together the life of one of them using various archives although in some areas much information was burnt. This book is a reminder of how far reaching the atrocities were and how it affected the families of both the tormentors and their victims. I found it difficult to read at times but it is important to be informed and remember.
Thanks to net galley for this free read.

Daniel Lee has produced a historical story of one man from the German SS in Second World War, delved into his family history and more. Well written with historical facts and insights. A book that can be enjoyed and a book we can all learn something from.

Interesting true story of papers found in an old chair which had been sent for reupholstering. These turned out to belong to an ordinary SS nazi lawyer officer who lived and worked pre 2nd world war, during the war and died at the end of the war, having hidden the passports and other documents and photos, for what reason isn't really known. Everyone thinks SS members were all murderers, brutal, antisemites and indoctrinated with Nazi ideas and this gives a well researched insight into how and why the Nazi ideas were accepted by the majority of germans at the time and how they carried on working at normal jobs, looking for promotions, marriage, family and everything we still look for today. The brutality which was also going on in parallel, which they either accepted, ignored or denied whilst living their 'normal' lives cannot really be understood. This book provides food for thought.

I was interested in reading this book as my father was in the British Army based in Austria and my mother was an Italian (german speaking) lady. I was hoping to get an insight into her life particularly as it was not something that was ever discussed as I was growing up. I found the book really enlightening and interesting even though it was obviously very sad and upsetting how things progressed during the wars. We all have read and digested stories like these over the years but I did find this different as although it is a history as such it also has a human element and the author’s research and subsequent writing proves that he was interested in the human element. The characters in the book were written about with empathy and it is always interesting how people remember the past You never know what makes people join elite groups but it still goes on to this day. I felt Robert Griesinger was more interested in promotion than the SS but he did not seem to follow that through as his job in Prague attests to. A book for school history lessons I think and also it would make a good movie.

A chair sent to be reupholstered reveals a hidden cache of documents relating to SS Officer Robert Griesenger. These are passed on to historian Daniel Lee and this starts his exhaustive quest to uncover the life of an ‘ordinary Nazi’. Men like Griesenger are the nameless and frequently faceless bureaucratic backbone that enable the day to day functioning of the 3rd Reich. This book is a rare and therefore important insight into their lives and makes for fascinating reading as there is little attention elsewhere to low level SS. We get some sense of the man although inevitably there are gaps in knowledge where the author has made best guesses.

First of all, I’d like to congratulate Daniel Lee for his huge endeavour and undertaking in this well written book. He certainly goes the extra mile and travels extensively, asks a multitude of questions in order to seek answers. Some of the most fascinating sections are interviews with Griesenger’s daughter Jutta who was young when he died and knows little about him as her mother Gisela made talking about him taboo. She is seeking a father through the research whereas Lee is seeking something entirely different. Especially revealing is the story of Griesenger’s mother Wally which is probably where he acquires his right wing views and she ensures he has a traditional conservative upbringing.

So what of the man? Lee traces his family story, his education, university and career and how he becomes an SS officer. Its fair to say his career is not especially spectacular in rising though the ranks but we do get a snapshot view of how Nazi law is enacted in various regions by the ‘diligent’ work of officers like Griesenger. Particularly poignant is the personal angle for the author whose research of Griesenger’s war efforts leads him to Stavyshche in Ukraine where some of his ancestors perished which must have been a grim discovery. He learns of Griesenger’s fate at the end of the war which shows some discrepancies in the records though not of the outcome.

Overall, I found this book to be an extremely interesting read. The research is very impressive, I especially enjoyed the personal family elements, there are some superb photographs to look at so who know what he looks like, we can trace his career path in the 1930’s and the war and get some sense of the man. If you are interested in history and World War 2 in particular this rare insight may be of considerable interest.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK/Vintage for the ARC for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I love historical novels and I found this really interesting. It’s both an historical detective story and a gripping account of one historian’s hunt for answers, At times the book read a little like some kind of dissertation, a little too academic for me. Overall I enjoyed it though and learned a lot about the 'other' side of history.

As an educationalist with a passion for history, this book was perfect reading. It draws the reader in through the intriguing finding of Nazi documents in an old armchair and then proves itself to be an outstandingly well researched and cleverly put together history which adds to our knowledge of this dark period and asks important questions. The book is a must for anyone with an interest in World War Two but I would go as far as to say is a must for all.

With huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

The SS Officer’s Armchair by Daniel Lee is a historical investigation uncovering the life of a mid level Nazi administrator.

Lee is set on the trail of Robert Greisinger by a bundle of documents that had been concealed in the seat of an armchair for 70 years. His searches trace Greisinger’s ancestry, his family, his career as a lawyer and his progression as an SS officer from Stuttgart to the Ukraine to Prague. Lee’s conversations with Greisinger’s daughters shed some light on the way the post war generations adopted collective amnesia in coming to terms with their parents’ actions during the Nazi era.

Despite his own personal connection to the history he is investigating, Lee manages to remain an objective chronicler of his subject and is surprisingly sympathetic to the two daughters. However he convincingly disproves the idea that Greisinger (or indeed any of the mid level officials) were not active and enthusiastic participants in the crimes of the Nazis. I was left shuddering at Greisinger’s pursuit of advancement and a comfortable life for his family at the expense of the thousands that he condemned to misery and death at the stroke of a pen. Throughout I had Hannah Arendt’s description of Eichmann’s trial “The Banality of Evil” in mind.

This is not pleasant reading but it is compelling.

What a fascinating read. The author has conducted Incredibly detailed, forensic research over years to compile this interesting look into the ‘ordinary nazi’. Although we learn that he was in fact no ordinary nazi at all, but a member of the deadly SS.

The premise to the book is brilliant. An old armchair, at the upholsterers, revealing it’s secrets- the papers of our SS officer which had been hidden for decades. So started out author’s search for the facts behind the man.

This book will appeal to those with a keen interest in Second World War history. It is incredibly detailed and factual. If I’m honest, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting (I was thinking more of a story along the lines of The Tattooist of Auschwitz) but nonetheless I found it an interesting read. Thank you to Netgalley at the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An exceptionally well researched book about a very vile part of history and how this man was involved. Fascinating reading especially the historical figures and influences on a family. Highly recommended. #TheSSOfficersArmchair #NetGalley

I have read many novels and some non fiction about the Second World War but never about ' an ordinary Nazi'. The author found out about documents from a middle serving Nazi officer hidden, sewn into a chair, and this set him off to find out about this man, an ordinary Nazi. The research into his part in the Nazi workings and into his past to try to discover what made someone become a Nazi were fascinating. I found this to be a very well written story about an unusual aspect of the Second World War and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in this period.

As a history teacher I enjoyed this book. There were new insights and I certainly learned new things about a period which I already know quite a lot about. The author handled a horrifying subject in a sensitive and thoughtful way without glossing over events and actions that should never be forgotten. He managed to make this poignant, intriguing and informative - no small task! I would recommend this book, yes to those who are interested in in this period of history but also to anyone as what Lee tells us is something that everyone should know and remember so that we understand how human decency can be eroded by propaganda and tyranny.