The End of Law

A powerful novel of moral choices in the Third Reich

The book revolves around the relationship of three people: Walter Gunter, a classic violent and sadistic SS Officer ; his wife, Hedda who is naive at first, but grows stronger as the book progresses; and conscience stricken SS officer, Karl Muller.

The Muller character is a fascinating one , an engineer and trainee doctor he is also part of T4, an SS managed program of euthanasia for the mentally ill and disabled. From a catholic upbringing he is repulsed by his work and decides to disrupt the program.

The character Muller is based on Kurt Gerstein a German SS officer who gave information to the Swedish diplomats as well as to members of the Roman Catholic Church with contacts to the Pope in an effort to inform the international public about the Holocaust.

The novel itself did seem slightly overlong, but did describe the moral dilemmas of cooperation and resistance to the Nazis effectively and powerfully through its characters. The tension builds well in the last third with the lead female character’s realisation of the complicity of her wider family in the T4 program.

It wasn’t until I reached the end of the book that I found out it was based on real people. Indeed I had initially thought the storyline a little far-fetched, however the end notes are particularly useful giving context and background to the non-military German resistance to the Nazis which are often overshadowed by the Stauffenberg Hitler assassination plot.

A powerful and well written novel.

End of Law deals with the T4 program (killing of those "unworthy of life" such as the disabled and mentally ill) and navigates the complexities of ambition and humanity well-such is Down's skill, when the characters were desperate and unsure of what to do, I too couldn't see a way out