A Nazi in the Family: The hidden story of an SS family in wartime Germany

"A great book." Jeremy Vine

What if you discovered a terrible secret in your family history? Would you look deeper? No matter what it might tell you about your past, your name and even yourself?

Wartime Germany: The Niemann family live in a quiet, suburban enclave. Every day Karl Niemann commutes to work, a business manager in charge of various factories. In the evenings he returns home to life as a normal family man.

For many years this was all Derek Niemann had known about his grandfather – until he made the chilling discovery that Karl had actually been an officer in the SS; and that his “business” used thousands of slave labourers in concentration camps. Suddenly, a lifetime of unsettling hints and clues fell into place.

With the help of surviving relatives and hundreds of previously unknown photographs, Derek reconstructs the lives of his German forebears and uncovers the true story of what Karl did. A Nazi in the Family is an illuminating portrayal of how ordinary people can fall into the service of a monstrous regime.

"All families have secrets, but few are as shocking as Derek Niemann's." Culture Trip
"Extraordinary." Glasgow Evening Times
"Vividly captures the complex life of an ordinary man." Andrew Bomford, BBC Radio 4