The Angel of Zin

by Clifford Irving

At a Nazi death camp in Poland, the strangled body of an informer is discovered by the Jewish mistress of the camp commandant. Then an SS lieutenant is found, throat cut ear to ear. The Gestapo orders the Berlin Criminal Police to solve these crimes. The hunter is Paul Bach, Chief Homicide Inspector, a widower and wounded combat veteran of the Russian Front, a man at odds with war and Nazi evil. And the hunted is 'the Angel of Zin,' a killer who always leaves a clue in the form of a note. As hunter closes in on hunted, this daring and unusual novel offers an answer to the question all supposedly decent men and women at some time must ask themselves: "If I had been a German then, and realized what was happening, what would I have done?

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Holocaust, World War II, Fiction

306 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

Clifford Irving was the author of 20 published books & just released 12 of his works as Kindle/Nook eBooks; he was currently writing a memoir called Around the World in 80 Years.

Reviews

[Aleksandr Voinov]

I applaud the fact that the book has a gay Jewish character in the camp (there's also a gay German guard, who's flat and a bit of a sociopath), but I was somewhat disturbed by him falling in love with a woman as they have sex. (And no, he wasn't described as a closeted bisexual.) And of course, he died.

Overall - lots of small issues I had with the book. It veered from feeling pretty authentic to unbelievable, several jarring mistakes, quite a few scanning mistakes in the ebook. Worst of all, I never warmed to the characters.

[Michael Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clifford Irving is an evocative writer. The Angel of Zin continues his tradition of writing, but I was s little surprised by the apologist for the following-orders tone of this harrowing account of an absurd situation. Imagine the ludicrousness of being asked to look for a murderer at a death camp. Irving’s ‘human’ German detective even goes as far as stating in the middle of an interview with a camp inmate that he is in the camp on an important job looking for a murderer. The inmate, a beautiful woman who has ‘politely’ cuckolded (by the camp commandant) her still living husband (also an inmate) calmly replies: “That shouldn’t be hard here.”
In the 70s I visited the empty shell of a death camp in Germany. Dachau is outside Munich. The memory still disturbs me today. Though this book contains a great premise of the theatre of the absurd, ‘a la’ Bertold Brecht, it does not achieve its apparent goal of airing out the situation. Just airing your dirty laundry does not clean it up. That said the book was so powerful I had to stop reading, several times, and pick up another book just to clear my head. Despite poor editing that surprised me seeing that Irving is an established writer, I enjoyed this book. One couldn’t help but wonder why the book ended almost forgiving the Germans for slaughtering 450-odd Jewish inmates with machine gun fire while anguishing about protecting the feelings of the brainwashed Hitler-youth children of the detective. Perhaps Clifford Irving is just setting up the opposite sides of a very difficult issue and letting the reader decide for himself. As you can see from this review, The Angel of Zin leaves the reader thinking. The ‘horror’ in the protagonist’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ reminded me of the young woman, a complete stranger, who looked into my eyes and saw shock and then sat beside me on the train back from Dachau to Munich. She told me imploringly: “We are not all like that”. At the time, she did not convince me. Irving left me with the same feeling. I am unconvinced, yet the book started me thinking and feeling.

[Alessandra Bassi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando un ladro non ha occasione di rubare si reputa un uomo onesto - Scritto da Alessandra il 25 febbraio 2016
Il romanzo ci porta ad esplorare le infinite contraddizioni e le ambivalenze del nostro animo e dei nostri comportamenti: un punto di vista potente e insolito sui campi di concentramento e le persecuzioni, ma soprattutto su ciò che vediamo o non vediamo, su quello che ci tocca e quello che invece scegliamo di non considerare perché altrimenti la nostra vita e la nostra organizzazione sociale ed economica andrebbero in crisi. L'istinto di conservazione è utile ma spesso così poco etico da meritare attenta e costante valutazione, da parte delle persone ma soprattutto da parte dei gruppi sociali

[William C. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good suspense novel about an awful time.

During a horrible war, every day life goes on as usual until we're faced with events that make us evaluate our lives differently.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Bach is a German police officer sent to investigate a murder at Zin, a (fictional) concentration camp. The killer, the so-called Angel of Zin, killed two Jewish informants and Lieutenant Hrubow, a Polish guard. Paul is a reluctant nazi, while his late wife and teen children are true believers. The atrocities he witnesses at Zin gradually open his eyes. I will say, the premise of this book is a little unrealistic- why would the nazis send an SS officer to look for a murderer at a concentration camp?

The writing was a bit basic, and the characters were a little cliche. But I thought the story was interesting, so I kept reading. Unfortunately, I never really connected with the characters. I thought they were all kind of bland and two-dimensional. But I'll give the author a lot of credit for NOT making Paul is a saintly, heroic 'Good German'. He's mildly anti-semitic- he doesn't like the Jews, but he doesn't think they should all be exterminated. The scene when Paul rips open his pillowcase and finds Jewish hair inside was genuinely powerful. I wish the rest of the book effected me as much. The big uprising at the end felt flat and underwhelming.

As for what I did like: I thought the mystery aspect was well-done, and there are a few twists that kept me guessing. The book was very well-researched, and I didn't notice any glaring historical inaccuracies. The author doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of the holocaust in graphic detail. The 'welcome commando' sends new arrivals to their deaths. An SS officer rapes Jewish women, then takes them away to be shot. The dead prisoners' gold, clothing, and belongings are sent back to Germany to be 'repurposed'. Paul wonders: "What kind of men are we, that we can do this?"

This was an OK read that could have been better. If you like historical mysteries, you might enjoy this, but it's not as good as Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irving takes the premise of a Berlin homicide detective investigating a suspicious series of deaths of Jewish informers and Polish guards as an opportunity to reflect on what could happen when "ordinary" Germans were exposed to the truth of the Final Solution. Although the detective (who is a S.S. Captain because he wanted to keep his job and not because of any particular loyalty to the Nazi party) is the main protagonist, Irving focuses on several of the Jewish laborers who manage to maintain a sense of purpose amidst the horror. The SS officers in charge of the camp are also given life, particularly the commandant, who epitomizes the kind of person who considers himself a "good" man because he doesn't casually brutalize the laborers in the same sadistic way as some of his guards (he just rapes Jewish women he makes his temporary "mistresses").

Captain Paul Bach, our detective, is dedicated to a sense of justice which, at times, is politically problematic. He's not sympathetic to Jews--he's perfectly fine with what he believed to be their forcible "resettlement." But he is unprepared for the truth of what he discovers when he travels to, and arrives at, the camp. I found his shock and horror persuasive; in some ways, he is more horrified that Germans can do these things than he is that Jews (in particular) are the targets.

There are some incredibly powerful scenes in this book, but one in particular stands out--when Bach discovers the reason for his allergic reaction. I suppose it resonates for me because it illustrates the ways in which "ordinary" Germans who may not have known what was happening in the East had the evidence all around them. The famous saying, "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing," should be amended to include, "and to not ask questions."

[Anita Heveron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...I have to disagree with most of the reviews about this book....I don't see it as a cop out for the Germans. I thought it was a wonderful look into the minds of the Germans, those who were following orders and those who believed in the cause. I don't think it was forgiving at all. Also, the gay Jew issue...there is no evidence saying he wasn't Bi, and war can do crazy things to us. People search for love in all places. Comfort, hope, love has nothing to do with sexual preference, especially in war. He was searching for acceptance, kindness, and love.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inhumanity

War is probably always worse than is displayed on recruiting posters and the like. This story of a camp called Zin is painful for the reader to imagine but hearing of the inhumanity of otherwise decent people is heart wrenching. The ability to look and not see or to listen and not hear is terrible. The story while not literally true gives voice to helpless people who strive to do right and some who are so evil their heart is black!! Some goodness does shine but far too little and too late for many.

[Gayle Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Angel of Zin

Although this story presented Nazi Germany from a different aspect, it still included the atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people. It never occurred to me that most of the German people had no idea how the Jewish people were being resettled down that road of freedom. I know genocide has continued in many countries throughout the world after WWII, but I still find it appalling that people can be so filled with hatred over another group of people. I would and will recommend The Angel of Zin as a book well worth reading.

[Susan Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is a genus. Guess I'm going to have to read all his books. His plotting is so clever. His research is so in-depth I had to skip some descriptions of the horrors of the death camp--I already know enough from my own research that I didn't need it repeated. His characters are more than well developed. The irony didn't escape me.
Recommend this book if you like mysteries and can stomach death camp details.

[Marcia Calitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Read,l

In our current times, the ideology of the Holocaust has created deniers. While this book is fiction, the author has successfully brought the history into a story of brave men and women, brainwashed men and women and unlikely heroes. The more we know, the more we understand.

[Chuck Jelgersma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading.

This book gives the story from the German point of view. It also shows how people will work together to achieve what they believe in and the struggles they will go through to meet that goal. All in all it is a very important part of the history of the terrible this gone by but never to be forgotten. Recommended for history buffs.

[Kate Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so different than the usual book about the Holocaust. It was a murder mystery, but it was told from many POVs--the camp prisoners, the SS guards, and an SS policeman who comes to investigate the murder. It was thought provoking and heartbreaking. Highly recommended, although the Kindle edition has a few typos.

[Curtis & CeCe Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent historical novel

This was a real page turner. Borrowing from accounts of many death camps, Irving showed us the living Hell of Zin. He showed us the extent of the human will to survive , selfless sacrifice for others, and the oppression of a dictatorship.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was well written, and there were great points made about human nature. It was also a very dark story, because the story takes place at a concentration camp.

[Lenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too starkly descriptive! Did not enjoy reading it at all!

[Vic]

rwr review

[Charles Vella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book through a promotion and didn't really think I was going to like it. The first couple of chapters were OK, but I thought the writing and characters were a little wooden. As I read though, it became more clear what an ambitious undertaking the book is and the writing grew on me so that I liked it much better as I went along.

Captain Bach, a Berlin police officer, is sent to a Jewish death camp to investigate a murder and discovers an uprising among the inmates. According to a post note by the author this type of uprising actually occurred, although it's difficult to imagine given the treatment of the people in the camp.

As you might expect from any book about the holocaust parts of it are extremely difficult to read. The author is graphic about conditions in the camp and there are parts that I wanted to skip because they are hard to take. In my opinion though, this isn't what really sets the book apart. What is different about it is the author's attempt to deal with the moral ambiguity on both sides of the fence, Nazis and Jewish prisoners. In that sense it is like the movie Downfall, which in turn is based on the book Inside Hitler's Bunker, which I haven't read, but which describes the last ten days of Hitler's life.

What The Angel of Zin and Downfall recognize is that the truly frightening thing isn't that the Nazis were monsters. It's rather that they were people. There were certainly more than a few psychopaths mixed in, but on the whole they were people who went along for a number of reasons, for example for the power it gave them or because they were afraid not to. In one great part of the book, the camp commander commends his men because it's easy to be on the Russian front and fight other armed men. What is hard is to do what they are doing in the death camp without losing their sense of decency. (I may have the actual phrase wrong but you get the idea.) When you come to grips with the fact that many people must have felt that way it is an almost breathtaking thing to read. Captain Bach, the hero, isn't an idealistic, mankind loving ideal. He's mildly anti-Semitic and his beloved ex-wife and two teenage children are Nazi believers. He just can't come to grips with what he sees in the camp, which seems plausible to me.

The author also deals with this on the part of the Jewish prisoners. They know the camp's secret but still fool newcomers into the showers and take their valuables. Like the Nazis they do this for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the basic decision they all need to make between killing or dying. One of the most interesting characters is the Rabbi, who struggles to adhere to Talmudic values in the face of what his people are living through.

The message was summed up by Pogo. "We have met the enemy, and he is us." I've never read anything by Clifford Irving before, but I will certainly read more.

[Leah Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

My opinions of this book are very mixed. On the one hand, I have a definite appreciation of the fact that Irving took a very difficult period of history and sympathetically formed a fictional story around it, however on the other hand I felt that some concepts in the book were unrealistic and could have been treated with more care.

The story started off very slowly for me and it I was quite pessimistic about my overall enjoyment of the book until about halfway through. I didn't feel that a lot of the characters were easy to relate to for the everyday reader and thus it took me longer to empathize, especially with the main character. In fairness, this is probably partly due to the fact that Irving wrote the book mainly from the point of view of the oppressors- a feat which I imagine to be extremely challenging.

The second half of the book is where the story really came to life for me as it was faster-paced and had more character involvement. I was a bit let down by the fact that the ending (which the whole book had been building up to) was so short-lived and left a few unanswered questions.

Overall, 'The Angel of Zin' was a good read, but not one that I'll be sure to recommend.

[Priss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very sad book about a very sad time in history. Paul Bach, a Berlin police officer, is forced to face the truth of what is happening in the resettlement camps of his beloved Germany when he is sent to solve a series of murders happening within the camp. He has tried to ignore the rumors he has heard, but comes face-to-face with the horror of these rumors. He says, "I am so deeply ashamed of myself. I was a policeman. My task was to combat disorder and and evil. Now I swim in the muck of orderly evil. It was my job to protect the innocent by bringing murderers to justice. Here, the murders are my own people."

This is a book that really keeps you reading, not so much because of the mystery, but because you truly care for all the characters and want it to have a happy ending. It cannot.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Unfortunately it mirrors what may very well happen in our own country. People turn their backs on horrific acts of evil that a vast majority refuse to acknowledge. We are on the precipice of the exact trajectory of evil and already the masses refuse to acknowledge the evil that exists in our current government. The dismantling of a world known healthcare system, a resulting denial of care, an unelected jury of life and death based on equal poverty for all, a bankrupting of people and society, all in the name of power, control, and an evil agenda that people refuse to admit. This book is historical fiction that packs a solid punch on our own destiny.

[Libri & · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gennaio 1943. Il capitano Paul Bach, veterano e ispettore della polizia criminale di Berlino, ha perso la moglie sotto le bombe e un braccio fra le nevi russe, e ora si concentra solo sui figli e sul lavoro. Fino a quando viene spedito al campo di sterminio di Zinoswicz-Zdroj, Polonia sudoccidentale, per trovare il colpevole di alcuni efferati delitti che coinvolgono «un paio di ebrei di una certa importanza e un ufficiale polacco delle SS». Back, come tanti tedeschi, ha sentito parlare dei campi di lavoro ma non conosce l'agghiacciante realtà.

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[Howard Katzoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible experience!!

This outstanding book told a horrific story of the Holocaust. Most people who read it will not believe it because the horrors that humans can do unto others makes no understandable sense. Believe it folks! This story and 6 million others are real. The world would much rather cover it up than believe or admit it. Why do so many want to bury this part of history? Fear and shame--that's why. the constant denial will only lead to more of the same. Clifford Irving is a gift from God to force some of us to remember what people are capable of.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am presuming that this is the Clifford Irving who got into trouble years ago for plaigerizing? Anyone who knows me well, appreciates that I like to read books about WWII and the Holocaust. I was going to look up place names and see if the long version of Zin is anywhere near Auschwitz. At any rate, he had written a good story about people trying to survive in a camp, near the end of the war. What would you do to survive?

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fictional account of a WW II extermination camp in Poland with all the horror and grim reality of the Holocaust. A German Army Captain is sent to the camp from Berlin to try and solve a series of murders among the staff, only to fully now understand the sheer magnitude Hitler's genocide against the Jews. A dark story and very vivid in it gruesome account of the realities of the death camps. Read it only if you don't mind being reminded of this terrible time in history.

[Robert Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting mystery book about a German policeman sent to a concentration camp during WWII to investigate a serial murderer of camp inmates. It sounds unrealistic, but I got to believe the premise as the book went along. The book was well researched and well written. The book was difficult to read with all the details about concentration camp life, but the events described happened and should be told. The book is also about an escape plan the prisoners try to attempt.

[Lonni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a weird murder mystery. A German SS officer is ordered to look into murders at a (fictional) death camp. He has a conscience and begins to turn against what is going on. Meanwhile the Jews are planning a revolt. Won't give away the murderer or the end of the book. Not sure I'd read it again...

[Christopher Alexandrov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and sad story of human misery and triumph over evil

I am usually not a big fan of Holocaust fiction. It is clearly one of the most evil and bleak tea in human history, but this book is do compelling and moving I had to keep reading. Clifford Irving is one if the 20th century's most underrated writers.

[Michael Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written mystery set in a Polish concentration camp

This is a well written story that captures the sense of despair and the depth of corruption in a small Polish concentration camp in 1943. A rash a murders sends a Berlin detective to investigate. He confronts the horrors of his countrymen, and it changes him.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book with a very interesting perspective and characters. German criminal inspector investigating murder at a death camp must deal with his conscience when faced with the horror of Germany's Jewish action. There are Jewish prisoners with excellent character development as well as the SS. Good and evil.
I was pleasantly surprised with the writing and story development and ending.