Felix Kersten, physician to the high-demon of the Third Reich, Heinrich Himmler could alleviate Himmler’s severe stomach pains with his hands using massage and manipulation. In return, Kersten bargained with Himmler to order the release of innocent prisoners condemned to die.

It is an amazing story of the good-natured little fat man who looked like a “cross between a Flemish burgomaster and a Buddha of the West,” studied the higher curative powers of massage under a lama-doctor Ko, and applied them to Himmler whose excruciating stomach aches were only relieved by Kersten’s therapy. During the five years to come, Kersten attended Himmler but was an alien by birth and sympathies among his entourage, with the one exception of Himmler’s private secretary who collaborated with him in drawing up the lists of doomed men—Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, concentration camp victims of all nationalities. At the close, Kersten was jockeying with Himmler (and when persuasion failed, withholding treatment) to try and secure mass scale liberation of victims first through Sweden, then Switzerland.... Kersten is fascinating to follow-through his circumspect, ambivalent career—even though there may be points in question at its close.—KIRKUS Review