Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Killing Fields

Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Killing Fields by Wendy Lower, 270 pages.

Lower's account of several German women who came of age between the wars, and then served the Nazi state in some capacity that brought them into contact with the killing of those deemed undeserving to live by the state. Several of the women discussed in the book either worked for the SS (usually in an office role) or were married to or involved with members of the SS. Others whose tales are told here worked as nurses, and teachers.  Many nurses in Nazi Germany served the state by selecting or helping to euthanize citizens who were considered physically or mentally unfit. Teachers were tasked with spreading the party line concerning the Aryan race, to children orphaned by the conflict.
Evidence exists of the crimes committed for many of the German women, but as those who committed murder almost always did so of their own volition there are no written records. After the war, in West Germany at least, witness statements alone, even if there were many witnesses, weren't enough to convict accused mass-murderers. The author states that women who showed empathy, and denied the accusations, were believed by West German courts. In the east, interrogation methods were more intense, and one woman whose crimes were examined in this book, Erna Petri, was sentenced to life in prison for shooting six Jewish children who were hiding on her estate.
Lower tells several interesting stories, but she vacillates between telling a broad tale and several small tales, and doesn't do either fully. The book also seems to be written partially for a wide audience, and partially for a more academic readership, changing stylistically throughout the book.
A little bit uneven, and hampered (as the author states) by the lack of documentation of women's roles in the Holocaust and other war crimes.
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