While World War II was raging and all of Europe was in a
nightly blackout, Paul Ogorzow murdered eight women.
The day Germany attacked Poland Hitler instated dusk till
dawn blackout over Berlin. People were forced to either tape
paper over their windows or use special black out curtains
that didn't allow any light out. Street lights were turned
out and the lights on trains were lowered so the enemy would
not have targets to bomb. At the same time, more women were
leaving home and joining the work force, working shifts at
factories to help produce war materials. Many women were
forced to ride trains that had very little light on them and
to walk home on dark streets and through dark alleys.
This creates the perfect setting for a sexual predator. Paul
Ogorzow begins a two years reign of terror with verbal
harassment and assaults, which become more violent assaults
and eventually rapes and murders. Berlin is a city already
living in fear of bombing, and having the women fear going
to work is unacceptable. The police are under great pressure
to find A SERIAL KILLER IN NAZI BERLIN.
The police officer in charge of the investigation, Wilhelm
Ludtke, has to report to people known as being some of the
worst criminals in history. Reading this well researched
story and hearing how Ludtke keeps looking for the real
killer instead of taking the easy way out by creating a
scapegoat is very interesting. When you realize the lead
investigator, Ludtke was reporting to the likes of SS Chief
Heinrich Himmler and trying to get the cooperation of
Minster of Propaganda Joseph Gobbels you have to respect his
will to get to the truth. At times, you find it amazing
that the police worked so hard to find the killer of eight
women when some of the members of Ludtke's team, including
his immediate supervisor, though not Ludtke himself, were
later charged with the murder of millions.
A SERIAL KILLER IN NAZI BERLIN is a fascinating historical,
nonfiction novel by Scott Andrew Shelby that comes across
more as the story of Wilhelm Ludtke. Ludtke was a police
officer determined to stop the killer he could and protect
those he was capable of protecting in a time when society
and humanity were most at risk of being lost. Ludtke used
great police work and investigative skill to make a
difference in the only way he could in a world that most
likely broke his heart.
As the Nazi war machine caused death and destruction
throughout Europe, one man in the Fatherland began his own
reign of terror.
This is the true story of the pursuit and capture of a
serial killer in the heart of the Third Reich.
For all appearances, Paul Ogorzow was a model German. An
employed family man, party member, and sergeant in the
infamous Brownshirts, he had worked his way up in the Berlin
railroad from a manual laborer laying track to assistant
signalman. But he also had a secret need to harass and
frighten women. Then he was given a gift from the Nazi high
command.
Due to Allied bombing raids, a total blackout was instituted
throughout Berlin, including on the commuter trains-trains
often used by women riding home alone from the factories.
Under cover of darkness and with a helpless flock of victims
to choose from, Ogorzow's depredations grew more and more
horrific. He escalated from simply frightening women to
physically attacking them, eventually raping and murdering
them. Beginning in September 1940, he started casually
tossing their bodies off the moving train. Though the Nazi
party tried to censor news of the attacks, the women of
Berlin soon lived in a state of constant fear.
It was up to Wilhelm Lüdtke, head of the Berlin police's
serious crimes division, to hunt down the madman in their
midst. For the first time, the gripping full story of
Ogorzow's killing spree and Lüdtke's relentless pursuit is
told in dramatic detail.
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