Frank Westerman provides a forensic examination of the development of the Lipizzaner horse, deftly weaving in a mirror image of attempts to create thoroughbred humans during the Nazi era.
As with the treatment of the finest mares, ‘Hitler’s Brides’ – the unwed mothers who were part of the SS’s programme to propagate a pure racial strain – were afforded the best facilities and ‘covered’ by the prize stallions of the Wehrmacht. History has already recorded what happened to those who were not part of this Aryan pedigree. The tug-of-war for the equine prize – against the background of a more brutal kind of warfare - encompasses formidable characters (including the leading political players of their day), titanic geo-political upheaval and destructive ideology. A unique and engrossing read.
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