70 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STUNNING ! EXCELLENT RESEARCH !, 30 July 2009
This review is from: Hunting Evil (Hardcover)
Guy Walters has written a masterpiece on a subject which had already been explored in the past, namely:the fate of those Nazi criminals who have fled from justice after the collapse of the Third Reich.What makes this book different from the others is the fact that what the authors sets the record straight about certain myths which were created along the years in respect to these fugitives.
Firstly, Mr.Walters destroys a sacred myth by demonstrating that the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was a blatant liar and fabricated much of his own past and his so-called success in hunting down 1200 Nazi criminals.In reality,the number was barely one percent of this figure.
It seems that Wiesenthal was an egomaniac and a big one and he always wanted to take credit for things he was not responsible for.
Then he examines another myth:that of the existence of the organization called 'ODESSA', whose purpose was to assist ex-Nazis everywhere.This term was nothing but an umbrella term for a number of such organizations-many of which are described in the book for the first time.
Mr. Walters has travelled the escape routes themselves, has talked to Nazi hunters and Nazi criminals in Rome and Vienna, has consulted many written and oral sources in many countries and the result is a fatastic book you will not be able to put down easily.
He describes famous cases of well-known criminals and their fate:Franz Stangl,Mengele,Eichmann,Ante Pavelic, who was the head of the Croatian puppet state;Klaus Barbie and former SD officer Heinz Felfe and the fate of Herbert Cukurs,the hangman of Riga, who was responsible for the murder of 30000 men,women and children.This last case is less known and reads like a thriller.
He chronicles and scrutinizes the role the Catholic Church has played in assisting those who escaped via the ratlines and managed to reach South American countries,where they thrived because they were helped by their comrades and the corrupt regimes and dictators there.
In addition,there are chapters describing (and deploring)how the Allies failed to pursue and catch these criminals, as well as their cynicism when they did not hesitate to employ them in their respective inteligence services as soldiers in the Cold War.
A fifth of the book includes extensive documentation.It also has many photos-some taken by the author himself.
This book should serve as a warning and as a subtext whose message is that those horrendous and bestial crimes could repeat themselves unless we-the common people-and politicians are careful and moral.
In sum:this book is brilliant !
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well-researched, horrendously organized and poorly written, 9 July 2010
I'd never read anything by Guy Walters before, but, given his credentials as a historian/historical novelist, I anticipated a book with the readability of, say, Anthony Beevor. Far from it: this book is totally lacking in cohesion and fluency. There are several principal strands: the post-war evasion of justice of a small number of Nazis (Eichmann, Mengele, Barbie, Stangl, Pavelic are the main protagonists); the bureaucratic chaos immediately after the war and how this affected the hunt for Nazi war criminals; later attempts to capture these criminals; and collaborators with the escapees (principally the Vatican and Peronist Argentina). Major sub-plots are the demystification of the Odessa myth and the debunking of Simon Wiesenthal. The problem is that the author is incapable of organizing this material into a coherent narrative, and he spends the entire book hopping from one strand to another, often indulging in an over-attention to detail and excessive quotation which is at times tedious. In terms of genre, the author doesn't seem to have decided between dry academic treatise and entertaining historical narrative. In terms of objective/focus, it seems unclear whether the author's aim is to recount the story of the Nazis and their friends, or that of their pursuers and their problems, or simply give Simon Wiesenthal a thorough kicking. It is probably the last-mentioned area in which Walters is most effective.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly top notch and well researched account., 27 Sep 2009
This review is from: Hunting Evil (Hardcover)
An impressive and detailed catalogue of the nazi regime, it's agressors, sympathisers and victims all contained in a well researched, easy to read and understand book. Mr Walters has spent three years putting together, by far, the best accounting of the way that Nazis behaved, were hunted down and brought to trial. This book has out researched anything else by a mile and deserves to be read even if the subject matter has, on occasions, delved into subject matter that has already been discussed in other books. Mr Walters does, on every occasion though, give the credit to the original author but crucially if the original material has flaws he has the courage to bring this to our attention so rewriting and correcting mistakes.
Deserves to be amongst the best for a subject of such importance, only to hope that a regime as bad as this should never be allowed to have power again. A must read for everyone interested in this subject.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No