Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STUNNING ! EXCELLENT RESEARCH !, 30 Jul 2009
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 !
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A grim tale, excellently told, 31 Aug 2009
I bought this book on the strength of Max Hastings' favourable review in the Sunday Times. It is a thorough and detailed account of what became of some of the worst Nazi war criminals who escaped after the war - some famous like Eichmann or Barbie, some less so. So much fiction and legend has grown up around this subject that the truth comes as something of a surprise, at times. There was no "Odessa" organisation, Simon Wiesenthal was a self-aggrandising fabricator who invented and reinvented his role more than once. Far from being punished for their barbaric crimes, some Nazi war criminals were recruited by the allies for use in the new Cold War, and the resources available to the Nazi hunters were pitifully inadequate. Throughout, the "banality of evil" is striking - mass murderers working quietly as carpenters, or breeding rabbits - and thoroughly chilling is the role of the Roman Catholic church in assisting Nazi fugitives.
As the author points out, there is much fiction surrounding this subject, and he set himself the task of not claiming anything to be fact that would not stand up in court. The book is well written and illustrated with lots of good photos.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly top notch and well researched account., 27 Sep 2009
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.
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