Review Detail

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi

Young Adult Nonfiction 305

Long-reaching Implications of WWII

June 25, 2018

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Learning Value

N/A

Adolf Eichmann orchestrated the removal of thousands of Jews to concentration camps, where many met their deaths. He managed to justify his role in this by saying that he didn't actually kill anyone; he just moved people around. It's one thing to do bad things; it strikes me as especially evil to deny to yourself that they were evil. This might also help explain why Eichmann left Germany, moved to Argentina, and tried to live anonymously and escape retribution.

The investigation into where Eichmann was and the planning involved to find him and extradite him to stand trial for war crimes was quite the undertaking, and was a lengthy and harrowing process. I was amazed at the level of detailed planning that had to be done just to get him on a plane and get him to Germany. The book doesn't stint on these details, which shows that a huge amount of research went into this. While readers who want to know everything about WWII will read this for pleasure, it is also an excellent resource for students who want to take their historic obsession a bit further and do a research project on Eichmann's fate.

Good Points

In this narrative non-fiction book, there is a lot to learn about the various atrocities performed by the Nazis and how they were orchestrated, but the hunt for Eichmann also makes this read like a spy thriller novel. I was a little unsure whether this was fiction or not-- it is definitely written in an older non-fiction style that adheres to the facts while dramatizing them. There are lots of pictures to illustrate the events being discussed, a list of important players in the events, an index, and copious footnotes.

The level of detail in The Nazi Hunters will please the most discerning reader of World War II books. While I was familiar with some of what was going on, there were so many other issues about which I had never heard. There are not as many books for younger readers that discuss what happened to people accused of war crimes as there are books about the fighting, although we are seeing a few like McCormick's The plot to kill Hitler : Dietrich Bonhoeffer : pastor, spy, unlikely hero. It's good for readers interested in this topic to know that the ramifications of WWII didn't end exactly on September 2, 1945.