Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History
Author:
Genres: History, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Library Binding
Author:
Genres: History, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Library Binding
I think a better title would be "Hunting the SS." A disturbing number of high-ranking officials seemingly escaped the consequences of their actions, although it also seems that they knew that they were being doggedly hunted, all their lives, which perhaps is sufficient punishment itself. This capable albeit rather pedestrian history focuses primarily on the discovery and capture of one Adolph Eichmann, which is the most well-known tale recounted by the famed Mossad agency, which hunted down Nazi war criminals who escaped in the last days of the war (and still does; I believe that a 90-year-old camp guard was arrested and deported from the US only a few months ago, to face charges back in his native Germany).
It's a fairly simplistic retelling of the story which has been chronicled by many others. There is very little textual analysis or discussion of some of the controversies regarding the evidence. In fact, this is my primary difficulty with this book: there are almost NO source citations, but almost all of the information was generated by someone else. There are a fair few footnotes, but they're notes rather than citations. It would have been helpful to know which individual asserted which theory or source, but that's a major missing dimension here. Otherwise, this is a good overview of the information, even if it's a rather superficial treatment of the material. The strength is that it's accessible to a general audience and doesn't require a lot of background knowledge of the subject, as it fills in what's important to know. If you are more familiar with the topics addressed herein, however, you will probably find yourself arguing or at least engaging in conversation with many of the statements which appear rather uncritically.
It's a fairly simplistic retelling of the story which has been chronicled by many others. There is very little textual analysis or discussion of some of the controversies regarding the evidence. In fact, this is my primary difficulty with this book: there are almost NO source citations, but almost all of the information was generated by someone else. There are a fair few footnotes, but they're notes rather than citations. It would have been helpful to know which individual asserted which theory or source, but that's a major missing dimension here. Otherwise, this is a good overview of the information, even if it's a rather superficial treatment of the material. The strength is that it's accessible to a general audience and doesn't require a lot of background knowledge of the subject, as it fills in what's important to know. If you are more familiar with the topics addressed herein, however, you will probably find yourself arguing or at least engaging in conversation with many of the statements which appear rather uncritically.
