Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice
2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/gerhis/ghs004
ISSN1477-089X
Autores ResumoEver since the downfall of the Third Reich the legend of a secret Nazi organization that kept up the fight, hid Nazi gold and organized the flight of high-ranking Nazis so they could escape prosecution and ensure the continuation of Nazism after its defeat has become part of popular culture. Stories such as these have long gripped novelists and screenwriters, becoming the essence of such box office hits as The Boys From Brazil or the best selling thriller The ODESSA File, in which Frederick Forsyth describes a powerful, shadowy organization consisting of former SS members who are placed in powerful positions across the globe, assisting their SS comrades in their flight and laying the foundation of a Fourth Reich preparing for vengeance. Even today we are still amazed by the successful flight of Adolf Eichmann, the chief organizer behind the Nazi mass murder of European Jews, of Josef Mengele, infamous for the most gruesome human experiments in Auschwitz-Birkenau, or of Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’ who was directly responsible for the death of 14,000 people. However, like the Werwolf—the secret resistance units, which according to German propaganda were eagerly preparing to fight the Allies on German soil—the omnipotent Nazi fugitive organization never existed. Intriguing as the idea of such a Nazi organization may be, Gerald Steinacher is looking for more prosaic explanations. In his latest book the Austrian historian describes how Nazi criminals simply benefited from the postwar chaos they themselves had helped to create in carrying out the Führer’s will.
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