The Nazis next door : how America became a safe haven for Hitler's men /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The shocking story of how America became one of the world's safest postwar havens for Nazis

Thousands of Nazis -- from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich -- came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives. They had little trouble getting in. With scant scrutiny, many gained entry on their own as self-styled war "refugees," their pasts easily disguised and their war crimes soon forgotten. But some had help and protection from the U.S. government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler's minions to work as spies, intelligence assets, and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories.



For the first time, once-secret government records and interviews tell the full story not only of the Nazi scientists brought to America, but of the German spies and con men who followed them and lived for decades as ordinary citizens. Only years after their arrival did private sleuths and government prosecutors begin trying to identify the hidden Nazis. But even then, American intelligence agencies secretly worked to protect a number of their prized spies from exposure. Today, a few Nazis still remain on our soil.



Investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau, relying on a trove of newly discovered documents and scores of interviews with participants in this little-known chapter of postwar history, tells the shocking and shameful story of how America became a safe haven for Hitler's men.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue: A Name from the Past (p. xi)
• 1 Liberation (p. 1)
• 2 The Good Nazis (p. 14)
• 3 "Minor War Crimes" (p. 41)
• 4 Echoes from Argentina (p. 66)
• 5 Tilting at Swastikas (p. 77)
• 6 In the Pursuit of Science (p. 90)
• 7 Out of the Shadows (p. 106)
• 8 "An Ugly Blot" (p. 125)
• 9 The Sins of the Father (p. 136)
• 10 A Good Party Spoiled (p. 152)
• 11 "An Innocent Man" (p. 170)
• 12 Backlash (p. 181)
• 13 Ivan the Terrible (p. 199)
• 14 The Road to Ponary (p. 213)
• Epilogue (p. 229)
• Map: Locations of Nazis Pursued by the Office of Special Investigations (p. 232)
• Acknowledgments (p. 234)
• Notes (p. 236)
• Index (p. 258)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

### Excerpted from The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men by Eric Lichtblau All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Starred Review. Until recently, public perception has been that only a small number of Nazis settled in the United States after World War II. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Lichtblau's (New York Times) thoroughly riveting account demolishes this myth by revealing the backstory of how and why as many as 10,000 Nazis arrived postwar on America's shores. Through interviews and archival research, the author demonstrates the involvement of the military, the CIA, and the FBI in turning these World War II enemies into Cold War allies in the fight against communism by scrubbing their wartime histories, assisting them in gaming the immigration system to gain residency and citizenship, harnessing their knowledge to fight the Soviet Union, and shielding them from investigations. Lichtblau documents the lengths to which federal agencies would go to protect these assets. In one instance, congressional members derailed an immigration service investigation into the chief scientist of NASA's aerospace medical division, Hubertus Strughold-a man who had knowledge of many human experiments performed on prisoners in concentration camps. Rich in detail, this work is a necessary corrective to our understanding of postwar American history. VERDICT An essential read for all those interested in World War II, the Cold War, and 20th-century history.-Chris Sauder, Round Rock P.L., TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Outraged account of how the Cold War created an entree for thousands of ardent Nazis to reinvent themselves as Americans. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Washington bureau investigative reporter Lichtblau (Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice, 2008) writes in an urgent, pulpy style, appropriate to his shadowy tale of "America's decades of resolute indifference to the Nazis in its backyard." He deftly manages a rough chronological structure that demonstrates how American views on war criminals fluctuated wildly over time. Beginning with spy chief Allen Dulles' covert 1945 meeting with the top SS general in Italy, efforts were made on behalf of well-connected Nazis, including the CIA's "Paperclip" program for top scientists and the "rat line" to South America maintained by anti-Semitic Catholic clergy. Many fugitives worked as anti-communist provocateurs for the CIA during the 1950s, while in the '60s, J. Edgar Hoover "had no interest in having his agents wasting their time tracking down supposed Nazis in America." But by the '70s, owing to efforts by a few crusading journalists and immigration investigators, "Nazis in America were suddenly a hot topic." The turning point was the 1979 establishment of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which aggressively pursued aging Nazis, like renowned scientist Arthur Rudolph, who'd overseen the V-2 rocket program. Yet with success came backlash; amazingly, the Reagan White House provided Pat Buchanan a platform to attack the investigations and Holocaust research generally. Lichtblau builds suspense by focusing on the long-term fates of individuals like Tom Soobzokov, a power broker among New Jersey Eastern Europeans before being outed as a brutal collaborator; he pushed back aggressively against his accusers and was ultimately killed in a mysterious pipe bombing. Lichtblau utilizes obscure sources and declassified files, tenaciously circling back to a dark reality: Many of the estimated 10,000 Nazis who settled here were involved in the worst aspects of the Holocaust. Fascinating and infuriating corrective to the American mythology of the "Good War." Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

ERIC LICHTBLAU , a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is the best-selling author of The Nazis Next Door and Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice. He was a Washington reporter for the New York Times for fifteen years , while also writing for the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, TIME, and other publications . He has been a frequent guest on NPR, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and other networks, as well as a speaker at many universities and institutions. He lives outside Washington, D.C.