Citizen 865

The Hunt for Hitler's Hidden Soldiers in America

De: Debbie Cenziper

Narrado por: Robert Fass

**Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Book Award Finalist**

The gripping story of a team of Nazi hunters at the U.S. Department of Justice as they raced against time to expose members of a brutal SS killing force who disappeared in America after World War Two.
In 1990, in a drafty basement archive in Prague, two American historians made a startling discovery: a Nazi roster from 1945 that no Western investigator had ever seen. The long-forgotten document, containing more than 700 names, helped unravel the details behind the most lethal killing operation in World War Two.

In the tiny Polish village of Trawniki, the SS set up a school for mass murder and then recruited a roving army of foot soldiers, 5,000 men strong, to help annihilate the Jewish population of occupied Poland. After the war, some of these men vanished, making their way to the U.S. and blending into communities across America. Though they participated in some of the most unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust, "Trawniki Men" spent years hiding in plain sight, their terrible secrets intact.

In a story spanning seven decades, Citizen 865 chronicles the harrowing wartime journeys of two Jewish orphans from occupied Poland who outran the men of Trawniki and settled in the United States, only to learn that some of their one-time captors had followed. A tenacious team of prosecutors and historians pursued these men and, up against the forces of time and political opposition, battled to the present day to remove them from U.S. soil.

Through insider accounts and research in four countries, this urgent and powerful narrative provides a front row seat to the dramatic turn of events that allowed a small group of American Nazi hunters to hold murderous men accountable for their crimes decades after the war's end.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This riveting saga, replete with heroes and villains, is the true story of a few good men and women who worked tenaciously to expunge an evil in our midst."—George F. Will, author of The Conservative Sensibility

"Enriched by Debbie Cenziper's world-class investigative skills, Citizen 865 is a powerful piece of history that washes over you in waves of horror and beauty."—David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good American Family

"Debbie Cenziper has written a page-turning detective story about the hunt for Nazi killers living openly in neighborhoods across the United States....This is a book that anybody interested in the quest for international justice should read."
—Michael Isikoff, New York Times bestselling co-author of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump

"This is a gripping tale, which reads at times like a novel. Just when you thought you knew everything about the Holocaust, we learn about the uniquely devastating role of the Trawniki training center. At a time of rising anti-Semitism, Debbie Cenziper's Citizen 865 offers a harrowing reminder of the consequences of unchecked racism and anti-Semitism. And it serves as a repository of hope-that the leadership of good men and women could bring a measure of justice to the world in the face of such overwhelming evil."
—Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League

"Citizen 865 is a great book that couldn't come at a more crucial time. In telling the story of a little-known Holocaust site called Trawniki and the people who dedicated themselves to bringing some of modern history's worst monsters to justice, Debbie Cenziper has honored the vanishing plea to never forget, first by breaking my heart with the worst of humanity, and then, with the best of us, stitching it back together."—Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers

"Citizen 865 is a fantastic piece of detective work.... A compulsively readable story of mass murder and an epic quest by Nazi hunters to bring evil men to justice."—Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter

"Citizen 865 reads like a thriller, but it is so much more... [It] tells an essential and unknown tale of post-war justice and the search for truth, linking the events of the Holocaust to the familiar, more recent past. Telling this story of a decades-long quest for justice is itself an act of justice. "—Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom and winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Biography

Righteous, not glamorous.

Gripping story about Nazi collaborators during the holocaust and the painstaking, tedious and lengthy process of building cases against those who came to the US under false pretenses after WW II. Amazing story of perseverance and hard work by historians and prosecutors. Though the story took us to some of the worst murders and mass killings, it ends on a positive note. The narrator did a superb job with names and places, as well as tone and pace. Excellent!

Educational historical story

After, witnessing citizen 865 departure from the U.S., following the path that leads to his revoked citizenship was intriguing.

Not What I Thought.

I thought that this was a book in regards to catching nazi agents during the war or shortly thereafter. This is more of a legal treatises involving the removal of citizenship of 80 year old nazi collaborators. It is very straightforward, but could have used more descriptions and details. Also, I am left wondering why was ANYONE who worked the camps ever allowed in the U. S. ? Secondly, since they were here, was it really worth the expense of prosecuting them if they were only to be gently deported? I needed more answers!