Hunting Evil

The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice

By: Guy Walters

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

Already acclaimed in England as "first-rate" (The Sunday Times); a model of meticulous, courageous and path-breaking scholarship"(Literary Review); and "absorbing and thoroughly gripping; deserves a lasting place among histories of the war" (The Sunday Telegraph), Hunting Evil is the first complete and definitive account of how the Nazis escaped and were pursued and captured - or managed to live long lives as fugitives.

At the end of the Second World War, an estimated 30,000 Nazi war criminals fled from justice, including some of the highest ranking members of the Nazi Party. Many of them have names that resonate deeply in 20th-century history -- Eichmann, Mengele, Martin Bormann, and Klaus Barbie -- not just for the monstrosity of their crimes, but also because of the shadowy nature of their post-war existence, holed up in the depths of Latin America, always one step ahead of their pursuers. Aided and abetted by prominent people throughout Europe, they hid in foreboding castles high in the Austrian alps, and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. The attempts to bring them to justice are no less dramatic, featuring vengeful Holocaust survivors, inept politicians, and daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugitives.

Hunting Evil authoritatively debunks much of what has previously been understood about Nazis and Nazi hunters in the post war era, including myths about the alleged Spider and Odessa escape networks and the surprising truth about the world's most legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.

©2010 Guy Walters (P)2010 Random House

No Paradise in South America for Nazis

Very interesting and informative. Well written with a good narration. I thought the information on Simon Wiesenthal was over done.I'm an Irish Catholic who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. So am always drawn to find out what happened to these people ,who did so much harm.I wouldn't call them monsters because they were human beings. I've learned through this and other books, most end their days lonely and afraid.

Eye-opening and riveting

This book clears up some widespread misconceptions--for example, he makes the case that ODESSA never existed. However, they didn't need one large organization to help Nazis get away--there were several smaller operations that did the job. "Hunting Eichmann" hints at one of the "ratlines" but this book goes into much more detail about who was running the several "ratlines" and why so many Nazis ended up in the countries they did--including right back in Europe. An important part of the book concerns why the West was more interested in working with ex-Nazis to fight Communism than in seeking justice.

I absolutely love this narrator. Just the right pace, and his pronunciation and voice are wonderful. I wish they would use him more often instead of some of the Brits who are harder for me to understand for some reason.

Outstanding..!

If you could sum up Hunting Evil in three words, what would they be?

Comprehensive...Objective...Courageous...

What about Jonathan Cowley’s performance did you like?

Clear and Concise.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Wanted to but due to its scope, I don't see how someone could.

Any additional comments?

This is not an opinion piece... It is a precise and totally comprehensive history of the subject, covering aspects that I never imagined - The heroes, the villains, the profiteers and glory searchers, and revelations I was not expecting. This book exposed just how little I knew on the subject. I highly recommend it to anyone who is remotely interested in this aspect of 20th century history.

interesting

I gave this a 5-star because of performance and my interest in history. as I listen to this it is a book that has an argument with Simon wiesenthal and his Nazi hunting. I am not sure I can recommend this book but I am glad that I listen to it

Controversial take on this topic

A lot of contradictions and controversial info. Would be interesting to know sources. Hard to tell how facts have been edited or selected to support arguments and what are straight facts, if any.

Certainly a different take on these important and horrible aspects of human history.

To the author I would say we shouldn’t be afraid to face history and learn form it, not just explain it away.
On the other hand we should be open to examine history from all angles too. So I continued to listen to the end regardless of the contradictions and controversial statements made.

As for SW, all that matters is he helped bring many to justice after the war. The rest of this stuff seems to be the authors personal agenda and not sure why any of it needed to be included.

Absolutely riveting!

this account of post-war Nazi escapes and captures has more information than any of the previous documentaries I have ever watched. it is absolutely worth your while if you are interested in World War 2 history

Absolutely extraordinary achievement

Riveting and absolutely infuriating. The lack of will to bring justice in these cases mystifies and angers me. The book is well written, but for the neophyte (me), jumps around person to person (story to story) in an attempt (?) to be a universal more chronological document as opposed to a case study. I started to lose track of names, when and in what context each was last mentioned. Sadly, in an audio book, you can’t just page back to reacquaint yourself. 4 stars for the choppiness, not the material. The Narrator was excellent and I will look for him in future.

I didn't realize how little effort was put into finding these criminals and how many of them never faced judgements.

Excellent book about the effort to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, the mishaps, the confusion and what became of them.

Interesting but unnecessarily judgemental

A well researched but overly judgemental, particularly with regard to Simon Wiesenthal, review of the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. His own account of his spineless meeting with a convicted Nazi war criminal is in sharp contrast to his criticism of those individuals who spent and risked their lives bringing these criminals to justice.

Well, read, well written!

I already knew most of the stories, but filling in the blanks was great! Very insightful.