cover image Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice

Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice

Gerald Steinacher. Oxford Univ., $34.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-19-957686-9

After the defeat of the Third Reich, hundreds of Nazi war criminals%E2%80%94most famously Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele%E2%80%94escaped capture, in many cases by going to Latin America. Based on extensive research on newly opened archives, historian Steinacher documents four surprising institutions that aided them in this process: the International Committee of the Red Cross, which freely issued travel documents based on the testimony of two witnesses identifying the Nazi escapees; the Catholic Church, particularly the Vatican Relief Committee and individual priests more interested in fighting communism and gaining new adherents; the U.S., who employed former SS men as anticommunist agents; and finally, Argentina, led by dictator Juan Per%C3%B3n, which admitted ex-Nazis, particularly those with military ties, in an effort to quickly modernize the country. Per%C3%B3n even declared an amnesty for those who had entered the country illegally. Steinacher, a research fellow at Harvard and lecturer on contemporary history at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), generally tells this story clearly and the depth of his research is impressive. Too many individual stories are related too briefly, though, and he gives too much bureaucratic detail. But this is still a fine contribution to the post-history of Nazism, particularly as it was influenced by the early cold war. 16 pages of b&w photos. (June)