cover image Nothing Is Too Late: The Hunt for a Holocaust Swindler

Nothing Is Too Late: The Hunt for a Holocaust Swindler

Mark E. Kalmansohn. Potomac Books, $27.95 (285pp) ISBN 978-1-57488-685-6

This exciting account tracks the pursuit of a master con artist with a particularly evil twist--Lucian Kozminski is a Holocaust survivor who has bilked other survivors out of as much as $1 million in reparation funds paid to them by the German government. Kalmansohn, a young assistant U.S. attorney in the early 1980s, was charged with finding Kozminski and bringing him to justice. Fluidly, he relates how he and a fellow investigator chased their elusive prey, interviewing aging and ailing Holocaust survivors, poring over mounds of documents in Polish, Yiddish, Russian and other languages and following the money trail. Kalmansohn obtained a conviction after legal ins and outs worthy of a Law and Order episode, and Kozminski received a long sentence. So how was it that Kalmansohn saw the thief walking down the street in Beverly Hills only a few years later? And did Kozminski really die in 1996--or was that just another con? Kalmansohn's tale is well told and a fascinating look at an unusual case of a victim-turned-predator.