Nazis after Hitler: How Perpetrators of the Holocaust Cheated Justice and Truth

by Donald M. McKale

This deeply researched and informative book traces the biographies of thirty "typical" perpetrators of the Holocaust some well known, some obscure who survived World War II. Donald M. McKale reveals the shocking reality that the perpetrators were only rarely, if ever, tried or punished for their crimes, and nearly all alleged their innocence in Germany's extermination of nearly six million European Jews during the war. He highlights the bitter contrasts between the comfortable postwar lives of many war criminals and the enduring suffering of their victims. The author shows how immediately after the war's end in 1945, Hitler's minions, whether the few placed on trial or the many living in freedom, carried on what amounted to a massive postwar ideological campaign against Jews. To be sure, the perpetrators didn't challenge the fact that the Holocaust happened. But in the face of exhaustive evidence showing their culpability, nearly all declared they had done nothing wrong, they had not known about the Jewish persecution until the war's end, and they had little or no responsibility or guilt for what had happened. In making these and other claims denying their involvement in the Holocaust, they defended the Nazi atrocities and anti-Semitism. Nearly every fabrication of these war criminals found its way into the mythology of postwar Holocaust deniers, who have used them, in one form or another, to buttress the deniers' biggest lie that the Holocaust did not happen. The perpetrators, therefore, helped advance Holocaust denial without having denied the Holocaust happened. Written in a compelling narrative style, Nazis after Hitler is the first to provide an overview of the lives of Nazis who survived the war, the vast majority of whom escaped justice. McKale provides a unique and accessible synthesis of the extensive research on the Holocaust and Nazi war criminals that will be invaluable for all readers interested in World War II."

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Nazi Party

456 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2011

Reviews

[Karl Lazanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearing the end of this book I started thinking about how to write my review.

It truly stands out because of its detailed information on the crimes of so many former high and low ranking nazis, but also how they so easily were allowed to seek refuge in plain sight of a world that surely knew even a little of their crimes!

McKale’s has written a book that never lets you forget the struggle this world had and still struggles with anti-Semitic attitudes! Through outright Holocaust denial but also the indifferent feelings parts of the world have shown towards this tragedy!

Not an easy book to pick up and read through at once! It definitely took some time to research and ponder information that was quite abundant.

Truly worth its historical weight!

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last chapter goes absolutely off the rails equating being anti-Israel with being antisemitic, pulls out all of the classic anti-Soviet tropes. It also has a weird writing style that implies you know who the person being mentioned is for the first few sentences, then gives said person's name.
Additionally the reason I got this book in the first place is because I thought it would be about Nazis in government/power in West Germany, the USA, South America, etc. but the book more focuses on the trials of 2nd and 3rd tier Nazis.

Really the best part of this book is showing how vile the collaborators in eastern Europe (mostly Ukraine) were towards the victims of the Holocaust.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to put this book down for a while. I had not understood the extent of the Nazi's influence following the war.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as interesting or informative as you might expect a book on this topic to be. The author is clearly resentful, and that undermines his historical objectivity. Every simple comment is larded with sarcasm.

It has the plodding pace of an academic treatise, without the careful analysis or systematic treatment. There are some good, illuminating stories, but it's not clear what they add up to. The author has an opinion -- in particular, he thinks the British were too sympathetic to ex-Nazis -- but he doesn't give any good reasons to trust his opinion. German postwar politics, which are crucial to the story, receive only spotty attention.

More than I would have hoped about the big fish who everyone knows about, not so much about the mass of minor Nazis.

[Chuck Driskell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don McKale's book, Nazis After Hitler, reveals a number of shocking truths, even to a hard-boiled WWII buff like me. It seems the aftermath of the war is one of the elements many of us take for granted, assuming justice was done, and probably focusing more on the war's genesis as well as its meaty center. But McKale exhibits a much different set of facts, that many of the Holocaust perpetrators (if I'm not mistaken, he estimates as much as 94%) walked away scot-free. Additionally, the book demonstrates evidence that many of the perpetrators, in their own defense (be it trials or elsewhere,) made claims and assertions that would go on to be woven into many of the fabrications made by Holocaust deniers and quasi-deniers. For a large book, Nazis After Hitler is a fast read and exquisitely written. It's also an excellent reference guide and many parts of it can be easily accessed for later research. I recommend it!

[NET7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately, due to mistakes, ignorance, apathy, and collaboration, many Nazi war criminals escaped the justice they deserved. For all Nazi war criminals, they deserved only a criminals death, a public execution via hanging. The Soviets hated the Jews and allowed the Poles to persecute and murder Jews even after the Holocaust ended; more than 500 Polish Jews were murdered by the Poles in pogroms after the Holocaust. The British respected filthy Nazis who were military personnel, out of some ridiculous sense of military honor and respect for the enemy, and as a result protected many from the fates they deserved. The Catholic Church aided and abetted many Nazi war criminals to escape to South America; they feared Bolshevism more than they did Nazism and saw them as the better of two evils, despite the fact the Nazis murdered millions. The Americas were apathetic largely and while they pursued to a point, they ended the prosecution to rebuild Germany as a wall against Communism, despite the fact the Germans had twice tried to conquer the world. It frustrates me seeing the book give example after example of Nazi war criminals escape justice, allowed to hide and treated better than they had ever treated their victims. We should have simply taken every official Nazi Party member and their supporters and hung them all in the streets, as the crimes the German people committed were deserving of only the harshest of punishments.

[Phil Fortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pretty much agree with David's and Andy's review with the additions of:

1. The subtitle is a bit misleading since it seems a fair amount (half or more?) of the perpetrators actually did not cheat justice and truth but paid some kind of price, if not the ultimate price, for their deeds.

2. The repetitious Catholic Church "bashing" with regards to aiding and hiding perpetrators got under my skin after a while. Seems to me that more recent scholarship and historical records on that subject would lend some credence to the Vatican's having actually helped protect Jews during this holocaust period. Don't think this got much, if any, mention. Put blame where there is blame, but please tell at least some of the rest of the story.

Overall an interesting but kind of drawn out read. Took me 2 months to finish it. I would use it as a jumping off point for further study. I found the Eichmann section of particular interest since I was a teen through that time of capture and trial.

[Ania Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic bibliography but I didn't appreciate the way all the Nazis were depicted as crying weaklings - it's way too simplistic. Author's snidy comments are visible in almost every paragraph, which became quite tedious after a while. In my opinion, the Nazis weren't all wimps who broke down in prison - such portrayal denies the fact that many were still full of hateful motivation and zeal even many years after the war and still should be reckoned with as dangerous murderers.

[Nick Branigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very odd writing style, with a lack of prepositions. You get lost at the start of each section because the subject is only identified some way through the text. And we bounce around from subject to subject without any clear reason. Although it is clearly well researched, the narrative is spoilt by some personalisations which indicate a certain biased point of view - something the author criticises in others.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well researched decent take on an under reported part of the war. Mckale did a better job of talking about the allies post battle war crimes and has a fairer presentation of the actions of the Russians than most writers seem to have. It is not the book on post nazi politics that I keep looking for but is a quick read none the less.

[wally walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

His obsession with the Jews and the fact that so many of the allies did not devote enough attention to the catching of the perpertrators becomes tedious, not taking into account that they had other more important worries from their point of view looking after their own countries