Crimes of War [Hardcover]

Peter Hogg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

A respected retired businessman in Winnipeg, well liked by his neighbors, is shattered to receive mysterious photographs in the mail.Photos of him as a young man, in his SS uniform.The Special Prosecutions Unit in Ottawa is dedicated to investigating and indicting Nazi war criminals in Canada. However they never manage to successfully prosecute a single one.Dozens of lawyers, historians, policemen, and clerk amass hundreds of files on suspects, most of whom inconveniently die.Increasingly demoralized by the prospect of the inevitable closing of the unit, many at SPU begin to look forward to the prospect of prosecuting criminals who are not wheel-chair bound.Dennis Connor, a historian, is eventually left as the last employee of the SPU, charged with the closing all of the files.But one file he cannot give up.The crimes Friedrich Reile committed with an SS unit on the Eastern Front are so terrible that Connor cannot close the file and forget them.And so with no legal recourse, Connor begins to send anonymous letters to Reile.The letters and photos bring back memories, and Reile tells his story of how an ordinary seventeen-year-old boy gradually turns into a war criminal, a mass murderer.But Reile, for all his monstrous crimes, is not a monster.Just as Connor, who wishes to be a crusading knight in shining armor, is in fact a cynical bureaucrat leading a joyless life.By showing the human aspect of both these men, Peter Hogg brings a new, deeper element into what could have been a familiar story.With surprising occasional satire, juxtaposing mundane office life with terrible crimes against humanity, this deserved winner of the Robertson Davies/Chapter prize explores the complexities of two men`s relationship with evil.AUTHORBIO: Peter Hogg is a Criminal Prosecutor in Vancouver, Canada, specializing in gang and drug related prosecutions.Originally from Manitoba, he has worked for the Department of Justice in Winnipeg and Calgary.From 1993 to 1995 he worked in Ottawa for the War Crimes Unit.This is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vancouver prosecutor Hogg's first novel, winner of the 1999 Robertson Davies/Chapters Prize, pits a downsized Nazi hunter against a former Nazi, both living in obscurity in contemporary Canada. At 33, Ottawa historian Dennis Connor has the thankless job of shutting down a minor government agency responsible for bringing ex-Nazis to justice. For six years, the agency has proven ineffective in pursuing its prey, its key court case falling victim to the ravages of time and bureaucratic infighting. Now only a few employees, empty offices and file boxes full of documents are left. As a parting gesture, Connor sends excerpts from one of the files to its subject, Friedrich Reile, a Winnipeg widower who once served as an SS officer in the Ukraine. Psychologically and emotionally disconnected from his youthful crimes, Reile is propelled by Connor's missives to recall his wartime experiences. In 1941, at the age of 17, he volunteered to translate for the Germans, and soon found himself a member of the Einsatzkommandos, rounding up Ukrainian Jews and helping to shoot and bury them in country ravines. Harsh memories do not end with the war. Reile remembers how colleagues are caught and convicted by the Allies while he escapes with the aid of a nurturing wife, a few lies and the exchange of some useful information, eventually making his way to Winnipeg. Hogg fills his grueling tale with starkly realistic detail, describing the sight, smell and feel of the trucks used to transport victims to their instant graves, and showing how Reile and his fellow soldiers grow numb to their crimes. Connor's largely ineffectual stabs at action make him a disappointing hero, but the novel's real drama resides in the morality tale he uncovers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Peter Hogg is a Criminal Prosecutor in Vancouver. Born and raised in Manitoba, he has previously worked for the Department of Justice in Winnipeg and Calgary. From 1993-1995 he worked in Ottawa for the Special Prosecutions Unit. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312269544
• ISBN-13: 978-0312269548
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,962,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Moving and Thought-inspiring Read..., July 7, 2001

By 

Jonathan Burgoine "bookseller" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crimes of War (Hardcover)

As a fan of Canadian literature and authors, I picked up Peter Hogg's "Crimes of War" with a bit of hesitation. Previous to this book, it had been my experience that the 'Nazis' of fiction tend to come off as one-dimensional, with nearly no thought behind them: cardboard villains.

This was not the case in "Crimes of War." Hogg has put a monumental amount of thought and effort into making this book not only enjoyable, but emotionally stirring. The main character, like Hogg himself once did, works in the special division of the Canadian Government that tracks down escaped world war II criminals in Canada.

Time, however, has made this government office obsolete. The Nazis are dying of old age, and, worse, so are the victims who could identify them even if they were arrested. The office is being closed, and Hogg's protagonist, Dennis Connor, has the distinctly unpleasant duty of being the last one there to shut it down, lock the door, and leave the keys behind.

But first, there is one more criminal he knows has escaped into Canada: Reile.

Alternating between the view of the war criminal, the protagonist, and dancing between the present and the past, this book is highly evocative. There is a real humanization of the Nazi who is old aged and ailing, and hiding in Canada. Hogg's novel dares to explore what the mass murderers of world war two were like on an individual level - and without pulling punches: Riele is not an apparent monster.

As the back of the book says, "Does it makes sense to pursue old men in their seventies or eighties for what they did, under orders, in the tumoil of war in Europe fifty years earlier?" "How can the forces of justive ignore mass murderers among us, regardless of how much time has elapsed since they killed their last child?"

The questions, and the book's characters, are disturbing, and dead-on accurate. This is not a light read, nor an easy one, but a very rewarding one. I promise you'll put "Crimes of War" down with many new thoughts.