Customer Reviews

Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many of us felt in the decades after World War II that the nations of the world, and particularly the democracies, would maintain a commitment to fight Nazi ideology, including antisemitism, and to bring the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. Dr. Zuroff's book is infused with his passionate pursuit of justice. However, the book is also infused with a palpable sense of frustration at the indifference and, in many cases, the active opposition to the prosecution of known mass murderers in both Western democracies and emerging Eastern European democracies. This book tells many gripping stories, each different and enlightening. There are heroes in this story but there are also many, many villians, governement officials over the past 25 years who simply lacked the will to take action. The book is informative and well-researched without bogging the reader down in inordinate detail on each case. It is as much a trip of the heart as of the mind. When I finished the book I was filled with conflicting emotions: admiration for Dr. Zuroff and his team for their lonely but tenacious efforts, pride in the role that the US governement has played in bringing these murderers to justice within the bounds of our system of law, and angry at the many democracies around the world for whom the murder of 6 million is, in practical terms, a matter of little importance.

Operation Last Chance is a book that every conscientious individual ought to read. In this most engaging read, Efraim Zuroff expertly weaves research, analysis, historical data, and his own personal experiences into a gripping account of Nazi hunting over the past 3 decades. Zuroff's unique ability to tell the stories with passion, clarity, and humor is an outstanding tool to educate young and old about the evil nature of Nazi criminals and their supporters around the world. The book's ability to draw the reader into the drama, frustration and intricacy of Nazi hunting is extraordinary. Above all, this book demonstrates the power of memory and the timeless imperative to educate about the past in order to improve the future.

A MUST read -- enthralling and insightful. Anyone who is interested in some of the most important questions which arise in the aftermath of the Holocaust -- who are these people who committed such horrendous crimes, calmly killing hundreds and thousands of other human beings? how do we make sure that these evil criminals are punished? why do some people who did not take part in these awful crimes against humanity protect those who did? what should be done to ensure that all political actors, both states and multi-state organizations, accept upon themselves the responsibility to not allow the victims' posthumous demands for justice go unheard -- should immediately go out and buy this book.

The idea of sadistic mass murderers living happily ever makes our blood boil. Efraim Zuroff has dedicated most of his life to tracking down the perpetrators of the Holocaust to bring them to justice. Operation Last Chance shares his experience, with its high points and its many disappointments. The greatest challenge must be to continue the sacred quest, knowing that time isn't on his side. Zuroff's knowledge of the Holocaust is encyclopedic and he brings the reader to unknown landscapes like Croatia and Estonia. His search is aided by good people who are nauseated by the actions of the Nazis and by evil people whose boasting of past deeds sometimes brings their downfall.

Operation Last Chance is a riveting description of one person's attempts to bring the still surviving Nazi war criminals to justice. Unlike those who only write about history, Efraim Zuroff is a historian and Nazi Hunter who has spent the past three decades being a part of those making history. From his work in the OSI - Office of Special Investigations from which he began his work as a Nazi Hunter, through his work in the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem he has searched the world in an attempt to unearth former Nazi war criminals and convince countries to bring them to trial. In 2002 he spearheaded a public campaign to locate and bring Nazi criminals to trial throughout the world. Zuroff's fascinating book takes us around the world in his search for Nazis from Croatia to Lithuania, Peru to Hungary, Germany to Chile and Argentina to Latvia, just to mention a few of the countries he visits in order to carry out what he has taken upon himself as an almost holy mission. This is a book that one can't put down and a must for anyone who believes in truth and justice.

A "telling" story (in more ways than one) of the quest to bring Nazis to justice. The seamless weave of personal details with historic processes in the international arena, demonstrates to everyman how one individual can make a difference to the world--putting into action what we all know should be done, but don't do ourselves. Just as Zuroff describes himself as "one-third detective, one-third historian, and one third lobbyist"--his book reveals to the reader the components of all three worlds. The book reads at times like a mystery novel, combined with an easily comprehensible history of the holocaust, together with acute political analysis. A fascinating read of non-fiction.

We live in a society that is characterized by collective Attention Deficit Disorder. We forget, all too quickly, the past and its lessons, as popular attention is diverted to the latest scandal or crisis. This woeful state of affairs allows many criminals to get away with murder. The only thing that can prevent this is (to paraphrase Edmund Burke) for good men to do something.

Efraim Zuroff is one such good man.

In this riveting account, part memoir and part cri de coeur, Zuroff describes his ongoing efforts to bring Nazi War criminals to trial. His dauntless, dogged, pursuit of justice, for the victims and for Humanity as a whole, is both inspiring and sobering; as we encounter the moral obtuseness (and outright Jew hatred) that he must overcome in the name of a higher ideal. This is a must read for anyone with a conscience, and a soul.

A timely and well written book about a subject at once critical and about to expire. Dr. Zuroff has written a smooth but sad tale of his quest to bring aging, surviving Nazis to justice. He has made it his cause to see that justice has no expiration date, and that victims deserve to be remembered. Seemingly alone and up against governments that choose avoiding embarassment over doing what is righteous, this book is a must read for all, but especially young people, born years after World War II, who may be influenced by Holocaust deniers.

Efraim Zuroff's "Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice" is a beautifully written book synthesizing history, autobiography, the thriller of real-life mystery, and a deep quest for justice that makes for a life of unending activism; it is an activism rooted in the deeper understanding that the Holocaust is not only a matter of the past but of the present and future, and the intellectual battles to preserve history and memory are becoming ever more timely and relevant (not less!), as various vested interests commit resources to denial and distortion, even as the last victims, witnesses and perpetrators go the way of the world. Far-flung strands come together seamlessly: a Brooklyn Jewish fellow with Lithuanian Jewish roots who settles in Israel and was inspired by Simon Wiesenthal to a life dedicated to bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who had fled to the far corners of the earth, often to be protected by powerful local forces. This put Zuroff in the remarkable position of becoming the de-facto advocate for millions of murdered people who have no other advocate (all the more so in the 21st century, when the work is so often frustrated by the age or death of the perpetrators and so many take the easy way out and say: "Hey, it's over"). The lone individual who would take this battle for justice on himself has to be not only brave, determined and dauntless (and impervious to constant attack by the many who would prefer uncomfortable things to be forgotten), but he has to be a scholar, diplomat, investigator, lobbyist, media-man, speaker, justice-seeker and history-writer all in one. For many years, the pursuit of Holocaust justice in the public realm, in several dozen countries around the world, has largely been the work of this one remarkable individual, whose genius and charisma combine to enable the putting up of a real challenge to so many forces, of states and individuals, who would have wished all this to just go away. Now, when Holocaust distortion has moved into the mainstream in parts of Europe and beyond, Dr Zuroff is able and ready to take on the new revisionism as an influential essayist and thinker. In addition to being a great read, this book inspires the reader to the idea that each individual can make a big difference, to the idea that battles of major historic and ethical import remain before us, and we need not remain indifferent. At the same time, one is left with a feeling of destiny, that one's life's work is somehow "bashert" (predetermined). Efraim Zuroff was named for his uncle Efraim, a rabbinic scholar who was murdered in Vilna (Vilnius) during the Holocaust; today's Efraim speaks not only for him, but for the millions of others who merit memory and advocacy. This is a compelling book that is hard to put down.
Dovid Katz
[...]

The book was in perfect condition with a plastic cover. No marks inside. The book arrived promptly, I'm more than satisfied.