The Beast Reawakens (Hardcover)

by Martin A. Lee (Author) "Otto Skorzeny was a towering, 220-pound hulk with broad shoulder, slate gray eyes, and dark, springy hair atop a six-foot-five-inch frame..." (more)
Key Phrases: civil records division, neofascist scene, seesaw strategy, United States, West German, Third Reich (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If you thought Nazism died with Hitler, think again. In The Beast Reawakens, journalist Martin A. Lee traces the resurgence of fascist ideals from the prominent Nazis who escaped prosecution following World War II to the present-day incidents of right-wing violence in Europe and America. One only has to look at the current situation in the Balkans to see that fascism is alive and well. Lee begins his troubling account by reminding us of the many prominent Nazis who, after the war, built new and profitable lives for themselves fomenting political intrigue, while providing role models to a new generation of neo-Nazis all around the world. This underground Nazi culture might have remained out of sight had it not been for the fall of Communism. In the confusion following the end of the Cold War, right-wing nationalist movements sprang up all over Europe, taking root especially deep in formerly communist areas such as Croatia, Bosnia, and Romania.

According to Lee, "the Beast" doesn't restrict itself to Eastern Europe by any means; skinhead violence against immigrants is on the rise in Germany, while right-wing politicians in France, Italy, and other western European countries are increasingly finding a willing audience for their national and racial polemics. And lest American readers be lulled into a false sense of security, Lee warns that the United States is hardly immune to this kind of hateful rhetoric. He warns that many of the militia groups currently operating today share the same glorified attitude toward violence, the same irrational hatred of foreigners and ethnic minorities that mark the worst excesses of fascism in Europe.

From Library Journal
Lee (Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties, Grove Atlantic, 1987) traces neo-Nazism from the fall of the Third Reich to Oklahoma City. In this journalistic account, he uses certain personalities to trace a continuous thread of fascism over the 50 years. One of his main characters is Otto Skorzeny, the daring SS officer who became a favorite of Adolf Hitler. Skorzeny helped many Nazis escape from Germany and others gain positions in the intelligence agencies of the superpowers at the beginning of the Cold War. Lee has written a compelling work that should find an audience in public libraries, especially in light of recent interest in militia groups.?Dennis L. Noble, North Olympic Lib. System, Port Angeles, Wash.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 546 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316519596
• ISBN-13: 978-0316519595
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,661,416 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, but pertinent to today's Third Way proponents, August 2, 1998

By	Michael L. Lujan ([e-mail]) (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

[Review originally published in New Zealand publication 'The Nexus' No. 11 Feb 98]

Written in a journalistic style and blatantly Germanophobic, the author concedes nothing to his ideological adversaries nor even to the German people per se, whom he sees as not having sufficiently borne the 'guilt' of Nazism. Nevertheless, "The Beast..." is worth obtaining since the author, although accepting uncritically the whole baggage of anti-fascist propaganda, has also interviewed many stalwarts including Gen. Remer and H. Keith Thompson, Remer's and Francis Parker Yockey's ("Imperium") principle US contact.

Lee weaves a vast global fascist conspiracy, tracing its pedigree directly to the Third Reich and hatched by Remer, Col. Rudel and Otto Skorzeny, and continued by Yockey, Thompson, and reaching to such unlikely places as pro-Zionist televangelists and militiamen. Despite the extravagances and tenuous connections, there are good histories on the Third Wa! y, Russian 'National Bolsheviks,' et al.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, chilling and brilliantly written and reported, September 3, 1997

By A Customer

We tend to have short memories in America, and an "it can't happen here" attitude, especially about the most horrific atrocity of the century: the rise to power of the Nazis and the wake of murder and destruction that followed.

But Martin Lee's excellent book "The Beast Reawakens" should chill to the bone anyone who thinks that the Nazis died out with the Third Reich's defeat in World War II. Far from dead, most of the most powerful Nazis not only survived the war, but thrived, some under the protection and patronage of the American and Soviet governments, who believed they needed the secrets and contacts that these killers possessed.

Over the years, these Nazi veterans laid low, acting opportunistically to build successful business and espionage operations, but never relinquishing their ideologies. They sowed the seeds of fascism and National Socialism in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, South America and the Soviet Union, and influenced the next two generations of neo-fascists everywhere.

Lee's book uses original interviews and extensive research into official documents to trace the direct lineage between the original Nazis and their counterparts today. It is sobering and absolutely maddening to see how various governments, particularly those of Germany and Russia, have looked the other way while the post-Cold War neo-Nazis have embarked on violent attacks on "undesirables" and on a new wave of recruiting.

I found myself wakened from my complacent beliefs by reading "The Beast Reawakened" and urge anyone interested in freedom to read this book and pass it on to their friends.

Martin Lee is also co-author of two terrific books, "Acid Dreams" and "Unreliable Sources."

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting,except for silly "German-bashing", March 17, 2000

By	R. Rasmussen (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Beast Reawakens: Fascism's Resurgence from Hitler's Spymasters to Today's Neo-Nazi Groups and Right-Wing Extremists (Paperback)

Mr. Lee's book is well written, and a fascinating read. The topic is one of great interest, and is timely in our "Post Cold War World". I was fascinated to read of the various activities of post war German exiles, and even more fascinated by the goings-on of the various current post Cold War varieties of fascism and its offshoots. Ultimately though the book is fundamentally flawed. A reader would be forgiven if they came away with no other impression than Mr. Lee despises all things German, including the Germans, and assigns to them responsibility for many of the afflictions of the post World War era.Its a hypothesis that may be a comfort to certain people, but reason and inquiry are unable to sustain. Mr. Lee's anti-German views are ultimately of little consequence to anyone but himself, except to the extent they detract and degrade from what I take to be the serious message of his book, namely the need to be on guard against a resurgence of the terrible effects of fascism. In this respect he has hindered this effort.