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The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men Kindle Edition

by Eric Lichtblau (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 823 ratings
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A Newsweek Best Book of the Year: “Captivating . . . rooted in first-rate research” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
In this New York Times bestseller, once-secret government records and interviews tell the full story of the thousands of Nazis—from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich—who came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives.
 
Many gained entry on their own as self-styled war “refugees.” But some had help from the US government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler’s minions to work as spies, intelligence assets, and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories. Only years after their arrival did private sleuths and government prosecutors begin trying to identify the hidden Nazis. Now, relying on a trove of newly disclosed documents and scores of interviews, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau reveals this little-known and “disturbing” chapter of postwar history (Salon).
 
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  1. Print length
    299 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
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  4. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  5. Publication date
    October 28, 2014
  6. File size
    12343 KB
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  1. The Vatican and the Red Cross were each complicit in helping the fleeing Nazis gain shelter, travel documents, and escape routes from Italy, years of documentation would show.
    Highlighted by 205 Kindle readers
  2. “Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals,” Patton wrote in his diary after learning of the scathing report to Truman.
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  3. Privately, however, General Patton held the surviving Jews in his camps in utter contempt.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lichtblau brings ample investigative skills and an elegant writing style to this unsavory but important story. The Nazis Next Door is a captivating book rooted in first-rate research." —The New York Times Book Review

"A fast paced, important book about the Justice Department’s efforts to bring Nazi war criminals in the US to justice that also uses recently declassified facts to expose the secret, reprehensible collaboration of US intelligence agencies with those very Nazis." — Elizabeth Holtzman, United States House of Representatives (former)
 

From the Back Cover

New York Times bestseller — Espionage category

For the first time, once-secret government records and interviews tell the full story of the thousands of Nazis—from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich—who came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives. Many gained entry on their own as self-styled war “refugees.” But some had help from the U.S. government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler’s minions to work as spies, intelligence assets, and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories. Only years after their arrival did private sleuths and government prosecutors begin trying to identify the hidden Nazis. Now, relying on a trove of newly disclosed documents and scores of interviews, Eric Lichtblau reveals this shocking, shameful, and little-known chapter of postwar history.
 
“Disturbing.” — Salon   

“Engaging.” — Chicago Tribune

“A gripping chronicle.” — Times of Israel

“Riveting . . . An important, fascinating read.” — Jewish Book Council
 
Eric Lichtblau is a New York Times investigative reporter in Washington. In 2006 he won a Pulitzer Prize for stories on the NSA’s secret wiretapping operations. He is the author of Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HK3LRKW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (October 28, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 28, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 12343 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 299 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 823 ratings

About the author

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Eric Lichtblau

Eric Lichtblau

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ERIC LICHTBLAU is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the best-selling author of "The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men," and "Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice."

Lichtblau was a Washington reporter for the New York Times for fifteen years from 2002-2017 and for the Los Angeles Times for fifteen years before that. He has also written during his career for the New Yorker, TIME, and other publications, reporting extensively on national security, terrorism, law enforcement, civil rights, political corruption, war crimes, and other issues.

He earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for stories revealing the existence of a secret NSA wiretapping program approved after the Sept. 11 attacks, and a second Pulitzer in 2017 as part of a team investigating links between the Trump administration and Russia in the 2016 campaign.

He has been a frequent guest on NPR, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and other networks, as well as a speaker at many universities and institutions. His latest book, Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee's Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis, will be released in October 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. He lives outside Washington, D.C.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
823 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rhio9
5.0 out of 5 stars "Pledging Allegiance"
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2014
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This is the story of two American "brands": (1) The America most of us have learned to accept and expect -- the one we were taught to believe in and (2) a secret America hidden in the shadows of national security, an America we're learning more about thanks to books like "The Nazis Next Door".

As examined in this book, one America is a false-front of patriotism. Romantic and sentimental, transparent and accessible, it offers up a rural buffet-style luncheon served on paper plates with forks and spoons scooping up large portions of propaganda and fear sprinkling education, entertainment, sports and media like salt and pepper on bland boiled carbohydrates and fried foods. But the other America is lean and opportunistic, pragmatic, seeking only advantage, ideological and monetary gain. This is where the REAL power is: in board rooms not voting booths, on the floor of the stock exchange, not the floor of small town hall meetings.

America prides itself on the rule of law and order, affecting a pretense of high morals - freedom and respect, honor and equality with "liberty and justice for all". But the other America is proud only of its privilege, entitlement, and, especially, its amorality. One America believes in "free elections", democracy, the American Way and fair play, where if you "work hard" you can grow up to be President, judged by your character not your skin color. But the other America has a strong racist history of white superiority and segregation, slavery, oppression, oligarchical elitism and nationalistic, cultural and military exceptionalism.

America wants to be known as the brand for the middle-class: ambitious and devoutly religious; defending the weak and defenseless; protecting victims while prosecuting victimizers and their persecutors. But America is also a secret surveillance state, austere to the point of cruelty, enforcing privatization of everything from prisons to pensions as fast as deregulation will allow. America is indivisible and united: red and blue states promise that those who commit crimes against humanity will be brought to justice, "because there's no statute of limitations on war atrocities". But America pledges allegiance only to its own self-interest. Global, commercial and technological loyalties mean that America occupies a place in history as an agent of endless war and concealment. America is as much a legend as a fairytale -- as much a complex mythology blurring the line between fact and fever, as a role-model for psychopaths and sociopaths. Hitler's ex-Nazis must have been as comfortable in America as they were in Berlin, Munich or Hamburg.

Back in the day when we could still wish upon stars, generations got excited over Walt Disney's futuristic "Trip to the Moon" inspired by his friend and former ex-Nazi scientist, Wernher von Braun. The German engineer was the mastermind behind the V-2 rocket that nearly destroyed London. As a free man, he lived in the States for thirty-two years until he died in 1977. His beliefs were no insult to our government - not to our intelligence community, nor our law enforcement agencies. But now a new generation is asking questions: How could this happen and why? Did the White House and top aids really ignore the evidence? Were there wide-spread systemic moral and legal failures? How could the "Greatest Generation" allow this to happen in the land and the home of the free and the brave? Should we even care? Hasn't it been long enough?

The book doesn't attempt to answer these questions; that's not really the point, readers can decide for themselves. However, in view of recent leaks and much-published revelations from whistleblowers exposing alleged criminal conspiracies -- from General Motors failing to recall defective cars, to the three-letter intel secret-surveillance-intelligence-industrial-complex (i.e., the NSA, CIA, DHS and FBI etc.), to the on-going investigative reports on a perpetual "War on Terror" ..... the facts behind the stories in "The Nazis Next Door" make perfect sense!
21 people found this helpful
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Kelley Ridings
4.0 out of 5 stars Nazi war criminals harbored in the US
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2021
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The Nazis Next Door reveals the little talked about fact that after World War 2, the US became a haven for Nazi war criminals often through US government complicity, especially from the CIA and FBI. After the War, Nazis, as rabid anti-communists, were recruited to spy against the Soviets and their European allies. After years of service, often, their paths were covertly cleared to allow them “legal” entry to the US and later citizenship. While in the heart of the Cold War this wasn’t questioned, it wasn’t until the 1960s that some began to investigate and expose these war criminals. While at first, the US had little taste to carry out investigations against these hidden war criminals, by the 1970s a special division of the US Justice Department was dedicated to this cause. By then though it wasn’t easy to bring elderly Nazis with criminal pasts to justice after they had built new US lives, often very successfully and peacefully. For example, Werner von Braun is one. He is viewed as one of the fathers of the US space program having directly contributed to the first moon landing in 1969. Yet during World War 2, he a was a German scientist and registered Nazi who lead 20,000 slave prisoners in researching the Nazi V-2 project, the world’s first long distance missiles. At War’s end, he surrendered purposely to the US and offered his services which were eagerly accepted by America. He never faced any repercussions once in the US and instead in time was hailed as a national hero.

This book certainly leads one to ponder the ethics of warfare and that old saying, “All is fair in love and war.” In the wars of one generation, clandestine alliances with one’s former enemy seemed justified. After all the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yet, as the leadership mantle passes from one generation to the next, a new ethical paradigm forms. Do we then ethically honor those same alliances? It would appear with Nazi war criminals that sometimes the answer is no. But that wasn’t always a guarantee. In the end, I conclude that it depended in part of what level of service one did for the US, in other words, “what have you done for me lately.” Spycraft and warfare is messy and ethically troubling with little black or white distinctions of right or wrong as this book glaringly reflects.
16 people found this helpful
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P. Blevins
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020
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The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men is by Eric Lightblau. This is a very disturbing book in that it highlights the CIA’s use of known Nazis who had committed atrocities during World War II as spies and who brought scientists who had done experiments in the camps to the US to work on our scientific programs, mainly the space program. They knowingly ignored the evidence of these men having been Nazis and covered up that evidence. Their reports took their actions down to “possibly having a slight association with the Nazi party.” At the same time they were doing this, they were not allowing Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime to enter the US because they might be dangerous. The CIA even told prosecutors not to take on these men without giving a reason.
The book goes into detail on the search of several of these men and what their reactions were to the investigations. It goes into the formation of the Office of Special Investigations in the Justice Department to hunt down known Nazis and deport them. Neal Sher and Eli Rosenbaum were two of the investigators who did the most investigations and got the convictions in the courts. When the arguments of time having passed and these men were elderly were given, Sher and Rosenbaum were insistent that there was no time limit on prosecution of these men.
The coverup of Project Paperclip and the Nazis in the US involved congressmen, Senators, and even Presidents.
35 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 😡
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2023
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Such an eye opener. I didn't know this even happened after the w*r. Such a shameful history to follow the atrocities already perpetrated by these men and women.
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Arthur R Clinton
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 28, 2018
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interesting
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G. Budrikis
4.0 out of 5 stars A confronting story
Reviewed in Australia on March 18, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is well written and documented. It tells a shameful and confronting story of the way America got more than a few serious Nazi war criminals off the hook post WWII. May such a disgrace never happen again.
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Miss T
4.0 out of 5 stars Horrific betrayal of the Holocaust survivors.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
I'm apalled that the American authorities, namely the government, FBI and CIA, decided to whitewash the war records of Nazi war criminals and give them new lucratively paid lives as scientists, CIA and FBI agents in order to benefit from the heinous research the scientists had carried out on the victims of Nazism.. subjecting them to torture, starvation, disease and death, calling it "research" and acting as if this was an acceptable level of behaviour, claiming that they were "good Nazis" despite having tortured thousands of people.. this appears to prove the point that there's no such thing as a good Nazi.. about time that NASA made reparations.. that the CIA and FBI come completely clean about each and every one and apologise unreservedly to the Jewish people and to the American people..

Seems that racism is still rampant in America under the Trump administration. I had been under the illusion that back in the 1940's things were different and that they had actually helped Jewish people resettle into new and existing communities in their own country but it's obviously not the case.. they took the minimum they could get away with and topped up with as many war criminals as they could. To refer to people who have been abused to the point of starvation and then comment that they "don't want to help themselves" and refer to them in the same derogatory terms as the people you have rescued them from.. I should like to see those people put through the same harrowing experience and then when released, skeletally thin through starvation and slavery, sick with multiple illnesses and injuries have the energy to "shift for themselves and find work" .. the whole situation is truly callous, inhumane and cruel on top of the most unimaginable cruelty.

Hang your head in shame America.. you're just as guilty for hiding it as they are for carrying out such atrocities..
2 people found this helpful
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Eileen Joyce Bonnington
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2020
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Having read many books about World War Two and The Holocaust, I was unfamiliar with the book's topic. In a very well written and informative read, I was amazed at how many former Nazis were allowed into America.
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