Book Description
for The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A gripping tale of espionage and intrigue is also intensely emotional as it recounts the mission to locate and capture Adolf Eichmann, mastermind of the Nazi's "Final Solution," and bring him to trial in Israel. Eichmann was discovered in Buenos Aires, living under an assumed name in circumstances so meager there was doubt he was the right person. Is this really what Eichmann had become: a factory worker living in a poor, remote part of the city? For the Israeli intelligence agents and others who carried out the mission in May, 1960, it was a struggle to equate the evil responsible for the deaths of many of their family members and millions of other Jews with the aging, meek man they kidnapped. Getting Eichmann out of Argentina was tricky. The Argentine government wasn't unsympathetic to Nazis. The agents held him for more than a week in a secret safe house before smuggling him out of the country. This painstakingly researched account is detailed and compelling from its opening page, and deftly reveals both the intricate planning and execution-which required spur-of-the-moment changes at times-as well as the feelings of the many individuals involved. It also reveals the impact of Eichmann's capture and trial. The Holocaust was shrouded in shame and silence for most survivors, but this was a powerful, cathartic event, and they began to share their stories. The many survivor stories, memoirs, and other personal accounts of the Holocaust that exist today are part of a body of literature that began to emerge with this event, which affirmed the power and importance of speaking the truth. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2014. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2014. Used with permission.