Debbie Cenziper

Citizen 865, Deborah Cenziper, author; Robert Fass, narrator
The book is interesting, but it doesn’t shed much more light on the Holocaust for me. However, it does examine a subject of which I was not knowledgeable, as it also explored the lives of the people who continued to hunt down Hitler’s hidden war criminals for years after the war had ended. These investigators searched for evidence about the Nazis of a small town, Trawniki, in Poland.
In Trawniki, there was a school to train men to kill, to annihilate, to rid the world of Jews. The investigators involved in the search for these Nazi criminals, who escaped into the US, did not have the profile of Simon Wiesenthal, but they believed that all those who slipped through the net should be brought to justice before they died. They believed that none should be allowed to live out the rest of their lives in comfort, in the USA, after the reprehensible things they had done and the murders they had either committed or witnessed silently.
The investigations began decades ago, but they didn’t get resolved until the 21st century began. The process was way too slow and accomplished too little because these despicable murderers had hidden their tracks very well for decades, without ever being caught or questioned. When finally there were investigations, and they were apprehended, there was difficulty getting proof of their complicit actions with Hitler’s regime, because the countries involved were unwilling to share information, and the lies they had told, so often, were now believed.
Some of the names of the investigators and the accused, will be recognized by the reader; there were both prominent lawyers and prominent war criminals. However, some will be more obscure, as well. To be sure, though, all of the accused were homicidal maniacs who hated Jews and participated in their extermination. They were guilty and many were ultimately deported. Others, however, died before justice could be done and remained in America until their deaths. The wheels of justice turned too slowly.
The book is informative and worth reading, however, it is a bit repetitive and disorganized. The audio narrator does a good job without taking over, which he could have, because it is an emotionally charged story, more so because it is true!… (mais)

I guess I should have figured out sooner (1) why this book had such a hokey title and (2) why a very recently published book had the vast majority of its copies sitting unchecked out in the public library of a city overwhelmingly supportive of its subject. First, the book says it is written by two people, one a prize-winning investigative journalist and the other one of the main characters in its narrative. There is no hint the second person wrote any of it -- unless, of course, he likes writing about himself constantly in the third person. Secondly, the second author is a dominant figure but certainly not the only one of importance, and yet the publisher strives to give him star billing. While that "author" or "main subject", depending on how you view him, has a particularly unique "story" due to his partner's ultimately deadly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) malady, in most respects, his own individual legal case is truly just one of multiple cases packaged together for comparable reasons before judicial panels. In short, his case is not more important than others mentioned. So, why the "love" emphasis and the star billing? It turns out the Pulitzer Prize winning co-author used to be the wife of a cousin of the partner of the "star". (Got all that? At least, I think I got that all straight.) This is really just a family tribute to the second author. True, the book does take the reader in general terms through various parts of getting a significant legal case before the U.S. Supreme Court, but the facts that most people will want for understanding the real legal issues are relatively few and come very, very late. Moreover, the book does a superficial job of mentioning, let alone elucidating, all the social and political factors at pay. Want to give a guy a pat on the back for a tough situation? Fine, read the book. Want to grasp all factors at pay? Go elsewhere.… (mais)