The Nazi hunter's life and raison d'etre are eloquently encapsulated by this autobiography--and its title. The book opens...

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JUSTICE NOT VENGEANCE: Recollections

The Nazi hunter's life and raison d'etre are eloquently encapsulated by this autobiography--and its title. The book opens with a biographical sketch by Peter Lingens, an Austrian journalist who provides background on Wiesenthal's life up until the sleuth's second escape from death shortly before liberation. Wiesenthal's own record begins with his professional mission, so it is only Lingens who writes about the author's early roots and boyhood sense of expiation of guilt through just punishment. We read that the scourge of Nazi war criminals was able to defend ""good"" Nazis in court because friendly German overseers saved him from the execution pit when they found him at a neighboring concentration camp. Ironically, prisoner Wiesenthal was pulled away by his rescuers so that this wartime painter of Nazi insignias could design a large ""We thank our Fuhrer"" banner in time for a reception. After Wiesenthal made a career (or life-burden) out of his initial trips to the War Crimes Department, he found himself refusing to cooperate with violent avengers who did not share his ability to work patiently for years to indict Nazi murderers. Although the 80-year-old hunter of Eichmann still screams in his sleep from Holocaust traumas, he maintains that he strives to fight lawlessness with law. He records his epic battles with the evil banality of statutes of limitations, preexpedition trials and post-trial appeals for defendants who viciously murdered large numbers of innocent victims. There is some recapping of famous cases (Barbie, Bormann, Mengele, the officer who arrested Anne Frank, and Waldheim) that may be read in previous Wiesenthal books like The Sunflower and Every Day Remembrance Day and elsewhere, but with added details and observations. Wiesenthal names former Austrian leader Bruno Kreisky, elements in the US government, and the Catholic Church as special hindrances in his 60-year pursuit of justice. He also discusses the mass murder of Gypsies and others, the use of genodice as a cold war propaganda weapon, and the Eastern Bloc's media attempt to Judaize Palestinians and Nazify Israelis. Here is the Final testament of a major 20th-century figure, seeking vindication from any image of vindictiveness.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove Weidenfeld

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

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