THE MENTEN AFFAIR

by Hans Knoop ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 30, 1979

As editor of the Dutch magazine Accent, Hans Knoop claims the major responsibility for the exposure, arrest, and eventual conviction in 1977 of Pieter Menten, a Nazi collaborator and mass murderer who had established himself after the war as a benign multi-millionaire art collector. This account of Knoop's investigation reads like a fast-paced crime drama--intrepid reporter against unscrupulous, 77-year-old criminal who previously eluded the grasp of Dutch justice. Tipped off by an Israeli colleague in 1976 to Menten's gruesome past, Knoop soon discovered that the upstanding member of society had been an adjunct member of the SS in Poland, who--evidence indicated--had led the wholesale massacre of the Jewish population of at least two Polish villages. While a collaborator Menten also amassed three train carloads of objets d'art, which he brought back to his native Holland and became the basis of his subsequent fortune. What is most disturbing about Knoop's account is the impression he creates that the Dutch government was very unenthusiastic about investigating Menten. Only the critical mass of damning evidence defeated the Hague's ""let sleeping dogs lie"" attitude, and Knoop's account is as much an indictment of the Catholic People's Party and its government as it is of Menten. At the book's conclusion, Knoop, himself a Jew, is understandably exultant at the final imprisonment of a man who brazenly constructed his life on the fruits of pillage and murder. Events, however, have outpaced Knoop's account. This past December Pieter Menten was freed on a technicality and reportedly en route to a mansion in Ireland. His identity and culpability have been established, however, thanks to Knoop.

Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION