The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb

The Nazi Hunters

Adolf Eichmann was the man responsible for building the death camps and organizing the transportation of Jews and others to their death during World War II. After the war he changed his name, escaped Europe with his family, and hid in Argentina. A group of men who were survivors of the camps tracked him to a poor area outside of Buenos Aries and smuggled him out of the country to publicly stand trial in Israel. He was eventually found guilty and hung.

There were many things about this story that reminded me of the recent search for Osama bin Laden. One major difference was that Eichmann was given a trial before he was executed. It took them 15 years to find where Eichmann was hiding but this was before the Internet, email, and spy satellites. They were able to capture and extradite him without night-vision goggles and fancy helicopters. 

The story is enhanced by many pictures of the people involved and various paraphernalia like the hypodermic used to sedate Eichmann. Readers who enjoy spy thrillers would enjoy this non-fiction book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

Few books are worth the time to reread. Even rarer are those books that are worth rereading and reblogging. This is one such book.


I originally bought this copy at a library book sale for my daughter who had never read it. When she handed it back to me I knew I had to read it again. It is such a gift! It is not just another Holocaust book; it is a book about people surviving, growing, existing, and loving in the worst possible circumstances.

It is one of those books that everyone should give a couple of hours of their lives to read.

My rating for this book: 

The Book Thief (2007)

This is an extraordinary Holocaust story written by Marcus Zusak. Liesel Meminger is eleven years old when she moves to the small town of Molching near Munich to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann. The story is told by Death who follows Liesel's life in between his calls to duty delivering souls from people who die (which keeps him very busy as you can well imagine). He considers himself a student of human behavior and Liesel constantly surprises him. When she arrives at the Hubermann house she is unable to read but has a book with her called The Gravedigger's Handbook which had fallen out of the pocket of one of the men who helped bury her little brother. Amidst all the horror and tragedy, this girl can always find a way to show kindness and compassion to others around her. Her overwhelming desire to learn how to read and her love of reading drives her to find books wherever she can. Once she even pulled a book out of a bonfire of books considered not suitable for reading. Considering how many of these types of book end up tragically, I thought I was in for a sob fest. Yes, there were horrors all through the book, but Liesel's outlook on life is truely inspiring.
If you enjoy (?!) reading books about the Holocaust, don't miss this one. If you don't enjoy reading books that take place during the Holocaust, don't miss this one. It's a great story of keeping one's humanity when everyone else is losing theirs.
My rating for this book: +++++