Useful Enemies
John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy For Nazi War Criminals
by Richard Rashke
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Pub Date Jan 22 2013 | Archive Date Apr 22 2013
Description
John “Iwan” Demjanjuk was at the center of one of history’s most complex war crimes trials. But why did it take almost sixty years for the United States to bring him to justice as a Nazi collaborator?The answer lies in the annals of the Cold War, when fear and paranoia drove American politicians and the U.S. military to recruit “useful” Nazi war criminals to work for the United States in Europe as spies and saboteurs, and to slip them into America through loopholes in U.S. immigration policy. During and after the war, that same immigration policy was used to prevent thousands of Jewish refugees from reaching the shores of America.
The long and twisted saga of John Demjanjuk, a postwar immigrant and auto mechanic living a quiet life in Cleveland until 1977, is the final piece in the puzzle of American government deceit. The White House, the Departments of War and State, the FBI, and the CIA supported policies that harbored Nazi war criminals and actively worked to hide and shelter them from those who dared to investigate and deport them.
The heroes in this story are men and women such as Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Justice Department prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum, who worked for decades to hold hearings, find and investigate alleged Nazi war criminals, and successfully prosecute them for visa fraud. But it was not until the conviction of John Demjanjuk in Munich in 2011 as an SS camp guard serving at the Sobibor death camp that this story of deceit can be told for what it is: a shameful chapter in American history.
Riveting and deeply researched, Useful Enemies is the account of one man’s criminal past and its devastating consequences, and the story of how America sacrificed its moral authority in the wake of history’s darkest moment.
The long and twisted saga of John Demjanjuk, a postwar immigrant and auto mechanic living a quiet life in Cleveland until 1977, is the final piece in the puzzle of American government deceit. The White House, the Departments of War and State, the FBI, and the CIA supported policies that harbored Nazi war criminals and actively worked to hide and shelter them from those who dared to investigate and deport them.
The heroes in this story are men and women such as Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Justice Department prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum, who worked for decades to hold hearings, find and investigate alleged Nazi war criminals, and successfully prosecute them for visa fraud. But it was not until the conviction of John Demjanjuk in Munich in 2011 as an SS camp guard serving at the Sobibor death camp that this story of deceit can be told for what it is: a shameful chapter in American history.
Riveting and deeply researched, Useful Enemies is the account of one man’s criminal past and its devastating consequences, and the story of how America sacrificed its moral authority in the wake of history’s darkest moment.
A Note From the Publisher
If you read ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR by Richard Rashke, don't miss this follow-up read!
If you read ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR by Richard Rashke, don't miss this follow-up read!
Advance Praise
“A richly researched, gripping narrative about war, suffering, survival, corruption, injustice and morality." —Kirkus
“. . . essential reading for anyone interested in understanding a difficult chapter in American history.” —Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat
“Useful Enemies is a remarkable and riveting account of how good people in a great nation can do very bad things and fail to do good things. This is a terrifying account of the triumph of injustice in the false name of pragmatism and in the immoral service of bigotry.” —Alan Dershowitz
". . . an engrossing cri de couer about our country's skewed post-World War II priorities. . . . Rashke sheds new light on America's complicity in sheltering Nazis." —The Jewish Daily Forward
". . . one of the most interesting aspects of Rashke’s investigation is how it complicates the idea of a survivor: was Demjanjuk, who lived a quiet life in Cleveland following the war, also a survivor of the Nazis, different from the men and women whose killings he oversaw only by degree? The answer, as Rashke points out, requires untangling ‘historical forces, moral behaviors, legal issues,’ and more, and it’s a riveting read.” —Publishers Weekly
“. . . essential reading for anyone interested in understanding a difficult chapter in American history.” —Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat
“Useful Enemies is a remarkable and riveting account of how good people in a great nation can do very bad things and fail to do good things. This is a terrifying account of the triumph of injustice in the false name of pragmatism and in the immoral service of bigotry.” —Alan Dershowitz
". . . an engrossing cri de couer about our country's skewed post-World War II priorities. . . . Rashke sheds new light on America's complicity in sheltering Nazis." —The Jewish Daily Forward
". . . one of the most interesting aspects of Rashke’s investigation is how it complicates the idea of a survivor: was Demjanjuk, who lived a quiet life in Cleveland following the war, also a survivor of the Nazis, different from the men and women whose killings he oversaw only by degree? The answer, as Rashke points out, requires untangling ‘historical forces, moral behaviors, legal issues,’ and more, and it’s a riveting read.” —Publishers Weekly
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781480401594 |
| PRICE | $24.99 (USD) |
