Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-280) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- Part I: Downfall and resurgence. Misery meadows -- Out of the rubbish heap -- Nazi mercenaries after the downfall -- Beggars and choosers -- Gehlen and the CIA -- Venetian blindfolds and red scares -- The Moscow gambit -- operation fireworks -- Chess and double agents -- the strange case of Ludwig Albert -- Part II: Fallout and consequences. Fishing in troubled waters -- The house on Rue Haddad -- Orient trading company -- the neo-Nazi third world scheme -- The republic strikes back -- Beisner blown away -- An enemy of my enemy -- Alois Brunner's plots -- "A punitive attack" -- Mossad joins the fray -- Winter in Syria -- the downfall of OTRACO -- Nazi skeletons unearthed -- Gehlen's darkest hour -- Part III: Aftershocks and shadows. Operation Damocles -- Mossad chasing shadows -- A willing quarry and nuclear nightmares -- Faustian bargains -- Nazis in the service of the Jewish state -- Catching flies with honey -- Fade away -- Epilogue: Ghosts in the mirror -- the historical significance of Nazi mercenaries.
Summary:
"In the aftermath of WWII, the victorious Allies vowed to hunt Nazi war criminals "to the ends of the earth." Yet many slipped away to the four corners of the world or were shielded by the Western Allies in exchange for cooperation. Most prominently, Reinhard Gehlen, the founder of West Germany's foreign intelligence service, welcomed SS operatives into the fold. This shortsighted decision nearly brought his cherished service down, as the KGB found his Nazi operatives easy to turn, while judiciously exposing them to threaten the very legitimacy of the Bonn Government. However, Gehlen was hardly alone in the excessive importance he placed on the supposed capabilities of former Nazi agents; his American sponsors did much the same in the early years of the Cold War. Other Nazi fugitives became freelance arms traffickers, spies, and covert operators, playing a crucial role in the clandestine struggle between the superpowers. From posh German restaurants, smuggler-infested Yugoslav ports, Damascene safehouses, Egyptian country clubs, and fascist holdouts in Franco's Spain, Nazi spies created a chaotic network of influence and information. This network was tapped by both America and the USSR, as well as by the West German, French, and Israeli secret services. Indeed, just as Gehlen and his U.S sponsors attached excessive importance to Nazi agents, so too did almost all other state and non-state actors, adding a combustible ingredient to the Cold War covert struggle. Shrouded in government secrecy, clouded by myths and propaganda, the tangled and often paradoxical tale of these Nazi fugitives and operatives has never been properly told--until now."--Amazon.com.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.