Gripping, page-turner of a story that I read in one sitting.
This book is non-fiction. I put no spoiler alerts in this review as these are historical facts that we should all have known before reading it and my remarks are more about history than the progression of "For Justice." The section about Papon (enclosed below) is told in the last few pages of the book and is not a central part of "For Justice," although it was to the Klarsfeld's history of Nazi hunting.
This is the story of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld who devoted every fiber of their being to bring Nazi's to justice from the 1960s through the late 1980s.
(Beate, the woman, should have her name come first in the title as the focus of the action is her story in this retelling.)
Significant research shows a worldwide dearth of education, understanding, or memory about the Holocaust (Jews use the word "Shoah"). While I was a teenager in the 1990s, living in a community with high Jewish representation in the United States and well read on the Shoah (certainly in relative terms) before reading this book, I had never heard of the French trial of Maurice Papon, which lasted from 1997-1998. I cannot understand how this could have escaped the attention of my community, at least in the sense that it was not mainstream news that people were talking about at the time.
Maurice Papon -
Papon, who was convicted of Crimes Against Humanity, "was Chief of Police in Paris from 1958-1967. He played a key role in the extremely violent repression of the protests against the war in Algeria on October 17, 1961 and February 8, 1962" (p. 189). He later went on to serve as the Minister of Budget from 1979-81. As with myriad others, his past as a Nazi official was well known.
After decades of dedication to bring Papon to trial, led by French Jews Michel Slitinsky and Michel Berges, Papon was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, of which he served four, released to his home for ill health.
Chronologically, it is disturbing to think that Papon's conviction in 1998 happened four years after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Has history no memory? No conscience?
US Role in Recruiting High-Ranking Nazis as American Spies After World War II -
I now newly know that the United States actively recruited Nazis - not 'Hitler's willing executioners'* - but, as this book reports, Klaus Barbie, a Nazi official of the highest rank, to serve as a CIA informant, fearing the spread of French Communism.
As an American Jew, an Israeli, and a human being, I find this unforgivable.
In 1987: "The United States officially apologized to France for having recruited this Nazi as an informant after the war [World War II]" (p. 186).
Apologized to France. Not the Jews, but a nation-state ruled by the Vichy government who Wikipedia calls, "the collaborationalist ruling regime... in Nazi-occupied France."**
Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was sentenced to death in France "for his involvement in 4,000 murders. For sending 16,000 Jews to gas chambers in Auschwitz. For arresting and torturing 14,000 members of the Resistance, all under the collaborationist Vichy regime. Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyon, France" (p. 119).
On Nazi Hunting (p. 186): Quote sourced from an interview with the Klarsfelds -
"From 1940-1945, the Nazis killed two-thirds of the Jews living in Europe [6 million Jews, 10 million people total], using the most horrible methods. Earth has never seen anything like it, by both its nature and its size.
That governments hunted war criminals is a myth. Despite what journalists, writers, and filmmakers would have you believe, Nazis in hiding, believed impotent, were of a relatively low priority.
We must face the facts. Only during the very short period of cooperation between the East and the West between 1945 and 1947 was was there a 'hunt' worth mentioning. The Cold War put an end to it. At that time, the nations-- especially America-- began pardoning and recruiting [RECRUITING] former Nazis as spies, if you can believe it."
Critique: Historical Documentation -
If I had a critique of this book, it would be this. The story itself is about the importance of documentation, and we see in the visuals many press clippings showing events of the day. But the source information for this story is not provided. To use this book as a historical record - is it a primary source from the Klarsfelds, for instance? One should know this without a doubt upon completing the book, but I'm not sure - the history needs to be cited meticulously.
* Quoting Daniel Goldhagen who has a book by this name
** Wikipedia: "Government of Vichy France"