59 Fall 2021 hilippe Sands has done it again. Sands, a leading professor of international law at University College London and the author of East West Street, has written another book that is sure to capture the imagination of the readers of JUSTICE. He is the only person, as far as I know, to have recited Kaddish from the pulpit of the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge, where he was attending a memorial service for the late British academic, Sir Elihu Lauterpacht. In this book, Sands combines his forensic knowledge with meticulous scholarship to produce a riveting whodunit. The protagonist of the book is Otto Wächter, a senior Nazi official who studied law at the University of Vienna. Hersch Lauterpacht (father of Elihu Lauterpacht) was, ironically, a fellow student and Hans Kelsen was among their teachers. Neither of these two Jewish international lawyers apparently had any influence on the young Wächter, who, already in his student days, became a fervent Nazi and admirer of Hitler. After participating in the Putsch against the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in 1934, Wächter rose in the ranks of the Nazi hierarchy and in 1940 was appointed governor of the administrative district of Krakow (under Hans Frank, the Governor General of the General Government of Nazi Occupied Poland). The Krakow ghetto was constructed under Wächter’s governorship, and throughout the years some 150,000 Jews were sent to death camps. In 1942, Wächter became governor of Galicia and assumed responsibility for the actions leading to the annihilation of all the Jews in Lemberg (Lvov). Although he was overall directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Wächter and the families of the high-level Nazis in charge led, according to the book, the mundane life of colonials, enjoying birthday parties, swimming outings and barbecues, while living in houses confiscated from their Jewish owners. The families pretended not to be aware of the mass killings of Jews. Hans Frank was tried in Nuremburg and later hanged. Wächter, however, escaped to Rome, where he died in 1949, and therein lies Sands’s tale. Sands traces Wächter’s escape to the Austrian Alps and later to Rome under the alias of Alfredo Reinhardt. Although Wächter attempted to conceal his Nazi past, Sands’s research reveals that U.S. counterintelligence was aware of his real identity from the moment Wächter arrived in Rome. With the end of World War Two, U.S. intelligence lost interest in pursuing Nazi war criminals and concentrated on combating Soviet and Communist infiltration of Italy. For this purpose, the U.S. utilized the experience and contacts of former Nazis, turning a blind eye to their nefarious past. The atmosphere in Rome during that period, as described by Sands, recalls Vienna from the classic film“The Third Man,”or one of le Carré's spy stories. Indeed, David Cornwall (a.k.a. le Carré) makes a brief appearance in the book. A major part of Sands’s description of Rome at the time is devoted to the role of Bishop Hudal, who was at theVatican and instrumental in helping former Nazis, including Mengele, escape to South America, hence The Ratline. Pope Pius XII was apparently aware of Bishop Hudal’s activities, yet Sands, going back to 1943, also quotes a report showing that the Pope intervened with the German authorities to try and prevent the deportation of Jews from Rome. The phenomenon of Nazis fleeing to South America after the war, who used Red Cross passports under false names, might well be worthy of research concerning the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross during this period. Just as Sands did in his earlier book, East West Street, in this book too, he similarly explores the history of the families involved, including family secrets concealed over the generations. In addition, Sands raises, though does not resolve, the mystery surrounding Wächter’s death in Rome. There are claims that he was possibly poisoned, perhaps the work of a Jewish organization seeking revenge. The book combines elements of a crime thriller, a history of life during the Holocaust and a revealing family history. It makes for a highly recommended read. n Robbie Sabel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of Justice. P Reviewed by Robbie Sabel The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive by Philippe Sands Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2020, 411 pp.)
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