The Whisper of the Village, The Knock at the Door
Wiesenthal spent his life following the Nazi ratlines. The Catholic Church, the CIA, the governments of Latin America, all were happy to help war criminals keep one step ahead of Nuremberg. (Segev points out that many of the ratliners were humanitarians who probably didn’t realise who they were helping.) Those who stayed, didn’t necessarily suffer. Confirmed fascists were comfortable with a Europe of light sentences and big opportunities. This was especially true in Wiesenthal’s native Austria whose historical antisemitism went unchallenged by the physical demonstration of the endpoints of its arguments. Nazis were able to serve in cabinets and run businesses under their own names. They finished their easy time and were welcomed to their home villages like heroes. Wiesenthal complained that ‘The dumbest Nazis were the ones who committed suicide after the fall of the Third Reich.’
Max Dunbar reviews Tom Segev‘s Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends.
Soho Days, Soho Nights
Bethnal Green Library, London E2 Friday 19th November 6.30pm With Paul Willetts and Martin Knight. Organised by Richard Bolt. Writing about London’s most colourful district including readings from Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond, Soho’s Billionaire King of Burlesque and Gerald Kersh’s Night and the City.
Four Poems
She was born when bairns
came in a doctor’s Gladstone
and the dead left as silvery
dribbles on cassock.
As she lay on the curb,
she hoped a policeman
would fish in his pocket
for a silver whistle
with her name on it,
one that could hush
the whole street…
By Richie McCaffery.