Fugitivos / Fugitives. a History of Nazi Mercenaries

Cuando Alemania se rindi? miles de antiguos oficiales del r嶲imen se esfumaron en la confusi鏮 de la posguerra. Algunos fueron juzgados y otros escaparon, pero muchos fueron reclutados. Reinhard Gehlen, general de inteligencia nazi, cre?la organizaci鏮 de espionaje de Alemania Occidental con la ayuda de exagentes de las SS, mientras los servicios estadounidenses y sovi彋icos compet燰n por hacerse con los servicios de los mismos hombres.

Desde restaurantes de lujo en Mich hasta puertos yugoslavos infestados de contrabandistas, pasando por casas francas en Damasco, clubes de campo en El Cairo o refugios fascistas en la Espa鎙 de Franco, estos fugitivos tejieron una red secreta de tr塻ico de armas, espionaje y poder que sirvi?indistintamente a Washington, Mosc?o Tel Aviv.

Basadoen archivos in嶮itos del Mossad, la CIA y el espionaje alem嫕, Fugitivos revela una historia envuelta en secretos, mitos y propaganda: la de los nazis que sobrevivieron a Hitler para convertirse en piezas clave de la Guerra Fr燰. Con un vigoroso pulso narrativo y gran rigor, Danny Orbach reconstruye el lado m嫳 oscuro de esa 廧oca, cuando la lealtad era un lujo y la supervivencia una forma de traici鏮.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Shrouded in government secrecy, clouded by myths and propaganda, the enigmatic tale of Nazi fugitives in the early Cold War has never been properly told--until now.

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.