Hunting the Truth: Memoirs of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld

by Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld, Sam Taylor (Translator)

Overview

2018 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD BOOK OF THE YEAR

In this dual autobiography, the Klarsfelds tell the dramatic story of fifty years devoted to bringing Nazis to justice

For more than a century, Beate and Serge Klarsfeld have hunted, confronted, and exposed Nazi war criminals, tracking them down in places as far-flung as South America and the Middle East. It is they who uncovered the notorious torturer Klaus Barbie, known as “the Butcher of Lyon,” in Bolivia. It is they who outed Kurt Lischka as chief of the Gestapo in Paris, the man responsible for the largest deportation of French Jews. And it is they who, with the help of their son, Arno, brought the Vichy police chief Maurice Papon to justice.

They were born on opposite sides of the Second World War. Beate’s father was in the Wehrmacht, while Serge’s father was deported to Auschwitz because he was a Jew. But when Serge and Beate met on the Paris metro, they instantly fell in love. They soon married and have since dedicated their lives to “hunting the truth”—both as world-famous Nazi hunters and as meticulous documenters of the fate of the innocent French Jewish children who were killed in the death camps.

They have been jailed and targeted by letter bombs, and their car was even blown up. Yet nothing has daunted the Klarsfelds in their pursuit of justice. Beate made worldwide headlines at age twenty-nine by slapping the high-profile ex–Nazi propagandist Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and shouting “Nazi!” Serge intentionally provoked a neo-Nazi in a German beer hall by wearing an armband with a yellow star on it, so that the press would report on the assault. When Pope John Paul II met with Austria’s then-president, Kurt Waldheim, a former Wehrmacht officer in the Balkans suspected of war crimes, the Klarsfelds’ son, dressed as a Nazi officer, stood outside the Vatican. The Klarsfelds also dedicated themselves to defeating Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front and his daughter Marine Le Pen’s 2017 campaign for president in France.

Brave, urgent, and buoyed by a remarkable love story, Hunting the Truth is not only the dramatic memoir of bringing Nazis to justice, it is also the inspiring story of an unrelenting battle against prejudice and hate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374538170
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	03/12/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Beate and Serge Klarsfeld are French activists, journalists, and renowned Nazi hunters whose work apprehending war criminals, seeking justice for victims and survivors of war crimes, and establishing the record of the Holocaust have brought them international recognition. Serge, born in 1935 in Romania, and Beate, born in 1939 in Germany, assisted in the capture of numerous Nazi perpetrators, including SS official Kurt Lischka, Gestapo captain Klaus Barbie, and Paris police chief Maurice Papon. The recipients of France’s Legion of Honour and Germany’s Federal Order of Merit, both nations’ highest honors for civilians, they were named UNESCO ambassadors of genocide prevention by the United Nations in 2015.

Beate and Serge Klarsfeld are French activists, journalists, and renowned Nazi hunters whose work apprehending war criminals, seeking justice for victims and survivors of war crimes, and establishing the record of the Holocaust have brought them international recognition. Serge, born in 1935 in Romania, and Beate, born in 1939 in Germany, assisted in the capture of numerous Nazi perpetrators, including SS official Kurt Lischka, Gestapo captain Klaus Barbie, and Paris police chief Maurice Papon. The recipients of France’s Legion of Honour and Germany’s Federal Order of Merit, both nations’ highest honors for civilians, they were named UNESCO ambassadors of genocide prevention by the United Nations in 2015.

Sam Taylor has written for The Guardian, Financial Times, Vogue and Esquire, and has translated such works as the award-winning HHhH by Laurent Binet, and the internationally-bestselling The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker.

Editorial Reviews

"Riveting . . . absorbing . . . As their memoirs make clear, these militants of memory never lost sight of their goal." —Benjamin Balint, The Wall Street Journal

"Exceptionally relevant . . . an awe-inspiring account of one couple's relentless pursuit of Nazi criminals . . . The Klarsfelds are reluctant memoirists, Serge explains, but their fidelity to accuracy and their humility regarding monumental triumphs of justice serve as urgent messages to us all." —Elizabeth Rosner, San Francisco Chronicle

"Assertive . . . Hunting the Truth] helps us understand how these two otherwise ordinary individuals—a nonobservant Jewish Frenchman and a gentile German woman—came to devote themselves with such single-minded daring to the cause of achieving both justice and commemoration for the French victims of the Holocaust . . . The Klarsfelds’ success has been undeniable." —Robert O. Paxton, The New York Review of Books

"Hunting the Truth is an important book, with an immeasurable educational value. At the narrative level, the authors have written a history primer about the unimaginable cruelty of the Nazis and their willing French collaborators, whom the Klarsfelds helped bring to justice. Alongside the narrative stratum, however, they have compiled a moving treatise based upon their personal experiences." —Mordechai Ben-Dat, The Canadian Jewish News

"A riveting record . . . Anti-semitic hatred, in Sartre’s formulation, “is first of all a passion.” By presenting their many years of struggle for a “great, just cause,” the Klarsfelds’ memoir affirms a far higher and more enduring passion." —Peter E. Kornblub, Jewish Book Council

"Remarkable . . . Throughout their harrowing work, [the Klarsfelds] maintained a home in Paris and remain to this day devoted to and inspired by each other. A masterful work of historical importance." —Booklist (starred review)

"At its best [Hunting the Truth] gives an exhilarating picture of amateurs assuming investigative duties in search of long-overdue justice." —Publishers Weekly

"With bravery and chutzpah, a husband and wife demonstrate that there’s no moral compromise with history." —Kirkus

“This inspiring memoir of persistence and staying true to one’s beliefs will remind all readers that although it may be slow, justice will triumph.” —Library Journal

"The Klarsfelds, by their assiduous research and documentation, helped in the identification and capture of Nazis and others responsible for those crimes . . . The Klarsfelds will be remembered for their emphasis on using the legal system to try the perpetrators of the Holocaust and to prevent their rehabilitation as honored citizens.” —American Thinker

From the Publisher

This audiobook tells the story of an unlikely pair of Nazi hunters—a German woman who is married to a French Jew. The story is told in tag-team fashion, alternating between the perspectives of the wife and husband. Narrators Marisa Calin and Raphael Corkhill handle this approach effectively. Each partner’s sections are long enough to establish a narrative thread, and the narrators deliver the variety of European accents with accuracy. This is especially true when they read from personal letters. The story is constructed in chronological order, so listeners will come to understand the backgrounds and motivations of both partners. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

This audiobook tells the story of an unlikely pair of Nazi hunters—a German woman who is married to a French Jew. The story is told in tag-team fashion, alternating between the perspectives of the wife and husband. Narrators Marisa Calin and Raphael Corkhill handle this approach effectively. Each partner’s sections are long enough to establish a narrative thread, and the narrators deliver the variety of European accents with accuracy. This is especially true when they read from personal letters. The story is constructed in chronological order, so listeners will come to understand the backgrounds and motivations of both partners. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

2018-01-22
In a joint memoir, a pair of notable Nazi hunters review their half-century of disputing acceptance of mass murderers in decent society.The authors, husband and wife, tell their story by turns. Serge was hidden in a cupboard in the south of France as his father was taken by the Germans to be killed in Auschwitz. He was 8. Beate was a German Christian child living in the ruins of the Third Reich. They met as adults, and their reciprocal affection complemented their innate passion for justice. Aware of the importance of press coverage of the atrocities around them, they publicized the histories of the perpetrators who carried out the Nazi regime's killing of France's Jews. In one wonderful photo-op, Beate contrived to publicly slap the face of German Chancellor—and quondam Nazi—Kiesinger. They created commotions, brandished placards, held press conferences, broke windows, and traveled the world. In acts of civil disobedience, Beate chained herself at appropriate venues and arranged to get arrested in diverse jurisdictions; some courts, anxious to avoid publicity, were not ready to prosecute. Serge researched, produced irrefutable documentation, and provided exhaustive dossiers to reporters and prosecutors. He became a lawyer and, with his son, took part in many trials and legal proceedings, several of which were provoked by the Klarsfelds. They were active in the exposures of Klaus Barbie, "the Butcher of Lyon," and of Kurt Waldheim, the former secretary-general of the U.N. The Klarsfelds believed there were no closed cases. There were always more war criminals, anti-Semites, and Holocaust deniers in more places—more than enough for the independent anti-fascists to continue their lifelong mission despite bomb threats and attempted murder. Avenging the memories of the millions who lost their lives was, and remains, an important vocation. As their story unfolds, readers may note a faint, unavoidable touch of vainglory; never mind, what they have accomplished is worthy of high praise.With bravery and chutzpah, a husband and wife demonstrate that there's no moral compromise with history.

Kirkus Reviews