Overview

"In 1990, in a drafty basement archive in Prague, two American historians made a startling discovery: a detailed Nazi roster from 1945 that no Western investigator had ever seen. The dusty document, containing more than 700 names, helped unravel the details behind one of the most skilful mass murder operations in World War Two. In the tiny Polish village of Trawniki, the SS built a training camp for murder and then recruited a roving army of foot soldiers, 5,000 men strong, to annihilate the Jewish population of occupied Poland. After the war, some of these men vanished, making their way to the U.S. and blending into immigrant communities in cities and suburbs across America. ""The Trawniki Men"" were behind the most lethal operation of the Holocaust but for years in the West, their loyal service to the SS had largely gone undetected. In a story spanning 75 years, Citizen 865 is the exclusive, definitive account of the unheralded lawyers and historians at the U.S. Department of Justice who, up against the forces of time and political opposition, battled to identify these men and hold them accountable for their unspeakable crimes."

Full Product Details

9780316449656

Table of Contents

Reviews

This riveting saga, replete with heroes and villains, is the true story of a few good men and women who worked tenaciously to expunge an evil in our midst. --George F. Will, author of The Conservative Sensibility Enriched by Debbie Cenziper's world-class investigative skills, Citizen 865 is a powerful piece of history that washes over you in waves of horror and beauty. --David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good American Family This is a gripping tale, which reads at times like a novel. Just when you thought you knew everything about the Holocaust, we learn about the uniquely devastating role of the Trawniki training center. At a time of rising anti-Semitism, Debbie Cenziper's Citizen 865 offers a harrowing reminder of the consequences of unchecked racism and anti-Semitism. And it serves as a repository of hope-that the leadership of good men and women could bring a measure of justice to the world in the face of such overwhelming evil. --Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League Citizen 865 reads like a thriller, but it is so much more... [It] tells an essential and unknown tale of post-war justice and the search for truth, linking the events of the Holocaust to the familiar, more recent past. Telling this story of a decades-long quest for justice is itself an act of justice. --Ariel Burger, author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom and winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Biography Debbie Cenziper has written a page-turning detective story about the hunt for Nazi killers living openly in neighborhoods across the United States....This is a book that anybody interested in the quest for international justice should read. --Michael Isikoff, New York Times bestselling co-author of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump Citizen 865 is a fantastic piece of detective work.... A compulsively readable story of mass murder and an epic quest by Nazi hunters to bring evil men to justice. --Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter Citizen 865 is a great book that couldn't come at a more crucial time. In telling the story of a little-known Holocaust site called Trawniki and the people who dedicated themselves to bringing some of modern history's worst monsters to justice, Debbie Cenziper has honored the vanishing plea to never forget, first by breaking my heart with the worst of humanity, and then, with the best of us, stitching it back together. --Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers Anchored in painstaking research and reporting, Citizen 865 chronicles the efforts of the lawyers and historians of the Office of Special Investigations to rid the United States of the Third Reich's mass murderers who had been hiding in plain sight. Debbie Cenziper's account vividly-and movingly-captures both the frustrations and triumphs of this extraordinary group of dedicated men and women who refused to abandon the quest for a measure of long overdue justice. --Andrew Nagorski, author of 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War and The Nazi Hunters

Citizen 865 is a fantastic piece of detective work.... A compulsively readable story of mass murder and an epic quest by Nazi hunters to bring evil men to justice. --Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter Citizen 865 is a great book that couldn't come at a more crucial time. In telling the story of a little-known Holocaust site called Trawniki and the people who dedicated themselves to bringing some of modern history's worst monsters to justice, Debbie Cenziper has honored the vanishing plea to never forget, first by breaking my heart with the worst of humanity, and then, with the best of us, stitching it back together. --Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers Anchored in painstaking research and reporting, Citizen 865 chronicles the efforts of the lawyers and historians of the Office of Special Investigations to rid the United States of the Third Reich's mass murderers who had been hiding in plain sight. Debbie Cenziper's account vividly-and movingly-captures both the frustrations and triumphs of this extraordinary group of dedicated men and women who refused to abandon the quest for a measure of long overdue justice. --Andrew Nagorski, author of 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War and The Nazi Hunters

Anchored in painstaking research and reporting, Citizen 865 chronicles the efforts of the lawyers and historians of the Office of Special Investigations to rid the United States of the Third Reich's mass murderers who had been hiding in plain sight. Debbie Cenziper's account vividly-and movingly-captures both the frustrations and triumphs of this extraordinary group of dedicated men and women who refused to abandon the quest for a measure of long overdue justice. --Andrew Nagorski, author of 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War and The Nazi Hunters

Author Information

Debbie Cenziper is an investigative reporter, journalism professor, and author based in Washington, D.C. She has worked at the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, and the Charlotte Observer and has won many major awards in American print journalism, including the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. Cenziper is the co-author of the critically acclaimed Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Won the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality. She is a contributing reporter for the Investigative Team at the Washington Post and in 2019 was named an associate professor and director of investigative journalism at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available