Hunting the Truth: Memoirs of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld

(Paperback)

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They were born on opposite sides of the Second World War: Beate grew up in the ruins of a defeated Weimar Germany, while Serge, a Jewish boy in France, was hiding in a cupboard when his father was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. They met on the Paris Mtro and fell in love, and became famous when Beate slapped the face of the West German chancellor-a former Nazi-Kurt Georg Kiesinger. For the past half century, Beate and Serge Klarsfeld have hunted, confronted, prosecuted, and exposed Nazi war criminals all over the world, tracking down the notorious torturer Klaus Barbie in Bolivia and attempting to kidnap the former Gestapo chief Kurt Lischka on the streets of Cologne. They have been sent to prison for their beliefs and have risked their lives protesting anti-Semitism behind the Iron Curtain in South America and in the Middle East. They have been insulted and exalted, assaulted and heralded; they've received honors from presidents and letter bombs from neo-Nazis. They have fought relentlessly not only for the memory of all those who died in the Holocaust but also for modern-day victims of genocide and discrimination across the world. And they have done it all while raising their children and sustaining their marriage. Now, for the first time, in Hunting the Truth, a major memoir written in their alternating voices, Beate and Serge Klarsfeld tell the thrilling story of a lifetime dedicated to combating evil.

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

Author Bio

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.