When does a war actually end? In They Shall Not See the Dawn, Charles Lachman argues that the most important part of World War II began after Hilter’s troops surrendered. That’s when the U.S. Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps sprang to life.
Lachman explains that after Hitler’s suicide, American Intelligence officers were afraid that the Third Reich leaders who had survived the war were plotting a comeback, complete with hidden guns and rocketry and a fully formed agenda for world dominance. They knew they had to act. Fast. And Lachman has followed their tracks. The result is this book, written like a thriller, and to be read like the true history it represents.
In it, we meet the notorious Nazis the Counter-Intelligence Corps chased — well-known Nazis like the Gestapo chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Julius Streicher, Hitler’s publicist and the editor of Der Sturmer, the Nazi party’s violently anti-Jewish newspaper, and a host of other members of Hitler’s inner circle. All were intent on escaping. But the Corps was equally intent on catching them and bringing them to justice. In this time of the eightieth anniversary of the Nuremberg executions, this book brings home the passion and the patriotism that underlaid the successful hunt for the Nazis. Lachman writes like a novelist, bringing the characters to life and taking us along on the chase.
The Corps consisted of many ordinary people: students, intellectuals, armed refugees, and young draftees. But they were determined to capture the Nazi criminals. Their story contains all the drama of a manhunt created to save the world from those who would resurrect Nazi ideology and find a way to put it into practice once again. Hitlerism is alive, the author tells us at the very beginning.
With a deft hand, Lachman colors the story with broad wit and deep insight into the hearts and souls of not only the men who are hunted, but also the hunters themselves. Word by word, Lachman grasps the reader and doesn’t let go. By the end of the book, we are grateful he never gave us a moment to put it down.
Detailed source notes at the end of the book guide the reader to developing further knowledge, and a selected bibliography provides numerous publications to deepen the material in the book. A well-organized index makes it easy to find specific information. While the book is written for a lay audience, the methodical research that clearly underpins the story makes it an excellent resource for both experienced scholars and students of history.
Linda F. Burghardt is a New York-based journalist and author who has contributed commentary, breaking news, and features to major newspapers across the U.S., in addition to having three non-fiction books published. She writes frequently on Jewish topics and is now serving as Scholar-in-Residence at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
