The Ratline: The Exalted Life and
Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive was
published by Knopf on February 2, 2021. It is 417 pages long, inclusive of
endnotes and a bibliography. Black-and-white photos illustrate the text.
Ratline recounts the encounter between author
Philippe Sands, a Jewish-British lawyer and law professor and descendant of
Holocaust victims, and Horst von Wachter, the son of a Nazi war criminal. Baron
Otto Gustav von Wachter (1901 – 1949) was Austrian born. He was an early and
enthusiastic member of the Nazi party, joining the Nazi Sturmabteilung or Storm
Troopers in 1923. He eventually rose to SS-Gruppenfuhrer, or major general rank.
He served under Governor General Hans Frank, the notorious "Butcher of Poland,"
in Krakow and Galicia in Nazi-occupied Polish and Ukrainian territory. Wachter
sent Jews, non-Jewish Poles, and other victims of Nazism to their deaths. After
the war, Wachter hid out in the Austrian Alps. He eventually made his way to
Italy, hoping to travel, via ratlines, that is, escape routes for Nazis, to
safety in South America. Instead, he sickened and died in Italy.
Otto von Wachter married Charlotte
Bleckmann in 1932. They had six children. Charlotte was an active diarist and
letter-writer. Horst, their son, shared his extensive trove of documents with
author Sands.
The Ratline has received rave reviews from both readers and professional reviewers. The book did not work for me, for reasons I'll outline, below, after a discussion of the book's reception and a summary of its contents.
