Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive

As Governor of Galicia, SS Brigadesfhrer Otto Freiherr von Wchter presided over an authority on whose territory hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles were killed. By the time the war ended in May 1945, he was indicted for ‘mass murder’. Hunted by the Soviets, the Americans and the British, as well as groups of Poles and Jews, Wchter went on the run. He spent three years hiding in the Austrian Alps before making his way to Rome and being taken in by the Vatican where he remained for three months. While preparing to travel to Argentina on the ‘ratline’ he died unexpectedly, in July 1949, a few days after having lunch with an ‘old comrade’ whom he suspected of having been recruited by the Americans. Here, Philippe Sands offers a unique account of the daily life of a Nazi fugitive, the love between Wchter and his wife Charlotte, who continued to write regularly to each other while he was on the run.