At least 1,000 ex-Nazis – some of them certainly war criminals responsible for murdering thousands of Jews – were recruited to spy for the US at the peak of the Cold War, the New York Times reported.
They were reportedly protected by the Central Intelligence Agency and FBI, both institutions infused by the post-war paranoia of Communism.
So wrote Eric Lichtblau, a Times Washington DC reporter, in his book ‘The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe haven for Hitler’s Men’, which is published today.
American University Holocaust scholar Richard Breitman said there were no moral grounds for making using of war criminals to fight the Cold War.
