The sins of the father
KEITH LOWE recommends an intensely personal account of one man’s struggle to come to terms with his father’s responsibility for Nazi crimes
Four years ago, the BBC aired a deeply disturbing documentary called My Nazi Legacy. It followed the journey of Horst Wächter, the son of notorious Nazi leader Otto Wächter, as he visited the places in eastern Europe where his father had presided over the Holocaust. Throughout the documentary, Horst was presented with evidence of his father’s crimes. And yet, while he was ready to denounce the Nazi system, he could never bring himself to admit his father’s personal responsibility.
The presenter of that documentary was Philippe Sands, whose own family included people murdered by SS troops in the region governed by Otto Wächter. What made the film so engrossing was Sands’ friendship with Horst. He was obviously disturbed by the astonishing levels of denial that Horst seemed capable of – but could not help liking him anyway. Both men were equally obsessed by the events of the past and, in different ways, equally unable to escape its shadow.
This book is the result of a further collaboration between the two. Horst wants to piece together everything he can about his father’s story, and if possible to exonerate him. Sands, meanwhile, is equally determined to convince Horst of his father’s guilt. What ensues is a kind of historical detective story, as the two retrace the story of Horst’s parents from the moment they first met in 1929, through the events of the next 20 years.
The first part of the book describes the courtship and marriage between Horst’s father and mother in the run-up to the Second World War. In the author’s own words, it’s a ‘Nazi love story’, pieced together using the diaries and letters that Horst’s mother kept as mementos of her beloved husband. Were it not for the characters involved, there might be something quite charming about it – but given all that comes later, it is difficult to read without feeling slightly queasy.
The next part of the book describes their life together during the war, especially the time they spent in Lemberg (modern-day Lviv). For the Wächter family this was a time of “enormous joy”. While Charlotte Wächter played piano, read books, and flirted with her husband’s boss, Otto went about his business organising the mass-kidnapping of enslaved labourers, and transportation of Jewish people to the concentration camps.
The second half of the book concerns events after the war, when Otto was on the run. For four years he evaded Allied war
While Horst denounced the Nazi system, he could never bring himself to admit his father’s personal responsibility
crimes investigators by using the ‘ratline’ – a network of Nazi sympathisers who helped smuggle people to South America via Italy. He ended up in Rome, but died there, suddenly, from a mysterious illness.
Horst, who is convinced that his father must have been poisoned, enlists Sands to help him learn the truth. However, Sands has another agenda. He indulges Horst, visits archives, interviews old Nazis, and makes numerous trips around Europe tracing Otto Wächter’s footsteps. But he also seeks out documents and photos so incontrovertible that even Horst will surely be forced to acknowledge his father’s guilt. It is this present-day drama, rather than the historical story, that makes this book so extraordinary. Readers will, much like the author, find themselves longing for Horst to open his eyes. That he finds this so difficult to do is simultaneously poignant and grotesque.