Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich

Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich by Ladislas Farago. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780340162415.

Thick with documentation (Argentine Intelligence reports, photos of Bormann in the bunker, in Berlin, in Bolivia, of associates, of--even--Miss Nazi, of S. America, of 68), this is an account of Faragos odyssey, his journey thru jungles of Brazil & Paraguay, his trip to the Andean plateaus, his deductions, speculations, suspicions, interviews with Bormanniacs, riskings of his life--all to track down the highest ranking survivor of Nazism. Farago attempts to shoot holes in the Germanic version of Bormanns death with his Fuhrer, which was based upon the discovery of an "obscure carcass" & a confusing dental picture (reproduced). There was something of a sensation raised when in 72 the author 1st disclosed his findings, but it subsided as quickly as it rose. The problem with even this wealth of details being the general--& healthy--suspicion that doctoring, somewhere along the line, was possible. Farago feels that Bormann was protected by the Peronist government in the early & mid-50s; & not without sins of passivity on the part of the FBI--the tacit collusion a consequence of our need for pan-American alliance during the Cold War. This sounds plausible; yet it also sounds too easy. Farago explains what he considers Israels current disinterest as a matter of its ceased being an adventuring nation & has taken its place as a mature, compromising state. Again, plausible. Yet, the main ingredient is missing. The book ends with Farago discovering an old & senile Bormann at a hospital in SW Bolivia. But the palpable question how do we know?--Kirkus (edited)