"A sharp-eyed look at a troubling past that still reverberates in modern Germany."—Kirkus Reviews
“A vivid, engaging, and well-researched exposé of the pervasive presence of former Nazis in the postwar administration of West Germany, especially its police and intelligence branches. Petty shows that the implicit conspiracy that implicated much of German society in Nazi crimes had a very long tail.”—Peter Hayes, professor emeritus of history and Holocaust studies, Northwestern University
“Nazis at the Watercooler is a book long overdue to shed some light on how Third Reich killers and their accomplices blended into the emerging postwar society of (West) Germany. It’s a well-seasoned mix of personal histories and historical facts. . . . Petty’s flowing narrative style makes intricate facts easy to comprehend and guides the reader through a maze of bureaucratic and legal interactions between German and American operatives.”—Peter M. Gehrig, retired chief editor of the German Service of the Associated Press
“In the decades after 1945, many former Nazis worked for West German government ministries and agencies, including the diplomatic corps, the police, and the intelligence service. Drawing on recent investigations, Terrence Petty has written a highly readable account of how that regrettable situation came to be. This book helps readers understand the ethical compromises that German society deemed acceptable as it attempted to move into a post-Nazi future in an environment shaped by the politics of the Cold War.”—Alan E. Steinweis, Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont
“Former Associated Press foreign correspondent Terrence Petty developed a keen understanding of the Nazi era and its impact on contemporary Germany, becoming a kind of William Shirer of his generation during many years of tenacious and dogged reporting there. In this book, written with anger but also love, he has pieced together a disturbing chronicle of Germany’s postwar security apparatus, which was seeded with, and at times led by, Nazis guilty of the most appalling wartime actions.”—Arthur Allen, senior correspondent of KFF Health News
“Terrence C. Petty’s riveting book explains how Cold War expediency allowed fervent Nazis to take top jobs in postwar West Germany’s security, judicial and other government branches, while Third Reich victims were shut out. Petty shows that lasting repercussions include upsurges of neo-Nazi violence and political influence in today’s unified Germany.”—David Minthorn, former AP correspondent in Bonn and Moscow
