The Nazis Next Door (42 page)

[>]
 
named Joe Lelyveld:
Lelyveld, a young reporter when he wrote the Braunsteiner Ryan story, later became the top editor at the
New York Times
.

[>]
 
He got lucky:
Joseph Lelyveld, “Breaking Away,”
New York Times Magazine
, March 6, 2005.

[>]
 
“a Housewife in Queens”:
Joseph Lelyveld, “Former Nazi Camp Guard Is Now a Housewife in Queens,”
New York Times
, July 14, 1964.

6. In the Pursuit of Science

[>]
 
“Does ‘Hubertus Strughold’ mean anything to you?”:
Allen personal papers on Strughold; and Charles R. Allen Jr., “Hubertus Strughold, Nazi in USA,”
Jewish Currents
, December 1974.

[>]
 
a former INS investigator named Tony DeVito:
Allen did not identify DeVito by name in his 1974 article in
Jewish Currents
, describing him only as an investigator with the INS.

[>]
 
“Go tell it to your congressman!”:
Author interview with Bruno Manz, German soldier and scientist who came to America as part of Project Paperclip and worked with von Braun.

[>]
 
Disney happened to be aboard:
Strughold interview, Air Force Oral History Project.

[>]
 
von Braun clutched:
Walt Disney Treasures—Tomorrow Land: Disney in Space and Beyond
(Los Angeles: Disney Inc., 1959), video.

[>]
 
a dozen tours von Braun had taken:
Transcript of 1969 deposition of von Braun in New Orleans; translated from German by Martin Dean, scholar at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[>]
 
a “new Napoleon”:
Michael J. Neufeld,
Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War
(New York: Vintage Books, 2008), 64.

[>]
  “
We used to have thousands of Russian prisoners of war
”
:
Lang, “A Romantic Urge.”

[>]
 
“that damned Nazi”:
Neufeld,
Von Braun
, 368.

[>]
 
he was worried:
Ibid., 428.

[>]
 
“I never saw a dead person”:
1969 deposition of von Braun.

[>]
 
“fortunately I have heard nothing more”:
Neufeld,
Von Braun
, 429.

[>]
 
official Air Force biography:
Air Force biography for Strughold, 1958.

[>]
 
he liked America so much:
Strughold interview, Air Force Oral History Project.

[>]
 
The Humane Society blocked him:
Ibid., 4.

[>]
 
“I doubt that Lyndon Johnson”:
Ibid.

[>]
 
“I had no affiliations with the Nazi Party”:
Ibid., 15.

[>]
 
featured some of the most graphic testimony:
Karl Brandt “Medical Case” files from Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, 1946–47, against twenty-three Nazi doctors (
United States of America v. Karl Brandt et al
.); file no. 2-3606, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[>]
 
“honorable, conscientious and self sacrificing”
doctor:
Hunt,
Secret Agenda
, 88, describing Nazi doctor Oskar Schröder.

[>]
 
“one of the first men”:
Colonel Campbell interview, Air Force Oral History Project.

[>]
 
There at the conference:
Internal Justice Department investigative reports, 1980–86, on Strughold and Nuremberg “cold conference.” Obtained by author under Freedom of Information Act.

[>]
 
“He was the director”:
Hunt,
Secret Agenda
, 85. (Chuck Allen’s reporting in 1974 first focused public attention on Strughold’s role in Nazi experiments and revealed evidence of his participation in the Nazis’ infamous Nuremberg conference. A number of critical pieces of evidence against Strughold were unknown to Allen at the time and would come out publicly only years later.)

[>]
 
adding traces of silver:
Brandt “Medical Case” files, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

[>]
 
“Ralphie!” he would chirp:
Author interview with Ralph Blumenthal, former
New York Times
reporter.

[>]
 
The collaboration produced a story:
Ralph Blumenthal, “Drive On Nazi Subjects a Year Later: No U.S. Legal Steps Have Been Taken,”
New York Times
, November 23, 1974.

[>]
 
“a distinguished scientist of international reputation”:
Speech on the floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman González, defending Strughold, on June 12, 1974.

[>]
 
immigration officials assured González:
Letter from INS Commissioner Leonard Chapman to Representative González, July 12, 1974; on file among Gonzáles’s personal papers at University of Texas Briscoe Center for American History.

7. Out of the Shadows

[>]
 
Tom Soobzokov sat out on the front porch:
Interviews with Lidia and Maira, longtime neighbors of Soobzokov. They asked that their last names not be used.

[>]
 
Jewish protesters bussed across the river:
Paterson Police Department files provided to author, and New Jersey newspaper accounts.

[>]
  “
They’ve got the wrong man
”
:
Author interview with Aslan Soobzokov, son of Tscherim “Tom” Soobzokov.

[>]
  “
On my side is God and truth
”
:
Herb Jaffe, “Jerseyan Downplays Nazi Probe,”
Sunday Star-Ledger
, March 12, 1978.

[>]
  “
My family, friends, and kids”:
Judy Smagula, “Soobzokov Is Pleased by Report,”
North Jersey Evening News
, May 29, 1979.

[>]
 
He would go out to the port:
Deposition of Erdejib Emtil in
Soobzokov vs. CBS
libel suit.

[>]
 
The local Teamsters union called him:
“Union Cites Immigrant for Aiding Refugees,”
Paterson Evening News
, January 24, 1966.

[>]
  “
a story of persecution
”
:
Walter, “Refugee Moslems Convert Store into Mosque,”
Paterson Evening News
, December 1, 1958.

[>]
 
“rumors concerning Soobzokov’s activities”: FBI report on Soobzokov, October 18, 1977; Soobzokov file, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Declassified Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Record Group 65), National Archives and Records Administration
. : FBI report on Soobzokov, October 18, 1977; Soobzokov file, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Declassified Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Record Group 65), National Archives and Records Administration.

[>]
 
“trying to expose a former Nazi killer”:
Internal FBI memo, October 14, 1977, citing a letter sent to the FBI on February 8, 1973, about Soobzokov from Hamed Bolotok of West Paterson, New Jersey; FBI Soobzokov file.

[>]
 
His FBI handler never really trusted:
Author interview with John Reid, former FBI agent, who was Soobokov’s handler in the 1960s as a bureau informant.

[>]
 
into the boy’s file:
CIA memo, 1958, FBI Soobzokov file, regarding a twelve-year-old boy named Robert Barski, son of a Russian immigrant.

[>]
 
a tip about one of Soobzokov’s reputed:
Howard Blum,
Wanted!: The Search for Nazis in America
(New York: Touchstone, 1989), 51.

[>]
 
a few interviews with Soobzokov’s accusers:
FBI investigative reports on interviews with Soobzokov’s accusers, including internal memo, FBI Newark field office, August 20, 1975; Soobzokov FBI file.

[>]
  “‘
your
führer
is Soobzokov’”:
Ibid., 56.

[>]
  “
un-American slanderous remarks”:
Plaintiff’s documents in Soobzokov libel case.

[>]
 
brought along a powerful friend:
Blum,
Wanted!
, 77.

[>]
 
DeVito knew nothing of all the drama:
Alleged Nazi War Criminals:
Hearings Before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and International Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, 95th Congress, 1st sess
., part 2, 1977 (Washington: US Government Printing Office: 1978), 67.

[>]
 
“This case is made to order!”:
Blum,
Wanted!
, 33.

[>]
 
“hoping this will all blow over”:
CIA internal memo of July 12, 1974, CIA Soobzokov file.

[>]
 
“Latest Development in the NOSTRIL case”:
CIA internal memo, February 10, 1975, on “Latest Development in the NOSTRIL case”; CIA Soobzokov file.

[>]
 
“pinch” them for money:
Ibid.

[>]
 
“He has certainly made plenty of enemies”:
Ibid.

[>]
 
no evidence
that Subject was involved in war crimes:
CIA Soobzokov file. Only later in the investigation did the investigators reach a deal with the CIA to get access to what the agency termed “sanitized” records from its 1950s files on Soobzokov. But some of the most incriminating documents—the polygraphed interviews for his security review, including Soobzokov’s admissions about his wartime role—were withheld.

[>]
 
“You don’t understand these things”: Author interview with Harry C. Batchelder Jr., former assistant United States attorney on Soobzokov case
. Author interview with Harry C. Batchelder Jr., former assistant United States attorney on Soobzokov case.

[>]
 
The charges in the book were “absolutely false”:
Transcript of
MacNeil/Lehrer Report
, “Nazis in America,” PBS, February 1, 1977.

[>]
 
a shoddy product:
Allen personal papers.

[>]
 
walked into a gothic mansion:
Allen personal papers.

[>]
 
“wore his German uniform”: Herb Jaffe, Star-Ledger (New Jersey), coverage of Soobzokov case, 1977–78. Jaffe covered the Soobzokov case exhaustively for the New Jersey newspaper
.Herb Jaffe, Star-Ledger (New Jersey), coverage of Soobzokov case, 1977–78. Jaffe covered the Soobzokov case exhaustively for the New Jersey newspaper.

[>]
 
“You can wake up now”:
Allen personal papers.

[>]
 
“Soviets Provide Data”:
Jaffe,
Sunday Star-Ledger
, September 10, 1978.

[>]
 
“When does World War II end”:
Editorial, June 21, 1979,
Independent-Prospector
(New Jersey).

[>]
 
“You are a nazi butcher”:
FBI records on Soobzokov bombing obtained by author under Freedom of Information Act.

[>]
 
It was a homemade bomb:
Paterson Police Department report, June 1, 1979.

[>]
  “
The State Department was undoubtedly”:
Internal Justice Department memo, “Prosecution memo re Tscherim Soobzokov,” October 17, 1979, Joseph F. Lynch to Walter J. Rockler; obtained by author.

[>]
 
The CIA produced:
CIA Soobzokov file, and “Draft Working Paper: Chapter Sixteen,” undated internal CIA report tracing the history of the agency’s involvement with early Justice Department Nazi prosecutions, including the Soobzokov case (declassified and released publicly in 2007), 4–19.

[>]
 
the CIA hadn’t let the Justice Department know:
Author interviews, and CIA, “Draft Working Paper.”

[>]
 
Prosecutors did not believe
: Author interview with Allan Ryan.

[>]
 
an impromptu party:
Author interview with Maira, longtime neighbor of Soobzokov. She asked that her last name not be used.

[>]
 
“I was never afraid”:
Coverage in New Jersey newspapers statewide after dismissal of charges against Soobzokov, July 10, 1978.

8. “An Ugly Blot”