The Secret Hunters

this book is about a canadian jews who had migrated to canada with his aunt ruth after the horror of WW2. He had not known about hitler and the SS until his aunt told him everything. Its a very sad and doleful book about the brutality of hitler and the life in the concentration camp. a person reading this book must have a gut to read it because of all the sorrows and misery of the jews written in the book. i studied world history and learned about hitler. i didnt really think he was that bad because all my book represented was facts and figures. not until i read this book did i find out the horrible time of the WW2. i couldnt even believe and swallow the way the jews had been killed. for all those SS who escaped death must be captured and hunted down. they are not condoned to live in this world for what they did and how other people suffered because of them. what derek jacobs did was praiseworthy. no matter how old they are not they deserve to die. if u truly wanna learn the horror of WW2 read this book

As a history major with a particular interest in WWII, I found this book both riveting and horrifying. History books tell you that Hitler systematically murdered 6 million Jews. But they don't give you the details. In "The Secret Hunters" Fiennes pulls no punches, and gives a gruesome account complete with details of how the Jews were abused by the SS in WWII. The only reason I gave this book only four stars instead of five is that the blurb gave me the impression that I was picking up an adventure tale of a treasure-hunting journey in Antarctica. While that is the direction the last quarter of the book took, it wasn't the main focus of the narrative. There was much more about the Holocaust and its atrocities itself. A thought provoking piece of work with an inconclusive ending that makes me wonder what happened to Derek Jacob.

After listening to the 13 disk audio with narration by Christopher Kay I find that awarding only a five star rating is an injustice to both author and reader. Since the writer of the diary and the author of the book are not of the Jewish faith, it lends much credence to the events that took place. Readers with high blood pressure and a weak stomach must exercise caution when getting involved in the atrocities that took place during the Nazi regime in Germany. There is much blame to go around, but the failure to prosecute these sadists who escaped the hangman's noose and fled to a life of luxury is extremely galling. This book is definitely a page turner and very dificult to put down as the process for hunting down some of these killers gets underway. This is the first review I have ever written, but it took something this powerful and moving for me to turn on the computer and write the above. In conclusion, this is a must read!

Fascinating read i could not put it down. The gist of the story is that a Canadian Catholic named Derek Jacobs learns from his aunt that they have jewish ancestors and as a consequence the brutal inhumane sadistic tortures inflicted on jews during ww2. His aunt tells him of a man called Karl Bendl alias Seidler raped Dereks mother and abused her during the nazi regime in ww2. Derek then in confronted by a man who tells him about an underworld organisation called the Secret Hunters who track down Nazis that have commited war crimes and to bring them to trial. Fuelled by hate tracking down Bendl becomes an obsession and leads Derek onto a boat to Antartica by nazis who think they have found gold thus kickstarting neo nazism and a re-rise to power. This book is gripping to the end and is not for the faint hearted as it goes into detail of what happened to the jews which some people may find unsettling. All in all i truly give it the thumbs up.