Human Game
Hunting the Great Escape Murderers
By Simon Read
Published by Constable, London; Dist. by Allen & Unwin
http://www.allenandunwin.com
RRP $19.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781472112620
Here is another book that has been languishing on my review shelf for far too long.
Having a look at it today, I realize that it may well connect with Australian readers – among the recaptured officers who were brutally murdered following the Stalag Luft III escape were three Australians and two New Zealanders.
In March 1944, a total of 76 Allied officers tunnelled out of Stalag Luft III. Of the 73 re-captured, 50 were shot by direct order of Hitler. This is the story of how a British police officer, Frank McKenna, was sent to post-war Germany on the express orders from Churchill to bring the Gestapo murderers to justice. In a quest that ranges from the devastated, bombed out cities of Europe to the horrors of the concentration camps, McKenna is relentless in his pursuit.
Simon Read has done a good job in telling this story in forensic detail.
There is a more detailed synopsis of the book on the Daily Mail website at this link.