“An important work of history that is both deeply researched and beautifully written. Soffer illuminates an overlooked yet remarkable story of an American community’s reckoning with justice in the wake of the Holocaust. He has achieved what the best history writers aim to do: shaping our view of the present by opening eyes to a new view of the past.”
— Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life
“A chilling account of how someone with an evil past can hide in plain sight, and the lengths to which those who would expose him went to get a well-justified reckoning. Our Nazi reads like a novel, but is in fact a fine piece of scholarship that combines the history of the Holocaust, American policy, and life in suburbia in the postwar period.”
— Hasia Diner, emerita, New York University
“Our Nazi raises profound moral questions about justice, forgiveness, and Holocaust memory. Soffer deftly weaves together multiple story lines in this well-researched and riveting account.”
— Daniel Greene, Northwestern University
"A Nazi prison camp guard hid in plain sight in America for nearly three decades after winning the trust of a suburban town whose residents adored him for his ‘kind acts’. . . . But the revelation of his Nazi past nearly 30 years later split the town with many coming to his defense and saying he was the victim of a ‘persecution’."
— Daily Mail
“A powerful mix of scholarship and memoir; [Soffer’s] research is meticulous and his storytelling matter-of-fact. . . . This book will linger for a long time in readers’ minds.”
— Jewish Book Council
"How could a former Nazi come to the United States after the war and comfortably settle in Chicagoland? . . . [Soffer] being naturally inquisitive, incredibly smart, and someone looking to bring real world issues into his classroom wanted to dig deeper. . . . He discovered this story went far deeper than he could have imagined."
— WGN Radio
"It is an important important read, especially in our time of rising anti semitism in America and around the world. It tells, in very well researched prose and in beautiful writing, the story of what happened in Oak Park, Illinois when it was discovered that a long-time school custodian had in fact been a Nazi guard."
— A Mighty Blaze
"[Soffer's] history book provides an exciting opportunity for readers to understand the depths of how impactful the event of the Holocaust was even after it was over."
— The Forest Scout
"Reinhold Kulle and his family departed on the MS Italia from Cuxhaven, Germany, destined for a new life in America. But as [Soffer] reveals in Our Nazi, Kulle carried a dark secret. Throughout World War II, Kulle had not only been a member of the Nazi’s Waffen-SS, but had worked at Gross-Rosen concentration camp where 40,000 Jews died."
— New York Post
“A carefully researched account. . . . The value of Soffer’s book lies in its narrow focus on this situation and the effect it had on the people of a progressive American suburb.”
— Wall Street Journal