MJH | “Our Nazi: An American Suburb’s Encounter with Evil” Book Talk

Reinhold Kulle seemed like the perfect school employee. But in 1982, as his retirement neared, his long-concealed secret came to light. The chief custodian at Oak Park and River Forest High School outside Chicago had been a Nazi, a member of the SS, and a guard at a brutal slave labor camp during World War II. Similar revelations stunned communities across the country. As the Office of Special Investigations raced to uncover Hitler’s men in the United States, neighbors had to reconcile horrific accusations with the helpful, kind, and soft-spoken neighbors they thought they knew. Though Nazis loomed in the American consciousness as evil epitomized, in Oak Park—a Chicago suburb renowned for its liberalism—people rose to defend Kulle, a war criminal.

In Our Nazi: An American Suburb’s Encounter with Evil, Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher Michael Soffer digs into his community’s tumultuous response to the Kulle affair. He explores the uncomfortable truths of how and why onetime Nazis found allies in American communities after their gruesome pasts were uncovered. Soffer will be in conversation with Hasia R. Diner, professor emeritus of American Jewish History at New York University.

Michael Soffer is a history teacher at Lake Forest High School. During his tenure at Oak Park and River Forest High School, he taught Holocaust studies in a classroom that former Nazi camp guard Reinhold Kulle used to clean. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Forward, Chicago Jewish History, and the Times of Israel. This is his first book.

Hasia Diner is Professor Emerita, New York University where she was the Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History. She is the author of numerous books in the field of American Jewish history, American immigration history and the history of American women. She has won both Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships and two of her books received the National Jewish Book Award.

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