OCTOBER 20 • 2022 | 17

T

he Zekelman Holocaust 
Center is hosting a virtual 
program on Sun., Oct. 30, at 
2:30 p.m. about the life and death of 
Baron Otto von Wächter, based on 
Philippe Sands’ successful BBC radio 
podcast, The Ratline. Pieced together 
through two decades of family 
correspondence, the tale of Wächter’s 
life and years evading justice as a 
devoted Nazi and man on the run 
will be told during a live virtual 
discussion with Sands.
Sands is a human rights lawyer and 
Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author of 
The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on 
the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive. A practicing 
barrister at Matrix Chambers, Sands 
appears frequently as counsel before the 
International Court of Justice and other 
international courts and tribunals and 
sits as an international arbitrator. 
A CNN and BBC World Service 
contributor, he is also professor of 

laws and director of the Centre on 
International Courts and Tribunals at 
University College London. 
“Philippe Sands and his colleagues 
were able to uncover a great deal of 
information regarding the mysterious 
life and death of devoted Nazi Baron 
Otto von Wächter as he evaded justice 
for years,” said Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, 
CEO of the Zekelman Holocaust 
Center. “His insights and research 

should provide for a very informative 
and spirited virtual discussion.”
Sands and his contem-poraries 
uncovered key details about 
Wächter’s life and family history 
by studying an archive of letters, 
diaries and other materials that were 
produced over the course of the 
tumultuous years between 1929 and 
1949. 
A tale of Nazi lives, mass murder, 
love, Cold War espionage, a 
mysterious death in the Vatican and 
the Nazi escape route to Argentina, 
The Ratline delves into the life and 
mysterious death of Otto von Wächter.
The community partners for the 
event are the Michigan State University 
History Department and the Michael 
and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish 
Studies and Modern Israel at MSU. 

Registration for the virtual program is available at 

HolocaustCenter.org/October.

On the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive

Supported through the generosity of The Jewish Fund and the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Family Foundation.

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