"In Hitler's Shadow" author at Fairfield University | Press Releases

Yaron Svoray, whose six-month infiltration of Germany's neo-Nazi groups led to his book, "In Hitler's Shadow," will speak at Fairfield University on Tuesday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Sponsored by the University's Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies and made possible through the generosity of The Schnurmacher Foundations & The Apollonian Foundation, the public lecture is free.

In 1992 Yaron Svoray, an investigative journalist and the son of holocaust survivors, initiated an undercover mission to secretly record and photograph leaders of Germany's neo-Nazi movement. Working in conjunction with the Simon Wiesenthal Center and using the alias Ron Furey to pose as an Australian journalist, he sought out leaders of Germany's neo-Nazi movement to interview them for a nonexistent rightist publication. Svoray had learned the skills needed to become an anti-terrorist fighter as a former Israeli commando and later as a detective sergeant in the Israeli Central Police Command.

Svoray's infiltration of the neo-Nazi movement brought him into contact with key Nazi leaders and a surprisingly vast network of middle-class citizens who subscribe to the Nazi platform of racial hatred and superiority, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

Svoray produced documents, photographs and dozens of hours of videotape and audio material which he presented to government officials at Federal Police Headquarters in Meckenheim, Germany. Among his disturbing revelations was that the German government had greatly underestimated the number of active neo-Nazis. In addition, Svoray found several instances of police collaboration with neo-Nazis and that the German groups had connections to extremist groups in South Africa, South America and the United States.

Svoray's undercover operation was detailed in the book, "In Hitler's Shadow," co-written with Nick Taylor and published by Doubleday. "The Infiltrator," an HBO film based on the book, aired in 1995.