In 1986 journalist Mark Aarons presented a Radio National series, which established that a significant number of Nazi collaborators and war criminals – particularly from Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Yugoslavia – had settled in Australia after World War II.

Aarons' explosive reporting led to the formation in 1987 of the Special Investigations Unit, which investigated over 800 suspected war criminals living in Australia. This book gathers the recollections of historians, archaeologists, police investigators, SIU leaders, translators and lawyers to create a detailed insiders' account of the unit's efforts to prosecute Australian residents and citizens believed to have participated in horrific war crimes.

The SIU left an important legacy. As well as pursuing justice for victims of the Holocaust, it demonstrated that historical investigation of war crimes was possible, even decades later. In the words of former SIU director Graham Blewitt, 'Australia should be proud that, for a brief period in our legal history, we stood up and did the right thing. There was a time when Nazi collaborators living in Australia were wondering when the SIU knock on the door would come.'