Nationality Israeli Role Author Ethnicity Jewish Movies The Infiltrator | Religion Judaism Books In Hitler's Shadow Name Yaron Svoray | |
Occupation Journalist, Author, Nazi hunter Known for Six-month infiltration of Germany's neo-Nazi groups and subsequent book In Hitler's shadow Similar People Nick Taylor, John Mackenzie, Guy Andrews, Robert J Avrech, David Van Tieghem | ||
Yaron svoray the story of a spy and nazi hunter
Yaron Svoray is an Israeli former police detective, author, and lecturer, most notable for his work against Neo-Nazis. Svoray infiltrated German Neo-Nazi groups, contributed to the arrest of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, and has also been active in searching for treasure looted by the Nazis.
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Svoray's father, Yehuda Soberski, was born in Germany, and moved to Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1938. The rest of the Soberski family perished in the Holocaust. His mother, Rachel Stern, was born in Egypt and moved with her family to Romania when she was a child. Most of her relatives died in the Holocaust and she fled to Mandate Palestine with some of her family in 1943. Svoray was born in Israel, and was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces. He did his military service in the Paratroopers Brigade, and later worked as a detective in the Israeli Central Police Command.
He traveled to the USA where he earned his bachelor's and master's degree in media and communication, and worked as a journalist and a lecturer..
In the early 1990s, he went undercover inside the German Neo Nazi organization. He convinced them that he was an Australian neo-Nazi named Ron Furey who wanted to join the German Neo Nazis. Svoray's investigation brought him into contact with key neo-Nazi leaders. Furthermore, there was evidence that the German groups had managed to forge links with similar groups in South America and the United States. Svoray’s book In Hitler’s Shadow was later adapted into a 1995 HBO special, ‘‘The Infiltrator, starring Oliver Platt as Svoray.
While working undercover Yaron discovered that a Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke who participating in the massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome escaped to South America and lived there under an assumed name. The intelligence he gathered facilitated in the capture and arrest of Priebke.
To the general public Svoray is probably best known for his hunt of Nazi era diamonds. Svoray’s search was documented on the History Channel’s special Blood from a Stone, which was based on the book, Blood from a Stone, written by Yaron Svoray and published by the Tor Books division of St. Martin’s Press.
Svoray next book was the book Gods of Death’’ published in 1997 by Simon & Schuster. The book is an account of Svoray’s hunt for the source of and sense behind the snuff film which he witnessed while undercover inside the Neo Nazi movement. This time Svoray presented himself as a middleman first for buyers and then for dealers of snuff films, trying to fake his way into the highly secretive industry, at several points running afoul of the Russian mob in Israel and various criminal organizations in the US and Southeast Asia.
In 2007, Svoray found the dumping ground for the destroyed remains of Jewish property plundered during Kristallnacht. The dump, situated in a forest in Brandenburg, is the size of several football fields it is thought to contain an extensive range of personal and ceremonial items, although only a small number of items have been dug up so far.
In 2013 Svoray and his team began a search for boxes full of gold dumped into Lake Stolpsee in Germany. This project is being filmed by “National Geographic”.