Scarcely more than novelette in length, this is a propaganda novel of post war Germany, the aftermath of the civil war and the inflation, the soil from which the Nazi Terror sprang. One sees poverty, fear and hunger stalking the street, and into this, insidiously infused, the anti-foreigner, anti-Jew tenets of the Nazi doctrine. The story revolves around a derelict youth, thrust by circumstances into a life of crime, and from that into the Nazi forces, where he is faced with the betrayal of the only people who have shown him humanity at its best, or of the political creed to which he has sworn allegiance. The finale, following a vivid picture of a concentration camp, is disappointing, -- a sop to those who want their romance rounded out, and not in key with the stern reality of the balance. A difficult book to sell, in a market where THE OPPERMANS has taken the cream, and where anti-Nazi books are not in demand. Its length also is a detriment, in view of the price.