ENEMIES ARE HUMAN

Pabel, a bookish and peace-loving boy, was born and raised in Germany. Obliged to join the Wehrmacht, he was sent to the Eastern front, transferred to the war in Italy. The American army captured and interned him, but he escaped, succeeded in hiding his true identity and establishing himself as a solid citizen of Chicago for seven years. The illumination given Pabel by his adventures is that all men- Nazi, Russian, American, stand together as individual and human beings and are divided only by ignorance and popularized fictions about each other. American hatred of the Germans assumed that as a people they wished to conquer and tyrannize, and were devoid of the humor and compassion upon which Americans pride themselves. This is an incredible piece of oversimplification- and springs no doubt from Pabel's own cheerful temperament. Antagonism of any kind was unthinkable to him. In war he was ingenious at goldbricking; in peace he comfortably settled down to a career as bookdealer, husband and father. Arrest by the FBI forced Pabel to leave the country and gain re-entry, and these awesome experiences are really blown up, become a sort of ""Perils of Pabel""... A thought for the more international minded consorts of the lending library.