ONE GERMAN'S TORMENT
Marsh, Ellen
One German's Torment Nazi Pressure Broke Him Down SOWING THE WIND, by Martha Dodd. Harcourt, Brace and "Company. $2.50. Reviewed by Ellen Marsh MARTHA DODD has written a novel about Germany...
...Erich, like many Germans or, for that matter, many people everywhere at that time, is vaguely troubled by political trends but "non-political," trying to hold on to conflicting loyalties, weak and pliable, afraid to see realities and to be honest with himself...
...When Erich succumbs, he tears down with him the strong people who tried to give him courage for survival...
...He is torn between the opposed influences of Lina, the girl he loves, who spurs him to outbursts of defiance—and a Gestapo agent who slowly snares him in a net of bribery and threats...
...Lina, his mother and father, his friend...
...Reviewed by Ellen Marsh MARTHA DODD has written a novel about Germany during the Hitler years from 1934 to the Nazi offensive in Russia, and she describes in that span of time the, gradual, complete deterioration of one German's moral character...
...The sore spots are not ignored, as, for instance, the Jewish manufacturer who refused to help Jewish victims of Nazism out of fear for his security, and the shoddy betrayal of the current democratic governments...
...As the book opens, Erich Landt, the reckless, charming, celebrated flyer of World War I has just returned to Berlin...
...Around the theme of moral suicide run parallel descriptions of the activities of high German military and official groups, the German underground, and foreign journalists...
...He seeks escape in a false optimism, in flying, and in liquor...
...AS in Through Embassy Eyes, Martha Dodd's Russian characters are noble and freedom-loving, but there is no mention of Russian politics or the Russian Pact with Germany...
...he is deeply shocked by the Purge of June 30th, outraged by Nazi methods, but unwilling to leave Germany again...
...Nazi pressure increases steadily, working on his ambition, credulity, and patriotism...
...But the book, besides being an interesting study of character, should clear up some of the mystery surrounding the Nazi era and give more perspective to those absurdly over-rated words, "good" and "bad" Germans...
...Sometimes her writing, though competent, is too facile, her explanations superficial...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 43
