arating people into fearful and apa maturity; it is secondly a horrifyingly thetic: groups too small to accomplish vivid document of a people somehow change, daily life in Nazi Germany surviving the terror of high-concentra was a continuous hell of paranoia for tion bombing. ("Children were being even loyal citizens. pulled along, tripping and stumbling Hiltgunt Margret Zassenhaus, a nat over their own short legs. The men uralized American citizen and Balti carried bulging suitcases held together more physician since 1952, lived such with paper string. Some sat on the a tightrope existence and in "Walls" curb to pull the shoes off swollen, ach describes it with the verve and skill ing feet. Others simply lay down in of an accomplished novelist. Begin the middle of the road, staring va ning her story in a direct and simple cantly up at fhe smoke-filled sky. No manner, she manages to hold the one cried or complained. The faces reader to the wry end. "One morning were dark and empty, as if life had in winter I awoke, and I could see no gone out ... I walked on, my shoes sky through my window. The room covered by a heavy layer of red dust. had a dim, yellowish, almost sulfur- My throat was burning and it hurt to WALLS: RESISTING THE THIRD REICH like light. The window glass was swallow. The smoke was getting — ONE WOMAN'S STORY covered with thick yellow paper, thicker, and tears ran down my printed over and over with swastikas. cheeks. I tried to take a shortcut down By HILTGUNT ZASSENHAUS Overnight our house had been dim a sidestreet but heard someone yell, Beacon Press, $7.95. med by Nazi hands. This was in Ham 'The street is afire!' Quickly I jumped Readers interested in the history of burg, Germainy, January 30, 1933. aside into a doorway. A few feet away World War n will certainly find this Adolf Hitler had come to power." a small blue flame skipped along the book rewarding. During the nearly Neither a Nazi nor a Jew, young asphalt. It moved rapidly, then ex three decades that have passed since Hiltgunt Zassenhaus was raised in a ploded. Phosphorus. A woman hurled Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun bade a liberal German family by a father herself into the moving mass of grim farewell to the Fatherland, many deeply influenced by the humanity of people. 'My shoes! My shoes are burn volumes have appeared to document Albert Schweitzer and a mother ing!' she cried hysterically. Small blue and decry the horrors of Nazism. whose optirraistic motto was "Let us flames were licking the soles of her Most, however, have been either ex answer the evil with good." Yet such shoes. She disappeared among the tensive and formal histories, reminis was the all-pervasive strength of Naz crowd as they moved along. Everyone cences of concentration camp victims, ism that organized resistance was was on the run.") Finally, "Walls" is memoirs of high-ranking officials, or nearly impossible. Despite the dan a vehicle for Dr. Zassenhaus' personal psychoanalytic examinations of the gers, howewer, some Germans did philosophy: "Hitler's Germany hap Fiihrer. find ways of working against the pro pened many years ago, but it could Generally neglected in this plethora grams and piogroms of Hitler. happen today. Again we are living in of material has been a worthwhile de The authwr of "Walls" was one a world torn by some of the same scription of the average non-party such resistance worker. She did not forces that either activated or para member, non-Jewish German citizen's destroy bridges or operate an under lyzed the German people. We must life during the years of euphoria and ground railroad for escaped prisoners, identify with them in (their bewildered catastrophy from the rise of Hitler to as the book"s subtitle seems to imply. confusion, for although Hitler is dead, the fall of the Third Reich. Many as Instead, she used her position as he is still alive. He will live on as long sume that the typical loyal Germans Scandanavian interpreter in the Ger as the walls remain . . ." went along with their leaders, like man Departtment of Justice to smug Sensitive readers who prefer an sheep or lemmings, and this is true to gle food, mtedicine, and — most im author's "message" to be illustrated a large extent. But it is no trademark portant — hope to political prisoners in a subtle manner or stated once and of Germany, 1933-1945, that civilian throughout Germany. Her efforts then dropped may be somewhat an populaces generally allow their gov eventually lied to secret cooperation noyed by Dr. Zassenhaus' reaffirma ernments to get away with murder, from the Swedish Red Cross and, near tion of her theme, which appears with lie to them, and intimidate them into the end of ihe war, to the prevention and without variations throughout the silence with a variety of consequences. of the mass execution of the more book, almost as if the author wanted By isolating society as a whole into than 1,000' prisoners in her charge. to be certain no one forgets. This in fragments of conflicting self-interests, So effective was the author's work sistence on underlining mars "Walls," the skillful and cynical establishment that after thie war she received medals but only to a minor degree. Other can build walls between its inhuman of knighthiood from Norway, Den wise, it is a fascinating and extremely desires and the human desire of one mark, and Germany. •, y well-written description of the human oppressed person to help another. Be Because she has succeeded in cap side of World War \x. — GAG • cause Hitler was so successful at sep- turing the human side of a dozen years that were s^o perilous to both her and [EDITOR'S NOTE: Since this review was the rest of the world, Dr. Zassenhaus written, the Norwegian Parliament has has written a book that is interesting nominated Dr. Zassenhaus as a can- on several levels. It is first an auto-