This is the story of David Streiber, a 19-year-old Jewish-American soldier who is assigned to Germany in January 1959. It is the post-war period, anti-Semitism is still extant in Germany, and Nazi sympathies are still strong. Before he leaves home, he is warned not to get involved with the German people and not to get married. He is stationed at Merrell Barracks in Nuremberg, a former SS Kaserne about a mile from Soldiers' Field, the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. From his barracks window, he can see part of the Grandstand where Hitler reviewed goose-stepping troops and spoke of global war and the final solution to the Jewish problem. Like most G.I.s, he does get involved with German people and he does have an affair with a German girl who wants to get married. The affair ends badly when David tells the girl he cannot marry because he wants to go to college and does not want to re-enlist to support a wife. She takes the rejection personally and utters a hurtful comment about Hitler and the Jews. The book deals with the most important issues facing American soldiers in that time period: sexual relations with German women, racial conflicts between white and black G.I.s, miscegenation, and German-Jewish reconciliation. David attends Jewish services at the Palace of Justice where the War Crimes Trials were held after the war. He attends a religious retreat in a hotel in the Bavarian mountains not far from Hitler's chalet, the Nazi leader's own retreat. Relationships with other German girls are covered and his sexual escapades in Paris and Venice. The book ends when David is transferred to Munich in January 1960, another city with strong ties to Hitler and the Nazi Party. He looks forward to the transfer but is apprehensive about meeting other girls with anti-Jewish proclivities.
About the Author: Raymond M. Weinstein was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1957, enlisted in the U.S. Army, selected the 33-week radar repair course at Fort Monmouth, and was sent to Fort Ord, California before being transferred to Germany. He received his discharge in 1960, enrolled in Baruch College, CUNY, and received his B.B.A. in statistics in 1963. He then went on to graduate school in sociology and received an M.A. in 1966 and Ph.D. in 1968 from the University of California at Los Angeles. During his academic career, he taught at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and the University of South Carolina at Aiken, where he retired in 2012 as Distinguished Professor Emeritous of Sociology. He has published many articles in professional journals on topics such as mental illness, psychiatric patients, illicit drug use, social service organizations, Coney Island, amusement parks, and Elvis Presley. This is his second novel. Currently he is working on a sequel and divides his time between residences in Georgia and New York.