Born in Vienna of Hungarian parents, Gitta Sereny is known as an investigative journalist who likes to hone in on dark spots in modern history and society. As a child she saw eminent Viennese Jews humiliated publicly by street thugs, and as a nurse she experienced the German invasion of France. Most of the book involves yet another analysis of German war guilt and the German psyche, areas in which she can, of course, speak at first hand; there are interviews with mass-killers such as Franz Stangl of the Treblinka death camp, and with Albert Speer, who probably was lucky to escape the death sentence at Nuremberg. Children of leading Nazis, such as the son of Martin Bormann, are allowed to express their own legacy of guilt and alienation. Though the book is somewhat sporadic, the material is obviously of real value.