Dragons Teeth

I have put off writing this review for a couple of weeks because I've been unsure what to say about it. The first half of the 600+ page book seemed a little pointless and drawn out. I think that the author was trying to build the relationship between the main character, Lanny Budd, and his Jewish friend, Johannes Robin. It is a story of a well off American man, the before-mentioned Lanny Budd, who marries the richest woman in America, though I can't remember her name. They live in Europe and know lots of famous and rich people; one of them is Johannes Robin who is a wealthy Jewish businessman who lives in Berlin. The first half of the book tells of them going on a cruise with the Robin family (he has two sons, one is married to Lanny's sister, and they all have different political views which they talk about a lot). It also tells about parties they go to and people they meet. One of the people they meet is Adolf Hitler. This was the only interesting part of the first half: to learn a little bit about where Adolf Hitler came from and the kind of person he was. When they met him he was building up the Nazi party and starting to get a lot of support in Germany. He eventually does gain power and takes over Germany and then that's where it gets interesting.

They plan on taking a cruise on the Robin family yacht to get away from the terror of Germany and how the Jews were being treated, especially the sons of the Robin family. One of the sons was a Communist and the other a Socialist, both of which the Nazis hated, besides the fact that they were Jews. They waited a long time for Johannes to arrive with his yacht but he never came. They soon found out Johannes had been arrested and taken to a prison camp. Lanny and his wife decide to go into Germany and use their many contacts within the Nazi party to get Johannes out.

He meets with two high power Nazi officers, Paul Goebbels (these Nazi leaders were real men) and also Hermann Goring two of the most evil men on earth. He gets in good with them, even going on a hunting trip with Goring. He finds out from Goring that Johannes didn't submit the correct paperwork to take money out of Germany (which in fact he did) and that was why he was arrested. In order for Lanny to get Johannes out he had to give all his money, his palace and his yacht and Johannes would leave Germany with nothing but his life. They agree to this (they didn't have much of a choice) and got him out safely. While they were trying to free Johannes they were in contact with Freddi Robins, Johannes' son. They soon lost contact of him and found out after getting Johannes out of the country that Freddi had been arrested and taken to Dachau, one of the worst pre-war concentration camps there were.

Lanny felt a need to get him out. As he talks about it with his wife you find she is sort of a Nazi sympathizer and doesn't like the Robin family because they are Jews. She doesn't understand Lanny's hatred of the Nazi party. She is kind to the Robin family, but when it comes down to it she doesn't like them as much as her husband, even to a point where she doesn't want Freddi's son to play with their daughter. Lanny feels responsible and decides to go back to Germany and get Freddi out.

He gets in contact with some of his Nazi friends, those on the lower levels, and makes a plan with one of them to get Freddi out. I don't want to give the details in case you want to read the book, but their plan goes awry.

I enjoyed the second half of the book very much. I am not a history buff; to show my ignorance I didn't realize that Communists and Nazis weren't the same thing. This book was fascinating to me. I've read other books about WWII and concentrations camps, but they have all been from the Jewish point of view and usually they take place during the war. This book is from a complete outsider and ends before the war even begins. I learned a lot and even though at times I felt it was pointless to read, I'm glad I stuck with it, in the end it was worth it.