It is based on the denazification questionnaire which all Germans with some form of responsibility were forced to take by the military government after World War II.

He writes about battles in the Baltic states and about his involvement in the assassination of foreign minister Walther Rathenau.

Salomon shares his experiences in 1930s France, in the German film industry during the NS era, the end of the war (which he spent in Bavaria with his Jewish girlfriend), and how he was tortured in an American internment camp.

[3][4] Frederic Morton of The Saturday Review wrote about the English-language publication: "The publishers' praise on the dust jacket consists mostly of apology; the 'quotes' used attack rather than support the book; the translation, though technically competent and idiomatically accomplished, somehow smothers the brutal elegance of the German original, making it seem like a war documentary done in rainbow technicolor and set to fairytale music."

"[5] Kirkus Reviews wrote: "A big, sprawling book for the close follower of contemporary history, particularly German, rather than the average reader, this has many flashes of impudence, a sharp wit and a quick sleight of hand to enliven its serious accounting.