[3] In preparing himself for that interview, Black's interest was piqued by the hidden history of relations between the government of Adolf Hitler and German-Jewish Zionists during the first years of the Nazi regime.

After its publication, the book was cited by far-right activist Lyndon LaRouche and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to claim that Zionism was a racist movement that collaborated with Nazi Germany so that wealthy Germans could transfer their assets to Palestine.

[6] In a review in the academic journal Shofar, scholar Lawrence Baron noted the controversy generated by Black's conclusion that the World Zionist Organization (WZO) broke the potentially successful anti-Nazi boycott of Germany to fortify the Jewish presence in Palestine.

Baron described the book as "a well-written and diligently documented narrative"; however, he stated it indulged in dubious retrospective speculation and cast unfair aspersions on the motives of those who defended the WZO.

[6] Historian Richard S. Levy in Commentary wrote, "[Black] relies on outmoded secondary works, makes numerous errors, and distorts his subject [...] Black’s neglect of the secondary scholarly literature is perverse and leads him to his most serious error of judgment—drastic overestimation of the political and economic efficacy of the boycott weapon."