He spent the entire war in the north; from Arkhangelsk he often flew to Murmansk or Kandalaksha, living in the Arctic for months on end, traveling to the front, visiting forward positions, and spending time on the warships of the Northern Fleet.

From his novels and short stories his son Aleksei German made the films Proverka na dorogakh (Trial on the road, or road check, from the novel Operatsiya "S Novym godom")[1] and Moi drug Ivan Lapshin (My Friend Ivan Lapshin), and Semyon Aranovich made the film Torpedonostsy (Torpedo bombers).

Richard Stites writes:His best-known work, Ivan Lapshin (1937), was a police novel in a provincial setting whose main theme was the integration of criminals into society through order and labor.

The novel incorporates a vision of collectivity (the policemen live in a commune), rationalism, culture, and social tranquility unperturbed by the black discord of crime.

All of this is captured, with a twist, in the brilliant film version, My Friend, Ivan Lapshin made by the author's son, Alexei German in the 1980s.