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An account of contemporary espionage.

The most beautiful of man's instruments is said to be his own voice. This book draws together every facet of the art of singing, and shows the relationship between song and the art forms which have used it - particularly the opera. The author shows how the long established Bel Canto style of the Italians was challenged in the nineteenth century by the "singing actor" who introduced a greater psychological depth to his roles, and progresses to the work of Gustav Mahler at the Vienna Court Opera during 1897 through 1907, perhaps the high point of ensemble productions. This book orchestrates for the reader the operatic successes of the twenties and thirties, and finally the new generation of talented singers who revived worldwide interest in opera after the war.

Pages 163-242, "Die Juden in Tempelhof und ihre Verfolgung, " chronicles Nazi anti-Jewish measures, particularly in the Berlin quarter of Tempelhof. Includes brief biographies of many Tempelhof Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

The Columbia-Haus in Berlin was part of the SS system of concentration camps and operated in the same way. It held political prisoners, who were tortured and often murdered there. In 1936 they were transferred to the new camp at Sachsenhausen. Pp. 86-143 contain memoirs of prisoners, many of them Jews; these were treated even more brutally than the others. The Columbia-Haus, like Dachau, was a "school" for SS personnel who later ran other concentration camps.