The Spoils Raked from the Cinders

During the WWII, Anton Gleichner – employed to decommission valuables from Jewish citizens in France – realizes early on that Germany will lose the war. He sees an opportunity to steal a fortune and start a new life in South America. Against the background of the greatest war looting in history, the story follows Gleichner’s desperate and often violent attempts to flee Europe for South America, where he is counting on a new identity and the treasure he has stolen to secure a new, comfortable life.

His often violent escape route takes the reader across France, Spain and Portugal where his most primitive instincts barely manage to keep him alive. To his great relief, he eventually reaches Buenos Aires. It doesn’t take long, however, before he discovers that the migration of fleeing Nazi officers into Argentina imperils his own situation.