Former Popular Actress’ Adventure Inside Nazi Germany

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20186, 2 March 1940, Page 14

Former Popular Actress’ Adventure Inside Nazi Germany

TN “Escape,” an extraordinarily inA teresting and well-written novel, Ethel Vance tells the story of a woman condemned to death by the Nazis ostensibly for defying the ex-, change laws, but actually for having! been the medium, apparently in all innocence, for the distribution of important secret information about Nazi affairs to American Communists. Emmy Ritter has lived in’America for 20 years. She had been a very popular actress, but is now middleaged and no longer able to command high salaries. Her daughter, aged 19, is a mannequin; she is also tubercular. Mark, her son, is in his early twenties, struggling to establish himself as an artist. "He inherits talent from Emmy’s father, a famous German portrait painter, but is, as yet, only on the fringe of success. Although Emmy Ritter has not returned to Germany since her children were born, she has brought them up in the traditions of the Fatherland, and they both speak the German language fluently. She has also consented to help a German anti-Nazi propagandist with the handling of certain pamphlets in America. Finding herself in financial difficulties, Emmy Ritter decides to return to Germany to sell some property still held in her name, and to bank the money in New York. She has seen an advert'rrmcnt to ‘he effect that a certain agent is willing to handle just such a transaction. Little realising that the advertisement is a cleverlylaid trap, she seeks out the agent, is seized, tried, secretly, and condemned to immediate execution. A ruptured appendix delays the carrying out of the sentence. The operation is performed by a certain Dr. Ditten, and she is transferred from prison to a concentration camp. Poignant Hospital Scenes In order to allow the other protagonists in the drama to appear and establish their identities, the author is obliged to mark time at this point. But there is no sense of inaction or pause. The scenes in the hospital are poignant and absorbing. Emmy’s discussions with the young doctor, her sympathetic attitude towards her room mate, Anna, a political prisoner rapidly dying of consumption, and her clashes with the insufferable Hermann, the nurse, are full of interest. Meantime, we meet, Emmy’s son, Mark, who has come over to find her. We witness his rebuff when he discovers her plight and tries to engage a barrister to defend her. Dr. Ditten becomes familiar and suggests heroic possibilities. The Countess is introduced—a charming, splendidly portrayed personality—and the General, the Countess’s lover, looms darkly on the horizon. The Countess, an American woman who has married a German and lived in Germany for many years, is a peculiarly attractive character. Widowed early, she determined to return to America, but found it impossible to remain there because of her attachment to Kurt—the General. She has a town house and a chateau in the mountains. With these resources she has established a successful finishing school for a few carefully selected American society girls. She knows Emmy Ritter by repute and had met Mark on a recent visit to New York. Dr. Ditten is an old friend. The Countess. Having been recently wounded by the suicide of a desperate young man, not unlike Mark, she is extremely moved by his plight when she hears his story. Her affair with the General, a member of the Nazi group, is, almost imperceptibly, nearing its end. Her emotions are in that peculiarly sensitive condition which makes them vulnerable. Mark is attractive and his obvious immaturity arouses her womanly sympathy. All this is suggested, but the exigencies of the plot, forbid any development of their mutual attraction. The Countess has a difficult part to play. . If she is to help Mark in his attempt to rescue his mother from execution, she must maintain her lover-like attitude towards the General—at all costs his suspicions must be kept dormant. Her position is complicated by the fact that Kurt suffers from high blood pressure and must be carefully humoured. The working out of her emotional development and reactions is excellently handled. No woman will hesitate to praise her generosity and sympathise with her incredible difficulties. Her bevy of girls forms an attractive background and provides material for some very welcome light comedy. After the Concentration Camp Emmy Ritter, after her dramatic days in the concentration camp, melts into the texture of the story. She becomes the pivot around which the action revolves, but her personality is established, her fate declared —it remains for others to carry it to a climax. Fritz, the faithful servant, plays an important role. He is, by his own statement, an opportunist. Nevertheless, he is loyal to his mistress who has been obliged to forfeit his service's. He is, also, cunning and resourceful, and one feels that the more sensitive Mark would have been quite unable to conceive and execute an effective plan for rescue without his help. The atmosphere of tension main•ained throughout this novel is only equalled by its emotional quality. Those terrible problems that must inevitably beSet the woman whose heart is doomed to rule her head are handled with a skill and insight that argues considerable worldly experience on the part of the author. “Ethel Vance,” we suspect, is a nom dc plume. “Escape” is surely not a first novel!