"Spark of Life" is a grim, agonizing but terribly wonderful story of what happened to the political and religious nonconformists in Hitler's Germany. It concerns itself with the horrible reality of a concentration camp as it was in 1945, but the six years that have intervened are not strong enough to dilute the importance of his theme. Remarque is crying angrily, "Watch out or this may again come to pass. Be on guard against those who would curb your liberties, for this is the inevitable result."

"Spark of Life" is a book which is hard to read; it is a book that once begun is impossible to put down. Once you know the tragic remnants of humanity who, too weak to work, are segregated to die in what was known as The Small Camp (at Mellern), you find it impossible to desert them….

His meticulous research (he spent five...