Why was March dissatisfied with life in the Third Reich?

The theme of betrayal is an important one throughout the novel with March the victim of several betrayals both personal and professional. As the story progresses, the intrigue builds and the author puts March in several compromising situations where his life is in danger. As one avenue of support for March the author positions Artur Nebe as an apparent safe place but in the end, Nebe has only used March as an alternate means to obtain the documents he wants and then lets March be tortured and killed. Max Jaeger who is March's partner also betrays March by informing on March's activities throughout the course of the investigation. Max is conflicted about his actions but it is more important for Max to follow SS orders and maintain his job than to take the heroic but fatal path of March's character. It is Max who tells the SS about March's imminent connection with Luther and not Nightingale as March first thought. The most painful betrayal comes from March's son, Pili, whose early indoctrination into Gestapo principles allows the boy to give up his father to the Gestapo police. Ironically, the only true person March encounters is Charlie but that relationship is ill fated because Charlie escapes to Switzerland and March is killed.

The underlying theme in the book is anti-Semitism which means prejudice or hostile behavior toward Jewish people. The central purpose of the book is the Nazi attempt to thwart the release of incriminating documents linking them to the annihilation of thousands of Jewish people during World War II. March's character is thrust into the middle of the secret mission but he has questioned the fate of Jews after finding a folded photograph of a Jewish family hidden behind wallpaper in his Berlin apartment. While March has always wondered about the family's fate, it is not safe or permitted to ask questions about the subject. Ultimately March discovers documents showing an invitation and the agenda and resulting strategies of the Wannsee Conference which was held in January of 1942 near Berlin. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the final solution of the disposition of the Jewish people according to Adolf Hitler's wishes. March ultimately discovers papers outlining the operations of the Nazi concentration camps and minutes before he dies, digs up faded bricks that prove the reality of the death camps.