ASPECTED,RETIRED BUSINESSMAN IN WINNIPEG, well liked by his neighbors, is shattered

when he receives mysterious photographs

in the maii, photos of him as a young man in his

SS uniform.

The Special Prosecutions Unit in Ottawa is

dedicated to investigating and indicting Nazi

war criminals in Canada. However. they never

manage to successfully prosecute a single one.

Dozens of lawyers, historians, policemen, and

clerks amass hundreds of files on suspects,

most of whom inconveniently die. Increasing-

ly demoralized by the prospect of the inevitable

closing of the unit. many-at the SPU begin to

look forward to the prospect of prosecuting

criminals who are not wheelchair bound. Dens

nis Connor. a historian, is eventually left as the

last employee of the SPU, charged with the clos-

ing of all the files.

But one file he cannot give up. The crimes

Friedrich Reile committed with an SS unit on

the eastern front are so terrible that Connor

cannot close the file and forget them. And so

with no legal recourse, Connor begins to send

anonymous letters to Reile.

The letters and photos bring back memo-

ries, and Reile tells his story of how an ordinary

seventeen-year-old boy gradually turns into a

war criminal, a mass murder.But Retie, for

all his monstrous crimes, is not a monster.Just

as Connor who wishes to be a crusading knight

inshiningarmor, is, infact, a cynical bureaucrat

leading a joyless life. By showing the human

aspect Of both these men, Peter brings a

new, deeper element into what could have been