Destitution

Destitution by Jim Jackal

The war is over and Hitler is dead, leaving behind a country that has been totally devastated. There is no organisation in place to provide the basic necessities of food and shelter and the Allies are struggling to cope with the chaotic circumstances.

Dieter Barth, a young German officer, is captured by the British and survives the detention camp but is accused of being ex-Gestapo and is taken to Bad Nenndorf, the British interrogation centre. He manages to escape but is recaptured by James Jagger, a captain in the Military Provost Branch who is trying to stop the burgeoning black market in Hamburg. James enlists Dieter's help, promising in return to help him find his missing wife.

Arriving from England, Colin Forsyth-Patterson has just left school and joined the Control Commission. He is accompanied by Bill Thornton, a former policeman who is only interested in become wealthy, quickly establishing a network, supported by two American officers, dealing in the black market. When Bill is asked by the Americans to take a large shipment to Lubeck, the psychopathic leader of the largest vice and black market group in Hamburg, Cyrek Rutkowski, establishes that it is stolen gold bullion and sets out to get it.

With an infant son, Brigitte has managed to survive the war and now has to survive the peace. Realising her body is her only asset, she accepts the degradation she suffers in return for cigarettes, the only currency of the black market. She can only hope her husband, last reported fighting on the Eastern Front, will return.

Set in the chaos and confusion surrounding the end of the war, can James and Dieter stop the bullion leaving the country, can Brigitte keep her child alive, can Dieter find his wife?

Thrown together by chance, each person has to decide what motivates them - survival, love, greed, loyalty, honesty, hate - only the strongest will survive...

Destitution graphically portrays the worst and the best of human nature, of people coming to terms in a country totally devastated by war - many of the incidents portrayed actually happened...