Hitlers Diplomat CL

As Hitler's foreign minister, Ribbentrop played an important role in the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis and the Russo-German nonaggression pact of 1939. Captured by British troops at war's end, he was tried at Nuremberg and hanged for his roles in the deportation of Jews and in planning the attack on Poland. Weitz ( Friends in High Places ) describes how Ribbentrop became a wealthy wine merchant after WW I, a successful social climber in Berlin and an early member of the Nazi Party. His motive for joining remains baffling, however. Weitz's canvas is excessively broad: information that bandleader Harry James hired a young singer named Frank Sinatra in 1939 is typical of the irrelevancies included in this biography. One would have wished for more Life and less Times. Photos. (Aug.)