Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19

Prichard's deep voice and narrow vocal range fits this genre well. But this very quality causes him to stumble through some of Malkin's more awkward sentences, especially those with multiple parenthetical phrases. Despite the minor limitations of writer and reader, the book offers a well-researched and fascinating piece of WWII history. Bernhard Krueger is put in charge of a Nazi plot to sabotage the Allies' economies by counterfeiting and dumping millions of British pounds on the international market. He assembles more than 140 mostly Jewish prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp; in their home countries they were artists, printers, metal plate makers or expert counterfeiters. The prisoners tried to sabotage their counterfeiting work, but finally produced a near-perfect product that was spread throughout Europe and had a profound effect on the British economy. Britain still tries to hide this aspect of its monetary history. Krueger's men had just begun work on American currency when the war ended. For anyone interested in WWII, the Holocaust or simply a good story, this is a little-known history well worth a listen. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 21).