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Variations on the Beast is indeed a variation. The book affords the reader a believable perspective on a historical period by means of a psychologically sophisticated account of the life-course of this novel's protagonist.
Uncountable times I have heard a discussion of the question “How was it possible for a cultivated, cultured people to sink to the depth of supporting Nazism and participating in their heinous crimes?” The standard answers refer to the nation's anguish over having lost the First World War, their humiliation over the Treaty of Versailles, their despair over the subsequent economic depression and monetary inflation. It is said that, traditionally raised in an authoritarian manner and taught to obey, the people welcomed a strong leader to guide them out of their morass. Moreover, they sought a scapegoat to blame for their misfortunes. Buttressed by centuries of both Lutheran and Roman Catholic teachings about the perfidy of the Jews, reinforced by propaganda and caricatures, the citizens easily found their target.
But that is not the entire story. The literature abounds with accounts of how, despite the prevailing conditions, the religiously committed who recognized the Hebrew origins of Christianity and Jesus as a Jew became rescuers. Humanists found strength to resist the Nazis. In some instances, enduring personal, sometimes intimate, relationships between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans assured mutual loyalty despite great risks: paying with one's very life; or a mother, protecting a “love-child” sired by a Jewish father, prostituting herself to a Nazi officer.
The focus of Variations on the Beast is neither sociopolitical nor economic, nor theological. Rather, the unfolding of one individual's character becomes the paradigm that begins to answer the question “How was it possible …?” The psychological factors that emerge from the protagonist's behavior, his conscious and unconscious motivations, show how a person can be propelled into the maelstrom of