Jan Valtin: Out Of The Night/Ur nattens djup

Jan Valtin´s real name was Richard Krebs, 1905-1951. Sometimes his book has been marketed as a novel, and sometimes (like the 1941 edition) as an autobiography. To this day his book is highly controversial. ”Out Of the Night” contains an incredible amount of accurate information. Names, dates, tasks. Also it is a both deeply shocking and at times highly amusing book. I, Dennis Renfors, get more fascinated and horrified for each reading. According to several of Valtin´s/Krebs´s biographers/critics, some claims in the book are exaggerated, or fantasies. Still remains, his pageturner of a book reflects the brutal time of politics inside and outside the Weimar Republic, a political climate also recently reflected in the great TV epic ”Babylon Berlin”.     
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The life of best-seller writer Valtin/Krebs has been described by among others Ernst von Waldenfels with his book "Der Spion, der aus Deutschland kam", Karin Ney, Michael Rohrwasser, Dieter Nelles, Erik Nørgaard, Lars Borgersrud, Holger Weiss, John V. Fleming and Constance Margain.

OUT OF THE NIGHT

By Jan Valtin

New York, 1940

BOOK ONE

THEY CALLED IT DAWN

I.               ”LUMPENHUND”

II.             SAILOR´S WAY

III.           I STRIKE OUT

IV.            SMUGGLING FOR THE COMINTERN

V.              ”DID YOU EVER KILL A MAN?”

VI.            SCAPEGOATS ON THE BARRICADES

VII.          RED VAGABONDAGE

VIII.        PASSAGE TO CONSPIRACY

IX.            I ATTACK THE PACIFIC

X.              THE ROAD TO LENINGRAD

XI.            COURIER TO THE ORIENT

XII.          FROM SHANGHAI TO SAN QUENTIN

BOOK TWO

THE DANCE OF DARKNESS

XIII.        NEW WEAPONS

XIV.        THE INFALLIBLES

XV.          FIRELEI

XVI.        FIRELEI MAKES HER DECISION

XVII.      BETWEEN THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL

XVIII.    SOVIET SKIPPER

XIX.        IMPOTENT AND OMNIPOTENT

XX.          THE MAN HUNTERS

XXI.        STALIN OVER THE SEVEN SEAS

XXII.      INSPECTOR-GENERAL FOR ENGLAND

XXIII.    HOW WE ENGINEERED MUTINIES

XXIV.     THE SWASTIKA CASTS ITS SHADOW

XXV.       SCANDINAVIAN INTERLUDE

BOOK THREE

THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES

XXVI.     STORM SIGNALS

XXVII.   IN THE HURRICANE

XXVIII.  DEAD MEN ON FURLOUGH

XXIX.     IN THE LANDS OF TWILIGHT

XXX.       WEST OF THE RHINE

XXXI.     ”DEATH IS EASY”

XXXII.   CAPTURED

XXXIII. THE GESTAPO QUESTIONS ME

XXXIV.  HELL

XXXV.   I SIGN A CONFESSION

XXXVI.  OF COMRADES AND THE HEADSMAN

XXXVII.     MAN-CAGE MAGIC

XXXVIII.   MY BATTLE FOR ”MEIN KAMPF”

XXXIX.  DARK DUEL

XL.           I JOIN THE GESTAPO

XLI.         FREEMAN ON A LEASH

XLII.       ABDUCTED

XLIII.     FLIGHT

WHO´S WHO (Not included in original 1940 edition. Added to 1941 edition.)

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COMMENTS 2019

”Out Of The Night” exists in: 

1) the longer original 1940 version, 
2) the abridged 1941 version, on which also all translations are based and 
3) in even more abridged/censored versions, like the UK 1941 version, the Swedish 1942 version ("Ur nattens djup") and the German 1957 version ("Tagebuch der Hölle").

 
Comments can be posted to: dennisskargard@yahoo.se