Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 1/27/2021 + 1176 more book reviews

This was a very interesting study of a slice of life in Nazi Germany shortly after Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Larson tells the story of William Dodd and his family during the time Dodd was Ambassador to Germany from August 1933 to December 1937.


Dodd was an unlikely choice for ambassador and was down the line in preference by President Roosevelt. He was a historian at the University of Chicago who thought he was destined for greater things. He and his family including his wife and two grown children moved to Berlin to assume the job of ambassador. Dodd pressed for American interests while letting it be known that he did not think much of the blustering Nazis even though he seemed to have been somewhat blind to the intensity of anti-Semitism and was casually anti-Semitic himself. He witnessed the forces of Hitler's newly installed regime that included casual beatings of Americans for trivial offences such as not giving the Nazi salute when an SS parade passed by. As time progressed, Dodd became more and more anti-Nazi and warned his superiors of the atrocities to come but was mostly ignored by them.

The book also told the story of Dodd's daughter, Martha, who became involved with several Nazi officers and fell in love with a Russian diplomat who was part of the KGB. The Russians actually tried to get Martha to be a spy for them but this ultimately came to naught.

I have read many accounts of Nazi Germany but this part of their early history was pretty much new to me. The story of the Dodds and how they interacted with Hitler and his gang of thugs made for interesting reading. I have read a few other works by Larson and have some others on my shelf waiting to be read that I hope to get to sometime soon.

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