Pete has a new book review

A Review of Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts

By Pete Schulte

In the year 1933 a US Ambassador was needed, but interest in the esteemed position was scant. For the position was US Ambassador to Germany, Nazi Germany. William E. Dodd wasn’t anyone’s first choice for the job, probably not even second or third. But somebody had to do it, and Dodd did study for a time in Germany and knew the language. Ambassadors in those days were usually men of wealth and extravagance. Dodd had neither of these attributes. He had a teaching background and was thrifty nearly to a fault. His American cohorts didn’t particularly care for him, and the Germans weren’t too impressed either. By all accounts, one would think Dodd was exactly the wrong person for the job. But there was a strength Dodd possessed that cannot be disputed. He had a vast historical knowledge, and based on this knowledge he knew that something had gone very wrong in Germany, and it was just going to get worse. Would anyone listen?

In contrast to Dodd’s reserve and thrift was his daughter, Martha, who came with the family to Germany. Martha was up for any party and dated a Gestapo officer, a Russian agent, as well as a variety of writers, bankers, diplomats, etc…She even had her hand kissed by Hitler himself.

Martha, dizzy from all the attention and excitement, took a long while to understand the gravity and seriousness of what the Nazis intended to do. But as ambassador, Dodd was hearing about people imprisoned without a trial ‘for their own protection,’ Jews being mistreated and subject to cruel new laws, and even visiting Americans being pummeled for not using the Nazi salute.

In those dark days, Americans were in the midst of the great Depression and had little interest in what was going on overseas. The government, too, had more interest in Germany repaying its debt than hearing about ‘isolated instances’ concerning the disappearances of Jews, Communists, or other perceived enemies of the state. The book’s author, Erik Larson, does an incredible job of bringing these ominous and dangerous pre-war times to life. You may not like Dodd after reading this, and likely not Martha either. But any shortcomings they had pale in comparison to the dark Nazi hearts In the Garden of Beasts.