In the Garden of Beasts (53 page)

15
“trembled from head to foot”: Memorandum, Sept. 14, 1933, Box 59, W. E. Dodd Papers.

16
“the saddest story of Jewish persecution”: Dodd,
Diary
, 17.

17
“He wished to know the possibilities”: Ibid., 17.

18
“You know the quota is already full”: Dodd to Isador Lubin, Aug. 5, 1933, Box 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

19
“The Ambassador appears”: D. W. MacCormack to Isador Lubin, Aug. 23, 1935, Box 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

20
He left for England: Goran, 169, 171.

21
Zyklon B: Stern, 135.

22
“How I wish”: Stephen S. Wise to Dodd, July 28, 1933, Box 43, W. E. Dodd Papers.

23
Dodd “is being lied to”: Wise,
Personal Letters
, 223.

24
“the many sources of information”: Dodd to Stephen S. Wise, Aug. 1, 1933, Box 43, W. E. Dodd Papers.

25
“tell him the truth”: Wise,
Personal Letters
, 224.

26
“I might be recognized”: Wise,
Challenging Years
, 254.

27
“Briefly it may be said”: Messersmith to Hull, Aug. 24, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

28
“fundamentally, I believe”: Dodd to Roosevelt, Aug. 12, 1933, Box 42, W. E. Dodd Papers.

Chapter 10: Tiergartenstrasse 27a

1
Though he reviled: Dodd to William Phillips, Nov. 13, 1933, Box 42.

2
“Personally, I would rather”: Dodd to Sam D. McReynolds, Jan. 2, 1934, Box 42, W. E. Dodd Papers.

3
The Dodds found many properties: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 32.

4
“We have one of the best residences”: Dodd to Roosevelt, Aug. 12, 1933, Box 42, W. E. Dodd Papers.

5
Trees and gardens: In the course of my research I had the pleasure of interviewing Gianna Sommi Panofsky, the daughter-in-law of the Dodds’ landlord, who provided me with detailed plans for the house and photocopies of several photographs of its exterior. Sadly, she died before I completed this book.

6
“twice the size of an average New York apartment”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 33–34.

7
“entirely done in gold”: Ibid., 34.

8
“We are convinced”: Dodd to Mrs. Alfred Panofsky, undated letter, provided by Gianna Sommi Panofsky.

9
“I love going there”: Fromm, 215.

10
“second home”: Ferdinand, 253.

11
“When the servants were out of sight”: Ibid., 253.

12
“If you don’t try to be more careful”: Ibid., 253.

13
“We love each other”: Martha to Thornton Wilder, Sept. 25, 1933, Wilder Papers.

14
“short, blond, obsequious”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 147.

15
“Now the hegira begins”: Carl Sandburg to Martha, n.d., Box 63, W. E. Dodd Papers.

16
They traveled first by car: Dodd,
Diary
, 22–23; Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 27;
   Reynolds, 118.

PART III: LUCIFER IN THE GARDEN

Chapter 11: Strange Beings

1
“an American citizen of a fine type”: Messersmith to Hull, Aug. 19, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

2
“very young, very energetic”: Messersmith to Hull, Aug. 25, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

3
“confessions of regret”: Dodd,
Diary
, 26–27.

4
“The excitement of the people”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 28.
   Details of the episode described on this and following pages may be found mainly in Martha’s memoir, pages 27–32, and in Quentin Reynolds’s memoir, pages 118–21.
   Martha’s account varies a bit from that of Reynolds. She claimed Reynolds agreed to write the story upon his return to Berlin, rather than cable it directly from Nuremberg, and that he would leave her and Bill out of the account. Reynolds, in a later memoir, reported that he did omit reference to the Dodds, but wrote the story while still in Nuremberg and filed it by mail rather than by cable. Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 29; Reynolds, 120.

5
“a short, squat, shaven-headed bully”: Kershaw,
Hubris
, 179.

6
Goebbels smiled: One problem with the Nazis’ adulation of Aryan perfection was that none of the regime’s most senior leaders fit the tall, blond, blue-eyed model. Hitler, when not ranting, looked to be a rather prosaic type, a middle manager of middle age with a strange mustache that evoked the American comic actor Charlie Chaplin. Göring was hugely overweight, and increasingly given to odd quirks of narcissistic display, such as painting his nails and changing his uniform several times a day. Himmler looked like a practitioner of the field in which he had been employed before being anointed by Hitler: chicken farming.
   Goebbels’s appearance posed the greatest challenge, however. He was a shrunken figure with a crippled foot whose looks bore a startling resemblance to the grotesquely distorted caricatures that appeared regularly in Nazi hate literature. A bit of doggerel discreetly made the rounds in Berlin: “Dear God, make me blind / That I may Goebbels Aryan find.” Gallo, 29.

7
“The youth are bright faced”: Martha to Thornton Wilder, Dec. 14, 1933, Wilder Papers.
   Many people held similar views, at least early on. I was struck in particular by the observations of Marsden Hartley, an American painter living in Berlin, who on Dec. 28, 1933, wrote, “It takes one’s breath really to see the young here all marching and marching of course as usual. One gets the feeling Germany is always marching—but O such health and vigor and physical rightness they possess.” Hartley, 11.

8
“I received a non-committal reply”: Dodd,
Diary
, 26.

9
“very pleasantly unconventional”: Ibid., 25.

Chapter 12: Brutus

1
“It was all over”: Dodd,
Diary
, 30–31.

2
“really doing wrong”: This quote and other details of the Kaltenborn episode come from Messersmith, “Attack on Kaltenborn,” unpublished memoir, Messersmith Papers; Kaltenborn’s correspondence in his archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society; and Kaltenborn’s memoir,
Fifty Fabulous Years
.

3
“This is no more to be expected”: Kaltenborn Papers.

4
“otherwise tried to prevent unfriendly demonstrations”: Dodd,
Diary
, 36.

5
“I was trying to find excuses”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 36.

6
“I felt there was something noble:” Ibid., 36–37.

7
“and that the press reports”: Ibid., 37.

8
“And when are you coming back”: Mowrer,
Triumph
, 226.

9
“And you too, Brutus”: Messersmith, “Some observations on my relations with the press,” unpublished memoir, 22, Messersmith Papers.

10
Mowrer “was for a time”: Dodd to Walter Lichtenstein, Oct. 26, 1933, Box 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

11
“His experiences, however”: Ibid.

12
“Nowhere have I had such lovely friends”: Reynolds,
Journalist’s Wife
, 309.

13
“The protokoll arbiters”: Dodd to Hull, Oct. 19, 1933, Box 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

14
“So today the show began”: Dodd,
Diary
, 33.

15
“Well, if at the last minute”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 236.

16
“You people in the Diplomatic Corps”: Dodd to Hull, Feb. 17, 1934 (unsent), Box 44, W. E. Dodd Papers.

17
“We simply cannot stand the pace”: Ibid.

18
“Infectious and delightful”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 233.

19
“one of the few men”: Ibid., 233.

20
An extraordinary newspaper photograph: A copy of this image can be found in Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, opposite page 118.

21
“certainly looked flirtatious”: Schultz, “Sigrid Schultz Transcript-Part I,” 10, Box 2, Schultz Papers.

22
“you felt you could be in the same room”: Schultz, Catalogue of Memoirs, transcript fragment, Box 2, Schultz Papers.

23
“I was always rather favorably impressed”: Reminiscences of John Campbell White, Oral History Collection, Columbia University, 87–88.

24
“three times the size”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 221.

25
“To illustrate,” he wrote: Dodd to Hull, Oct. 19, 1933, Box 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

26
“But,” he vowed: Ibid.

27
The embassy’s cupboard: Berlin Embassy Post Report (Revision), p. 10, 124.62/162, State/Decimal.

28
“We shall not use silver platters”: Dodd to Hull, Oct. 19, 1933, Box. 41, W. E. Dodd Papers.

29
“I can never adapt myself”: Dodd to Carl Sandburg, Nov. 21, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers.

30
“with attacks of headaches”: Dr. Wilbur E. Post to Dodd, Aug. 30, 1933, Box 42, W. E. Dodd Papers.

31
a
Sonderzug:
Metcalfe, 141.

32
Knight, Death and the Devil:
Burden, 68.

Chapter 13: My Dark Secret

1
“I suppose I practiced”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 41.

2
She had a brief affair with Putzi: Conradi, 122.

3
“like a butterfly”: Vanden Heuvel, 248.

4
“You are the only person”: Armand Berard to Martha, n.d., Box 4, Martha Dodd Papers.

5
“Of course I remember”: Max Delbrück to Martha, Nov. 15, 1978, Box 4, Martha Dodd Papers.

6
“I often felt like saying something”: Messersmith to Jay Pierrepont Moffat, June 13, 1934, Messersmith Papers.

7
“she had behaved so badly”: Messersmith, “Goering,” unpublished memoir, 5, Messersmith Papers.

8
“That was not a house”: Brysac, 157.

9
“created a nervousness”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 52.

10
“the most sinister, scar-torn face”: Ibid., 52.

11
“a cruel, broken beauty”: Ibid., 53.

12
“Involved affairs with women”: Gisevius, 39.

13
“I felt at ease”: Ludecke, 654–55.

14
“He took a vicious joy”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 52.

15
“remarkably small”: Gellately,
Gestapo
, 44–45.

16
“Most of them were neither crazed”: Ibid., 59.

17
“One can evade a danger”: Quoted in Gellately,
Gestapo
, 129.
   Even within the Gestapo there was fear, according to Hans Gisevius, author of the Gestapo memoir
To the Bitter End:
“For we were living in a den of murderers in which we did not even dare step ten or twenty feet across the hall to wash our hands without telephoning a colleague beforehand and informing him of our intention to embark on so perilous an expedition.” His boss advised him always to stay close to the wall and away from the banister when walking up a stairway, on the theory that this made it harder for an assassin above to get a clear shot. “Not for a moment was anyone’s life secure.” Gisevius, 50–51.