In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

by Erik Larson

  Above all, I thank my loyal early readers Carrie Dolan and her husband, Ryan Russell; my daughters, Kristen, Lauren, and Erin; and, as always, my wife and secret weapon, Christine Gleason, whose margin notes—complete with crying faces and trailing lines of zzzzzzz’s—once again proved indispensable. Thanks to my daughters also for their increasingly astute critiques of my manner of dress. I owe a huge debt to Betty Prashker, my editor of nearly two decades, and to John Glusman, whose deft hand guided this book to publication. Thanks also to Domenica Alioto for taking on tasks she should not have to take on, and Jacob Bronstein, who so ably straddles the boundary between Web and world. An extra huzzah to Penny Simon for her friendship and expertise at getting me to do things I don’t want to do; to Tina Constable for her confidence; and to David Black, my longtime agent, wine adviser, and great friend. Finally, a long, long hug to Molly, our lovely, sweet dog, who succumbed to liver cancer at the age of ten as my work on this book neared its end. In her last weeks, however, she did manage to catch a rabbit, something she had sought unsuccessfully to do for years. We miss her every day.

  WHEN I WAS IN BERLIN a strange thing happened, one of those odd little moments of space-time congruity that always seem to occur when I’m most deeply immersed in researching a book. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton near the Tiergarten, not because it was a Ritz but because it was a brand-new Ritz offering rooms at compellingly low come-hither rates. That the month was February helped also. On my first morning, too jet-lagged to do anything terribly ambitious, I set out for a walk and headed for the Tiergarten, with the vague idea that I’d walk until I found the Dodds’ address, unless I froze to death first. It was an icy, blustery morning, marked by the occasional appearance of flecks of snow falling at oblique angles. As I walked, I came upon a particularly interesting bit of architectural preservation—a large portion of the facade of an old bullet-pocked building standing behind a giant wall of glass. A bridgelike deck spanned the top of this facade and supported several stories of modern luxury apartments. Out of random curiosity, I walked to an informational plaque that identified the facade. It belonged to the Hotel Esplanade, where the Dodds stayed when they first arrived in Berlin. Here as well, also behind glass, was an inside wall of the Esplanade’s breakfast room restored to original condition. It was strange to see these architectural artifacts lodged behind glass, like giant, immobile fish, but also revelatory. For an instant I could see Dodd and Martha setting off to begin their days, Dodd heading north at a brisk clip to the Tiergarten for his walk to the embassy offices on Bendlerstrasse, Martha rushing south to meet Rudolf Diels at the old art school on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse before a quiet lunch in some discreet locale.

  The following notes are by no means exhaustive. I have been careful always to credit material quoted from other works and to annotate those facts and observations that for one reason or another cry out for attribution, such as Ian Kershaw’s revelation—Hubris, page 485—that one of Hitler’s favorite movies was King Kong. As always, for those readers who like reading footnotes—and there are many of you—I have included little stories and facts that did not fit the main narrative but that struck me as too interesting or compelling to omit. For this indulgence, forgive me.

  NOTES

  The Man Behind the Curtain

  1 It was common: For details of the Schachno case, see “Conversation with Goering,” unpublished memoir, 5–6; and Messersmith to Hull, July 11, 1933, and July 18, 1933, all in Messersmith Papers. See also cumulative report on assaults against Americans in Phillips to Roosevelt, Aug. 23, 1933, file no. 362.1113 /4 1 /2, State/Decimal.

  2 “From the neck down”: Messersmith, “Conversation with Goering,” unpublished memoir, 6, Messersmith Papers.

  3 “From the shoulder blades”: Messersmith to Hull, July 11, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

  4 “I wish it were”: Messersmith to Phillips, June 26, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

  5 Inauguration Day in 1933: The Twentieth Amendment, passed in 1933, moved the inauguration date from March 4 to the now familiar January 20, a measure to reduce the amount of time that an outgoing president would be a lame duck.

  6 Incredibly, the new ambassador: For more detail than you’ll ever need about the shipping of Dodd’s car, see Howard Fyfe to Harry A. Havens, July 8, 1933; Herbert C. Hengstler to Dodd, July 10, 1933; and Paul T. Culbertson to Dodd, June 19, 1933, all in Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  PART I: INTO THE WOOD

  Chapter 1: Means of Escape

  1 The telephone call: Dodd, Diary, 3.

  2 Dodd also owned: “Farming Implements” and Survey, Box 59, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  3 “The fruit is so beautiful”: William E. Dodd to Martha Dodd, Oct. 15, 1926, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  4 “sudden surprise”: Dodd to Westmoreland Davis, June 22, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  5 he pleaded for heat: Dodd to Lester S. Ries, Oct. 31, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  6 “embarrassing”: Dodd to Charles E. Merriam, Aug. 27, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  7 “hard men”: Bailey, 6.

  8 “Monk Dodd”: Dallek, 6.

  9 Other students indulged: Ibid., 9.

  10 “How helpless”: “Brief Note,” 6, Box 58, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  11 “There was too much”: Ibid., 7.

  12 at Randolph-Macon: Bailey, 35–36; Dallek, 31–32.

  13 In October 1912: Dallek, 70; Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, March 26, 1930, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  In this letter to his wife, composed one fine night while on his farm, Dodd wrote, “I am sitting by the dining room table in work-a-day clothes, the old-red sweater and the easy-slippers—a great oak log on the fire and a bed of hot coals three inches deep, all surrounded by white ashes. The old andirons (‘firedogs’ of my boyhood parlance) lean their solid black heads back in contented contemplation of their efficient service—the old red-brick fireplace as dignified as George Washington and the eighteenth century, when men had time to be dignified.”

  14 Dodd also discovered: Bailey, 97–99; Dallek, 88–89.

  15 More and more he considered: Dodd to William Dodd, Jr., Dec. 9, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  16 “These are posts”: Ibid.

  17 “As to high diplomacy”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, March 25, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  18 Hull was tall and silver haired: Messersmith, “Cordell Hull and my personal relationships with him,” 7, unpublished memoir, Messersmith Papers.

  Messersmith writes, “When I heard this strong language from this saintly looking man and who was in so many ways a saint, I almost fell through the floor from surprise.” See also Graebner, 193; Weil, 76–77, 87; and, of course, Hull’s own Memoirs.

  One of Hull’s memorable aphorisms, directed at Hitler and his allies as war loomed, was this: “When you’re in a pissin’ contest with a skunk, make sure you got plenty of piss.” Weil, 77.

  19 “After considerable study”: Dodd, pocket diary, March 2, 1933, Box 58, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  Chapter 2: That Vacancy in Berlin

  1 No one wanted the job: Noakes and Pridham, 180; Rürup, 84–86; Wheaton, 428; Ladd, 123; Evans, Power, 11; Stackelberg and Winkle, 132; Wise, Servant, 177.

  2 “It is not only because”: Roosevelt, Personal Letters, 337–38.

  3 Cox said no.: Ibid., 338.

  4 Roosevelt set the matter aside: Dallek, 187–89; Flynn, 148.

  5 “You know, Jimmy”: Warburg, 124.

  6 “ROOSEVELT TRIMS PROGRAM”: New York Times, June 8, 1933.

  7 Thus, he now found himself: Dallek, 187.

  8 On Wednesday, June 7: Ibid., 189.

  9 Polls showed: Herzstein, 77.

  10 Secretary Roper believed: Roper, 335.

  11 “I want to know”: Dodd, Diary, 3.

  12 Roosevelt gave him two hours: Ibid., 3.

  13 His wife, Mattie, understood: Mrs. Dodd to William Dodd Jr., April 19, 1933, Box 1, Martha Dodd Papers.

  14 “There is no place”: Dodd to M
rs. Dodd, March 25, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  15 Even had he been present: Messersmith, “Cordell Hull and My Personal Relationships,” 17, unpublished memoir, Messersmith Papers.

  Messersmith wrote, “As Secretary of State he should have had really the deciding voice in determining who occupied the principal as well as the secondary posts of chief of mission.” Instead, Messersmith wrote, Hull abdicated and gave Roosevelt a free pass. “Some of us always felt that some of the more unfortunate appointments which were made during the time that Mr. Hull was Secretary could have been avoided if Mr. Hull had directly intervened in the matter.”

  16 “get out of bounds”: Hull, Memoirs, 182.

  17 “Telephone Book Dodd”: Flynn, 148. See also Martha Dodd to Flynn, Oct. 17, 1947; New York Times, Nov. 2, 1947; and New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 9, 1947, all in Box 13, Martha Dodd Papers.

  18 “My dear child”: Dodd to Martha, Dec. 16, 1928, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  Chapter 3: The Choice

  1 “William is a fine teacher”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, April 20, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  2 “It would never do”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd and Martha Dodd, April 13, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  3 Her very first word: “Baby Book,” 1908–c. 1916, Box 1, Martha Dodd Papers.

  4 In April 1930: Chicago Daily Tribune, April 25, 1930.

  5 “I want nothing from life”: W. L. River to Martha Dodd, c. 1927, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  6 “kisses soft”: James Burnham to Martha Dodd, n.d., Box 4, Martha Dodd Papers.

  7 “His face is smooth-shaven.”: Cincinnati Times-Star, n.d., but likely Jan. 13, 1932, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  8 “It was pain and sweetness”: Martha to Bassett, Feb. 19, 1976, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  9 “What fun it was”: Bassett to Martha, Sept. 19, 1931, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  I love these letters in large part because they are so full of Jimmy Stewartesque prose. In this letter Bassett deploys the greeting “Honeybuncha mia.” His first line reads, “I had the swellest love letter from you this morning.” And I, personally, had the swellest time reading all these letters. To quote Bassett again, “Yes, you bet, I have.”

  10 “Never before or since”: Martha to Bassett, Nov. 1 (“more or less,” she writes), 1971, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  11 “Either you love me”: Bassett to Martha, Feb. 21, 1932, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  By this point, things are getting a little tense. Bassett begins this letter with a more sober “Martha dearest.” The “honeybuncha-mia” days are gone.

  Three days later (Bassett to Martha, Feb. 24, 1932) he tried again: “Surely you cannot feel bound to go on and marry some one you do not love, merely because of a mistaken promise, when we both know how deeply, irrevocably, we are bound to each other.”

  He began this letter with the greeting: “Dearest of women.” For a return address, he wrote: “The Bank.”

  Honestly, we men can be so tone deaf.

  12 “I desperately loved”: Martha to Bassett, Feb. 19, 1976, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  13 It was bad enough: Ibid.

  14 “show some nervousness”: Ibid.

  15 She acknowledged later: Martha to Bassett, Nov. 1, 1976, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  16 “That was IT for me”: Ibid.

  17 “flirting”: Ibid.

  18 “I love you past telling”: Carl Sandburg to Martha, n.d., Box 63, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  19 “I was busy”: Martha to Bassett, Nov. 1, 1971, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers. The greeting on this letter is “My dear Ex.”

  20 “Do you know really”: Martha to Bassett, Feb. 19, 1976, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.

  21 “I had to choose”: Ibid.

  Chapter 4: Dread

  1 Roosevelt, smiling and cheerful: Dodd, Diary, 4–5.

  2 “But our people are entitled”: Ibid., 5.

  3 For Roosevelt, this was treacherous ground: Breitman and Kraut, 18, 92; Wise, Servant, 180; Chernow, 388; Urofsky, 271.

  4 Even America’s Jews: Urofsky, 256; Wise, Challenging Years, 238–39; Wise, Servant, 226.

  5 “If he refuse [sic] to see me”: Wise, Personal Letters, 221.

  6 On the other side: Chernow, 372–73; Leo Wormser to Dodd, Oct. 30, 1933, Box 43, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  7 As Ron Chernow wrote: Chernow, 373.

  8 In early June 1933: Quoted in Breitman and Kraut, 227.

  9 a Fortune poll: Ibid., 230.

  10 Within the Roosevelt administration: Ibid., 12–15.

  11 “my little Jewish friend”: Phillips, Diary, April 20, 1935.

  12 “The place is infested with Jews”: Phillips, Diary, Aug. 10, 1936; Breitman and Kraut, 36–37.

  Breitman and Kraut are rather direct in their description of Phillips. They write on page 36: “Phillips hated Jews.”

  13 “kikes”: Gellman, 37.

  14 “They are filthy Un-American”: Breitman and Kraut, 32.

  15 “dust, smoke, dirt, Jews”: Gellman, 37.

  16 “In all our day’s journey”: Carr, Diary, Feb. 22, 1934, Carr Papers.

  17 “How different from the Jewish atmosphere”: Ibid., Feb. 23, 1934.

  18 “an anti-Semite and a trickster”: Breitman and Kraut, 36.

  19 “likely to become a public charge”: Wilbur Carr offers a detailed, bloodless discussion of the “LPC clause” and other immigration rules in his memorandum “The Problem of Aliens Seeking Relief from Persecution in Germany,” dated April 20, 1933, Carr Papers.

  20 “It seems quite preposterous”: Wolff, 89.

  21 Jewish activists charged: Breitman and Kraut, 15.

  22 “an almost insuperable obstacle”: Proskauer to Phillips, July 18, 1933, vol. 17, p. 35, Archives of the Holocaust.

  23 “The consul,” Phillips replied: Phillips to Proskauer, Aug. 5, 1933, vol. 17, p. 40, Archives of the Holocaust.

  The exchange of letters between Phillips and Proskauer, pages 32–46, makes compelling reading, for both what is said and what is not said. On the one side, deploying statistics and dispassionate prose, is Phillips, who, as we have seen, disliked Jews. On the other was Proskauer, a judge, whose careful prose seems clearly to be masking a scream of anguish.

  24 One result, according to Proskauer: Dippel, 114; Proskauer to Phillips, July 18, 1933, vol. 17, p. 36, Archives of the Holocaust.

  Proskauer tells Phillips, “The well-known fact that only a negligible number of U.S. quota visas have been issued in recent years, and are believed to be likely to be issued, other than to relatives of U.S. citizens, has prevented applications being made by German Jews, believed in advance to be futile.…”

  25 It was an argument: Breitman and Kraut, 14.

  26 “The German authorities”: Dodd, Diary, 5.

  27 Dodd insisted: Ibid.

  28 “You are quite right”: Ibid.

  29 Here at the State Department: Dallek, 191; Stiller, 33, 36–37; Kershaw, Hubris, 473–74.

  30 “Forty-Page George”: Stiller, 5.

  Jay Pierrepont Moffat, Western European affairs chief, left the following entry in his diary for Oct. 6 and 7, 1934: “Saturday afternoon being cold and rainy, I was sitting home reading through Messersmith’s four last personal letters (that does not sound like an afternoon’s job but it took nearly two hours).…”

  31 “has probably ever existed”: Messersmith to Hull, May 12, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

  32 “Responsibility has already changed”: Ibid., 15. See also Messersmith to Hull, June 19, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

  In his June 19 dispatch, Messersmith wrote, “The primary leaders have under the sobering influence of responsibility become steadily more moderate in practically all of their views and have in many ways endeavored to translate this moderation into action.”

  33 “I have tried to point out”: Messersmith to Phillips, June 26, 1933, Messersmith Papers.

  34 “Pleasing, interesting person”: Diary, June 15, 1933, Carr Papers.
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  35 distaste for Jews: Weil, 41.

  36 “He is extremely sure of his opinion”: Moffat, Diary, June 15, 1933.

  37 Undersecretary Phillips grew up: Phillips, “Reminiscences,” 3, 50, 65, 66, 99; Phillips, Ventures, 4, 5, 183.

  In “Reminiscences,” the transcription of an oral history interview, Phillips (on pages 2–3) stated, “The Boston that I grew up in was limited to friends who lived on the Hill and in the Back Bay district. The community was self-centered—we lived surrounded by cousins, uncles and aunts and there was no incentive to discuss national or world affairs.… I must say it was a very pleasant place in which to grow up, but it was a very easy and indulgent life. We saw no signs of poverty.… We were in fact on a sort of island of well-being.…”

  38 “They have all felt that they belonged”: Weil, 47.

  39 “I am sorry”: Dodd to John D. Dodd, June 12, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  40 “this great honor from D.C.”: John D. Dodd to Dodd, June 15, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.

  41 “A rather sorrowful day”: Dodd, Diary, 8.

  42 Dodd feared: Dallek, 194; Floyd Blair to Jay Pierrepont Moffat, June 28, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.

  43 A letter from a prominent Jewish relief activist: George Gordon Battle to Dodd, July 1, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers. See also telegram, Battle to Dodd, July 1, 1933, Box 40.

  44 “There was much talk”: Dodd, Diary, 9.

  45 “For an hour and a half”: Ibid.

  46 During this meeting: Chernow, 374–75, 388.

  47 “I insisted that the government”: Dodd, Diary, 9.

  48 The news was humbling.: Ibid., 10.

  49 “the Jews should not be allowed to dominate”: Ibid., 10.

  50 “The Jews, after winning the war”: Crane to Dodd, June 14, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.