Erik Larson - In the Garden of Beasts

23 “inaccurate and overdrawn”: Messersmith, “Attack on Kaltenborn,” unpublished memoir, 2, Messersmith Papers.

24 “was a German by origin”: Ibid.

25 “to influence Americans coming to Germany”: Messersmith to Hull, Sept. 26, 1933, p. 1, Messersmith Papers.

26 He saw evidence of this: Ibid., 3.

27 “that if Americans in Germany”: Ibid., 3.

28 “The fact that Jews are permitted”: Ibid., 7–8.

29 “The Americans coming to Germany”: Ibid., 15.

1 She also became a regular: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 100.

2 “Everybody else in the restaurant”: Isherwood, Berlin Stories , 204.

3 “pretty, vivacious”: Shirer, Berlin Diary , 34.

4 In this new world: I was struck during my research by the extent to which my key protagonists saved the calling cards they received during their days in Berlin. Martha’s cards—scores of them—can be found in Box 1, file 2, of her papers at the Library of Congress. Armand Berard, her much-abused future lover, jotted on one of his cards, “Rang you up in vain / and came in vain.” A good friend of Martha’s, Elmina Rangabe, wrote, cryptically, “ ‘Be still, my soul, be still; the arms you bear are brittle,’” from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad . She crossed out Rangabe to indicate intimacy.

5 “If you have nothing more important to do”: Ibid.

6 “a lavish and fairly drunken affair”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 25.

7 “in a sensational manner”: Ibid., 25.

8 “supremely awkward-looking”: Dalley, 156.

9 “an instinctive dislike”: Messersmith, “Dr. Hanfstaengl,” unpublished memoir, 1, Messersmith Papers.

10 “He is totally insincere”: Messersmith to Jay Pierrepont Moffat, June 13, 1934, Messersmith Papers.

11 “went out of his way to be cordial”: Reynolds, 107.

12 “You had to know Putzi”: Ibid., 207.

13 At Harvard: Hanfstaengl, 27, 32; Conradi, 20.

14 One story held that Hanfstaengl: Conradi, 21.

15 “Uncle Dolf”: Ibid., 46.

Egon Hanfstaengl told the Sunday Telegraph of London (Feb. 27, 2005) that Hitler made an excellent playmate. “I loved him. He was the most imaginative playmate a child could wish for. My favourite game with him was trains. He would go on his hands and knees, and pretend to be a tunnel or a viaduct. I was the steam engine going on the track underneath him. He would then do all the noises of the steam train.”

16 “so blatantly proclaiming his charm”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 26.

17 “of almost frightening dimensions”: Fromm, 90.

18 “He had a soft, ingratiating manner”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 25–26.

19 “He could exhaust anyone”: Ibid., 26

20 “He was a modest little southern history professor”: Hanfstaengl, 214.

21 “Papa” Dodd: Conradi, 121.

22 “The best thing about Dodd”: Hanfstaengl, 214.

1 One of his foremost sources: Mowrer, Triumph , 218.

2 Putzi Hanfstaengl tried to undermine: Ibid., 219.

3 “I was inclined to think him Jewish”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 39.

4 “To no purpose”: Mowrer, Triumph , 224.

5 “almost as vehement”: Dodd, Diary , 24.

6 Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels felt compelled: Messersmith, “Some observations on my relations with the press,” unpublished memoir, 20, Messersmith Papers.

7 “people’s righteous indignation”: Mowrer, Triumph , 225–26.

8 “one of the most difficult conversations”: Messersmith, “Some observations on my relations with the press,” unpublished memoir, 21, Messersmith Papers.

9 “If you were not being moved”: Mowrer, Journalist’s Wife , 308.

10 “never quite forgave my father”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 39.

11 “perhaps the foremost chemist”: Dodd, Diary , 17.

12 C × t = k: See “Fritz Haber,” JewishVirtualLibrary.org.

13 On a personal level: Stern, 121. Also see “Fritz Haber,” NobelPrize.org.

14 “In this profound dejection”: Ibid., 53.

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.

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.

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.