Erik Larson - In the Garden of Beasts

Fifteen minutes later, the group was still eating and having a grand time, which caused the Nazi to return and demand that they leave at once.

The seated man calmly gave the Nazi his card, which identified him as “François-Poncet, Ambassadeur de France.” Ullstein, 287–88.

5 On Thursday, May 24, Dodd walked: Dodd, Diary , 101–2.

1 One of the most important moments in her education: My account of Martha’s day at Carwitz is based on the following sources: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 83–85; Martha Dodd, unpublished memoir, 2–3, Box 13, Martha Dodd Papers; Hans Fallada to Martha Dodd, June 8, 1934, and June 18, 1934, Box 5, Martha Dodd Papers; Williams, xvii, 126, 142, 150, 152–55, 176–78, 185–88, 194, 209; Schueler, 14, 66; Brysac, 148–50; Metcalfe, 193–95. Also see Turner, “Fallada,” throughout.

After this episode, Martha and Fallada had a brief exchange of letters. She sent him a short story of hers. He sent her a photograph, one of many he had taken that day at Carwitz—“unfortunately the only picture I took which turned out nicely.” Of her story, he wrote, “I wish that you will soon find the necessary quiet time and inner peace to work intensively—it’s worthwhile, I can tell from this little example.” Martha in turn sent along a collection of Boris’s photographs, and told Fallada she hoped one day to visit him again, which seemed to come as a relief to Fallada—“so,” he wrote back, “you did enjoy yourselves.”

She never returned to Carwitz. As the years advanced, she heard little of Fallada or his work, and believed “he must have surrendered completely both his craft and his dignity.” Fallada to Martha, June 8 and June 18, 1934, Box 5, Martha Dodd Papers; Martha Dodd, unpublished memoir, 2, Box 13, Martha Dodd Papers.

2 his pseudonym, Hans Fallada: Ditzen built his pseudonym from the names of two characters from Grimm’s Fairy Tales , Hans, from “Lucky Hans,” and Fallada from “The Goose Girl,” in which a horse named Falada (spelled with one l in the fable) proves able to detect truth even after being beheaded. Williams, xi.

3 “inner emigration”: Ritchie, 112.

4 “It may be superstitious belief”: Ibid., 115.

5 “By the spring of 1934,” she wrote: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 131–33.

6 “The prospect of a cessation”: Dodd to Hull, June 18, 1934 (No. 935), State/Foreign.

7 In May, he reported, the Nazi Party: Ibid.

8 Germany’s Aryan population: Dodd to Hull, June 18, 1934 (No. 932), State/Foreign.

9 “Germany looks dry for the first time”: Dodd, Diary , 105.

10 “the great heat”: Moffat, Diary, May 20, 1934.

1 “tense and electric”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 134.

2 The change was obvious: Gallo, 122.

1 Sunday, June 10, 1934: My account of this creepily charming episode is derived from the following sources: Cerruti, 178–80; Dodd, Diary , 108–9; Phipps, 56–58. I also examined Göring’s own portfolio of photographs of Carinhall, Lot 3810, in the photographic archives of the Library of Congress.

2 “rather attached to her”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 220.

1 The names of two former chancellors: Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis , 315–17.

2 “Everywhere I go men talk of resistance”: Dodd to Hull, June 16, 1934, Box 44, W. E. Dodd Papers.

3 “The speech took months of preparation”: Evans, Power , 29–30; Jones, 167–73; Gallo, 137–40; Kershaw, Hubris , 509–10, 744 n. 57; Shirer, Rise , 218–19.

4 “I am told,” he began: For text, see Noakes and Pridham, 209–10; and Papen, 307. Also see Jones, 172; Gallo, 139–40; Kershaw, Hubris , 509. In his memoir, published in 1953, Papen states, “I prepared my speech with great care….” This claim has been widely discounted. Papen, 307.

5 “The thunder of applause”: Gallo, 141.

6 “It is difficult to describe the joy”: Wheeler-Bennett, Titan , 459.

7 “All these little dwarfs”: Gallo, 143–44; Shirer, Rise , 219. Also see Kershaw, Hubris , 510.

8 “If they should at any time”: Kershaw, Hubris , 510.

9 “were snatched from the hands of the guests”: Dodd to Hull, June 26, 1934, State/Foreign. For other details of the government’s reaction, see Evans, Power , 29–30; Jones, 172–74; Kershaw, Hubris , 510–11; Shirer, Rise , 218; Wheeler-Bennett, Titan , 460, and Nemesis , 319.

10 “There was something in the sultry air”: Gisevius, 128.

11 Someone threw a hand-grenade fuse: Ibid., 129.

12 “There was so much whispering”: Ibid., 129.

13 “Everywhere uncertainty, ferment”: Klemperer, Witness , 71. Klemperer looked to the weather to fuel his hopes that Hitler would be deposed. He wrote in his diary, “ ‘Beautiful weather’ = heat + lack of rain, abnormal lack of rain, such as has been causing havoc for three months now. A weapon against Hitler!” Witness , 72.

14 “There is now great excitement”: Dodd, Diary , 114; Dodd, Memorandum, June 18, 1934, Box 59, W. E. Dodd Papers.

15 “I spoke at Marburg”: Gallo, 152.

16 He promised to remove the propaganda: Evans, Power , 30; Kershaw, Hubris , 510.

17 “It was with cold calculation”: Gisevius, 131.

18 The next day, June 21, 1934: Evans, Power , 30; Kershaw, Hubris , 510–11; Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis , 320.

19 “who after the Marburg speech”: Dodd, Diary , 114.

20 “The week closes quietly”: Ibid., 115.

1 “He was entirely calm and fatalistic”: Wheeler-Bennett, Titan , 462.

2 “Woe to him who breaks faith”: Wheaton, 443.

3 On the medicine chest: Jones, 173.

4 “beautiful Rhineland summer day”: Diels, 419.

1 “During the last five days”: Dodd, Diary , 115–16.

2 “the situation was much as it was in Paris”: Ibid., 116.

3 “by the example of his magnetism”: Martha Dodd, “Bright Journey into Darkness,” 18, 21, Box 14, Martha Dodd Papers.

4 Under Stalin, peasants had been forced: Riasanovsky, 551, 556. A personal note here: While I was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, I took two wonderful courses from Riasanovsky’s brother, Alexander, who on one noteworthy evening taught me and my roommates how to drink vodka Russian-style. It was his delightful lecture style, however, that had the greater influence, and drove me to spend most of my time at Penn studying Russian history, literature, and language.

5 Tour No. 9, the Volga-Caucasus-Crimea tour: “Detailed Schedule of Tour No. 9 for Miss Martha Dodd,” Box 62, W. E. Dodd Papers.

6 “Martha!” he wrote, indulging his passion: Boris to Martha, June 7, 1934, Box 10, Martha Dodd Papers.

7 “I never plotted the overthrow”: Martha to Agnes Knickerbocker, July 16, 1969, Box 13, Martha Dodd Papers.

8 “It was the hottest day”: Cerruti, 153.

9 “seemed self-confident”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 140.

10 “You and Dr. Goebbels”: Dodd, Diary , 116.

11 “She sat by my father”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 141.

12 “Mr. Ambassador, something terrible”: Ibid., 141.

13 She found this astonishing: Cerruti, 153, 157.