Erik Larson: In the Garden of Beasts

14 “Temperature 101 and ½ in the shade today”: Moffat, Diary, June 29, 1934.

15 The three men undressed and climbed in: Ibid.

16 “Presumably the Ambassador has been complaining”: Phillips, Diary, June 15, 1934.

17 “well and in extremely high spirits”: Moffat, Diary, July 17, 1934.

1 That Friday evening, July 29, 1934: For this chapter I relied on the following sources: Birchall, 203; Evans, Power , 31–32; Gallo, 33, 38, 106; Kershaw, Hubris , 511–15. For a lengthy excerpt of Kempka’s account, see Noakes and Pridham, 212–14.

1 “strolled serenely through the streets”: Adlon, 207.

Hedda Adlon, wife of the Adlon’s proprietor, liked driving about town in her white Mercedes, and was said to keep twenty-eight Pekinese dogs. De Jonge, 132.

2 “It was a beautiful serene blue day”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 141.

3 “Röhm,” Hitler barked: Various and varying accounts of this episode appear in the literature. I relied on Kershaw, Hubris , 514; Noakes and Pridham, 213–14; and Strasser, 250.

4 “It is never safe to despise a telephone call”: Birchall, 193.

5 “dead tired—[could] weep”: Schultz, Daily Logs, July 5, 1934, Box 32, Schultz Papers.

6 One of the most alarming rumors: Birchall, 198.

7 At the Hotel Hanselbauer, Röhm got dressed: Noakes and Pridham, 213.

8 “You have been condemned to death”: Kershaw, Hubris , 514.

9 “As I followed Daluege”: Gisevius, 150.

10 He looked troubled: Dodd, Diary , 117.

1 “our heads giddy”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 142.

2 “to his great sorrow”: Office of Der Stabschef der S.-A. to Dodd, June 29, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers.

3 “In view of the uncertainty of the situation”: Dodd, Diary , 117.

4 A wooden leg: German Office of Foreign Affairs to Dodd, May 28, 1935, Box 47, W. E. Dodd Papers.

1 “unbearable tension”: Quoted in Gallo, 257.

2 “For weeks we have been watching”: Birchall, 205–7; Gallo, 257.

3 No one knew exactly how many people lost their lives: I constructed this paragraph and the one following from an array of sources: Hugh Corby Fox, Memorandum, July 2, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers; H. C. Flack, Confidential Memorandum, July 7, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers; Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis , 323; Gallo, 256, 258; Rürup, 53, 223; Kershaw, Hubris , 515; Evans, Power , 34–36; Strasser, 252, 263; Gisevius, 153; Birchall, 20; Metcalfe, 269.

4 One target, Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus: Gallo, 255; Martha offers a slightly different account in her memoir: Embassy Eyes , 155.

5 “To the king of Siam”: Adlon, 207–9.

6 poor Willi Schmid: Shirer, Rise , 224n. See also Birchall, 207; Evans, Power , 36; Kershaw, Hubris , 515.

7 Providently, he was in America: Casey, 340; Conradi, 143, 144, 148, 151, 157, 159, 163, 167–68; New York Times , July 1, 1934.

8 “against the background of a blood-red sky”: Gisevius, 160.

9 In a radio address propaganda chief Goebbels: Birchall, 205.

1 “It was a strange day”: Dodd, Diary , 117.

That Sunday, the Jewish newspaper Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung , still in operation—it would continue until 1937—published cautionary advice for its readers, urging them, according to one historian’s account, “to show more reserve, tact and dignity and to behave impeccably in public places so as not to offend.”

That Sunday afternoon, Hitler held a tea party at his chancellery for members of his cabinet, various ministers, and their families. Children were invited. Hitler at one point walked to a window overlooking the street. A crowd gathered below roared its approval.

The ever-present Hans Gisevius was there as well. Hitler spotted him and raised his hand in greeting. Gisevius wrote, “It occurred to me that if he could read my innermost thoughts, he would have me shot.” Dippel, 150; Gallo, 269; Kershaw, Hubris , 516; Gisevius quoted in Gallo, 270.

2 They drove past the entrance very slowly: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 142–43.

3 The story, pieced together later: Evans, Power , 33; Kershaw, Hubris , 176, 516.

4 Accounts vary: Evans, Power , 33; Kershaw, Hubris , 516; Gallo, 270; Shirer, Rise , 221; Noakes and Pridham, 215.

After Röhm’s murder, Hitler claimed that the SA chief’s homosexual practices had come as a complete surprise to him. A new joke promptly made the rounds in Berlin: “What will he do when he finally finds out about Goebbels’s club foot?”

Another joke began circulating at about the same time: “It is only now that we can realize the full significance of Röhm’s recent address to Nazi youth, ‘Out of every Hitler Youth, a Storm Trooper will Emerge.’” Grunberger, 332, 335.

5 As a reward: Wheaton, 452.

6 “The Führer with soldierly decision”: Noakes and Pridham, 216; see slightly different version in Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis , 325.

7 “Lebst du noch?”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 151.

1 “The diplomats seemed jittery”: Fromm, 171–72. Fromm claimed that after the purge she briefly took to carrying a revolver, but then threw it into a canal. Dippel, 150.

2 Dodd and his wife stood at the entrance: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 157.

3 “Der junge Herr von Papen”: Ibid., 158.

4 “a certain fine beauty”: Ibid., 157.

5 “The sight of these clothes”: Cerruti, 157.

6 “to bring her my heartiest greetings”: Wilhelm Regendanz to Mrs. Dodd, July 3, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers.

7 “When she spoke of her son”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 163–65.

8 “Arrived safe and sound”: Ibid., 165.

9 “We have replied to them”: Moffat, Diary, July 5, 1934.

10 “quite exciting”: Moffat, Diary, July 17, 1934.

11 “this would be extremely difficult”: Dodd to Hull, July 6, 1934, State/Foreign.

12 “By his own showing”: Moffat, Diary, July 7–8, 1934.

13 Hull angrily ordered Moffat: Ibid.

14 “with the utmost vigor”: Hull to Dodd, July 7, 1934, State/Foreign.

15 “It was a fairly stiff telegram”: Moffat, Diary, July 7–8, 1934.

16 “Ambassador Dud”: Moffat, Diary, July 5, 1934.

17 “The Secretary kept repeating”: Moffat, Diary, July 11, 1934.

18 “the entire State Department”: Ibid.

19 “Our people will have to lose their bonds”: Dodd to Hull, Aug. 2, 1934, vol. 37, Reel 11, Hull Papers.

20 “an interesting trip”: Dodd, Embassy Eyes , 170.

21 A photographer captured her looking jaunty: Ibid., opposite 198.

22 “I had had enough of blood and terror”: Ibid., 169.

23 “I could not have imagined the outbreak against the Jews”: Dodd to Daniel C. Roper, Aug. 14, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers.

24 “From the reports placed before me”: Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis , 325–26.

25 “energetic and successful proceeding”: Ibid., 326n1.

26 “it was a relief that he did not appear.”: Dodd, Diary , 121.

27 “My task here is to work for peace”: Ibid., 123.

28 He vowed never to host: Ibid., 126.