The story is really just a long version of the metaphor of a frog sitting in boiling water. How do you cook frog soup? Well, if you put a live frog directly into a pot of boiling water, it will spring out. However, if you put the frog into a pot of warm water and then slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will be cooked. This is exactly what happened in early days of the Third Reich.
You see the story shows how millions of people can be seduced into following a disastrous course of events. Even with clear warnings, people followed an implausible regime to eventual destruction and looked the other way while horrible acts were committed on a specific few.
As Larson writes in the prelude, this story isn't about heroism. There are no intricate plots nor elaborate storyline. It simply tells the tale of an American family living in 1930's Berlin witnessing the creeping fanaticism of Nazism. However part of what makes this interesting is that this was the family of one William Edward Dodd, US ambassador to Hitler's Germany from June 1933 to December 1937. Dodd wasn't the typical ambassador. Prior to being appointed he was Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He had studied as a graduate student in Leipzig and had moderate knowledge of German culture and language. Unlike the archetypal foreign service officer, he bore moderate means and had a frugal, "Jeffersonian" approach to life. Roosevelt had identified several more natural choices for ambassador but each demurred for one reason or another and Dodd was chosen for the post. With his wife and two grown children, Dodd boarded a steamship for simmering Germany. The date was June 10th, 1933.
Larson tells of a Germany that is very different than what it will become throughout the course of the year. Streets are full of vibrant life. Parks are open and verdant, and people are excited about a Germany that is recovering from a terrible defeat in the Great War and years of raging inflation.
At the time, Hitler's powers were checked. He served as Chancellor of Germany with limited authority. The president of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg, was Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and had much of the power in the country. Larson tells how Hitler and his regime of fanatics slowly assume power and spread a kind of martial law throughout the populace. The transformation of the state was dramatic yet gradual. Hitler's power was not absolute, but he used every opportunity to weaken the democracy and grab military control.
The story centers on Dodd bearing witness to an organized state receding towards autocracy. There were many signs of extreme oppression. First it started with imprisonment of communists and members of the Social Democratic Party in concentration camps. Next the government promulgated a campaign of "Coordination" that sought "to bring citizens, government ministries, universities, and cultural and social institutions in line with National Socialist (Nazi) beliefs and attitudes." This coordination started as neighbors informing on one another to the State Police (Gestapo) - frequently the result of "petty jealousies" and "human meanness".
Newly enacted laws forced ordinary citizens to salute at official processions and during the national and military anthems. Those that didn't were beaten or worse. In fact, much of Dodd's initial duties were registering official complaints on behalf of American citizens that were beaten!
Coordination also had more sinister aims. A key "Aryan clause" was put forth to ban Jews from holding government jobs, practicing medicine and law. Amazingly, Larson writes how Jews did not take these threats seriously - 90% stayed in Germany - even when a song popular with Nazi Storm Troopers was named "When Jewish Blood Spurts from My Knife!" Many believed the anti-Semitism was a populist strategy to gain further political power. Larson writes "On the surface, much of daily life remained as it had been before Hitler came to power. Nazi attacks on the Jews were like summer thunderstorms that came and went quickly..."
One thing that I didn't like about the story was Martha Dodd, the ambassador's 25-year old daughter. Much of her time in Germany was spent sleeping with one Nazi or another - all while she was still technically married. Larson spends countless pages discussing her ongoing relationship with a KGB agent named Boris. What is interesting and somewhat representative about Martha is her belief in the Nazi cause. Larson tells how she didn't believe the negative press about Nazism and believed that Hitler's policies were bringing a vibrancy and zeal to a beaten down land.
Also annoying were Larson's protracted discussions of Dodd's disagreements and conflict with the "pretty good club" at the US State Department. Many US State Department personnel in the foreign service came from privileged backgrounds and most disliked his modest ways and frugal approach to running the embassy. Larson tells how Roosevelt is really Dodd's only supporter and thus the reason why he lasts as long as he did. I believe Larson uses this and the Martha Dodd narrative to add some texture to the story but he spends too many pages on these plot lines.
Throughout the story we learn of more horrifying social programs introduced by the Nazi regime. One called the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring required sterilization of those with mental retardation or mental illnesses. Ultimately Hitler pushes through a law allowing euthanasia. While many foreign observers are appalled, the German people remain sanguine.
Larson also creates some suspense leading up to Hitler's purge of the government. Unsurprisingly, there was much backbiting and political posturing in the regime. Hitler had enemies - some significant - throughout the government. In one narrative, Larson describes how in a matter of hours martial law is established and political executions in the hundreds are carried out. Hitler's Operation Hummingbird (more commonly known as the Night of the Long Knives) consolidates his control and positions him to eventually take the Presidency once Hindenburg dies. Until then, many in Germany and abroad believed the Nazis were a temporary political phenomenon riding the public desire for Germany to rise as a nation. Larson tells how this event is the turning point for those (including Dodd) denying Hitler's control over the German people.
A key antagonist to Dodd is George Messersmith, Consul General. Messersmith was a thorn in Dodd's side for warning Washington of Hitler's true ambitions and his ability to achieve them. In one cable Messersmith writes, "I wish it were really possible to make our people at home understand how definitely this martial spirit is being developed in Germany. If this government remains in power for another year, and it carries on in the measure in this direction, it will go far toward making Germany a danger to world peace for years to come. With few exceptions, the men who are running the government are of a mentality that you and I cannot understand. Some of them are psychopathic cases and would ordinarily be receiving treatment somewhere." (Wikipedia)
Dodd is one of a few who sound alarm bells in Washington - though too guardedly. He continuously protests Nazi policies by not attending Nazi benefits and processions. In 1933 when Hitler leads Germany to leave the League of Nations and ultimately violates the Treaty of Versailles, other nations do not militarily intervene trying to avoid a conflict that was already upon them.
What sets the story and storytelling style apart is the feeling that things in Nazi Germany are placid even though evil lurks at every corner. Normal, peaceful people are faced with outrageous events and facts but choose to deny them with the belief that they are short-lived. Some revel in the jingoism, but most just go about their daily lives aware but in denial. It is implied that people's patriotism creates blinders to the genocidal policies that the Nazis implement. There were few who voiced opposition and raised alarms but they were immediately shunted to the fringe of society. They were the doddering reactionaries or conspiracy theorists. Unfortunately they were also right.
Reading the book, I found myself marveling at people's calm reactions to a violent and sadistic regime. But then I realize that it is ex-post that I have these feelings. What if I were standing with Dodd? Would I voice my outrage or just follow suit. And then I realize how such extreme events happen. People don't want to admit what they really fear is true. Faced with unbelievable but real events that contradict people's desires of well-being, most just go with the flow. History is littered with examples of ostriches and lemmings burying their heads in the sand and rushing to be at the front of the line leading off a steep cliff.
But is this story relevant today? It sets an extreme but real scenario which has been played out and objectively recorded in countless history books. For those who believe that history tends to repeat itself, Larson's story is a necessary read.
