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

· Sold by Crown
4.2
156 reviews
Ebook
464
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
    A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
    Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Ratings and reviews

4.2
156 reviews
A Google user
October 4, 2011
It is a compelling book covering a brief period of time from the early 1930’s to 1937-38. It highlights the ascent to power of one of the most diabolical minds of modern time and explains how and why he was able to assume the “throne” in Germany and attempt to annihilate the population of the world that was not purely Aryan. It was during this time, over a period of just over four years, that William Dodd served the government of FDR and moved to Berlin as the United States Ambassador to Germany. He was 64 years old and really wanted to remain in America, retire and complete his memoir, “Old South”, but he felt he owed it to his family and his country to accept. Living in Germany, with his wife, Martha, and two children, an adult son and daughter, both namesakes of their parents, William and Martha Dodd, he tried to warn FDR and the diplomatic staff about what he believed was coming down the pike, but was thwarted at every turn. He lived a humble life, not born with a silver spoon as most diplomats were and was the object of their scorn and ridicule; his attempts to warn the government about the horrors in Germany, were often undermined by the others in the diplomatic corps. His brief sojourn pretty much sucked the life from this well-meaning, but ill-equipped, sincere representative of the government. His prescient remarks, often laughed at, proved to have been correct, and if heeded, might have altered the turn of events and prevented the genocide that occurred as Hitler attempted to rule the world. It is mind boggling when one thinks about the hero-worship often displayed for Roosevelt, when his judgment at that time was so clouded because of an atmosphere of isolationists and anti-Semites, which he tolerated and often agreed with, throughout his administration and government offices. His decisions were probably partly responsible for the failure to stop the horror that followed Hitler’s rise and the ensuing devastation in Europe. From the prologue, the author had me. I had assumed the history of Hitler’s Nazi Germany might be a bit dry, but not so, this book is liquid, fluid, hot lava…igniting my thoughts and my interest. I think the writing style and organization will be less important, in the end, than the information and message delivered, however, both are superb. The book takes place predominantly through the period of 1933-1934, although it does extend in the last few dozen pages into 1937-8 very briefly. Realizing that the book was pulled together, partly from the diaries left by Dodd, I thought that one must mourn the loss of the written word and the demise of the handwritten letters and diaries men of influence used to leave behind, to document their lives and momentous events. Digitized records just do not convey the emotion or passion of the actual original records. Holding a flash drive will never be the same as holding an actual page with the person’s handwriting scrawled across it. Wiliam Dodd was a mild mannered academic and gentleman who was asked by FDR, to be Ambassador to Germany in 1933, almost as a last resort, because no one else would accept the position in a country many believed was undergoing a radical change, with increasing violence, under the leadership of the new Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. Already, in that early part of the decade of the thirties, the evil and brutality of Hitler and his thugs was well known but kept hidden for political and diplomatic purposes. The leaders of the free world would soon rue their decisions not to challenge him when they had the opportunity. The “information highway” was not developed then. Technology had not advanced to where it is today. Dodd was naïve and largely unaware of the daunting task before him, as he set sail on July 5, 1933. He did know, however, that anti-Semitism was commonplace and acceptable in many places in our country, as well as abroad; his instructions were basically to do what he could to alleviate the brutality against them but not to interfere in the overall German policies toward Jews. Many believed, in
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A Google user
March 10, 2012
I am a 60 year old Canadian. When a teen I wondered how Nazi Germany was possible. I knew Germans and they were like me. I arrived at the conclusion that we are all surrounded by potential Nazis, and therefore I was a potential Nazi. It was chilling, but nothing else made sense to me. I have mentioned it to people from time to time over the years if the topic came up, and I don't recall anyone agreeing. They could not see it. Erik Larson explains it perfectly, and it is chilling. Humanity in detail and context led by very few to act out its darkest. I don't see how Larson could have done better with this topic with the source material. I am so pleased he wrote it.
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A Google user
August 30, 2011
Larson provides an interesting glimpse of the Third Reich's power-brokers as well as their impact on Berlin's social life; however, the mundane minutia employed to provide the picture becomes tiresome. The reader's aware of the eventual effect and outcome; therefore, the overall impression becomes marred. J.P. Miller. Cambridge, MA
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About the author

ERIK LARSON is the author of the national bestsellers Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm. ErikLarsonBooks.com

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