#hitlerland

[mavenmemnon]

I’m gonna read to take my mind after current events

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:(((

:(((((

[dafnap]

During the visit to the camp, the Nazi officer in charge put on a show of friendliness for the visiting correspondents—and made a special point of singling out Mowrer. “You know, Herr Mowrer, we were very angry at you at one moment,” he said, implying that this was no longer the case. “We even thought of sending a detachment of SA lads to beat you into reason. What would you have done about that?” “If there had been anything left of me, I suppose I should have staggered to a typewriter and written what I thought about it,” the American replied. The Nazi wanted to know what he would have thought exactly. Mowrer promptly told him: “That it was a typical Nazi victory.” “And what do you imply by that?” the Nazi persisted. “Fifteen armed men against one unarmed man,” Mowrer noted, bringing their exchange to an end. --- Mowrer finally agreed to leave on September 1, with Lilian and their daughter staying behind for a short while to pack up. Before Edgar’s departure, his British and American fellow correspondents presented him with a silver rose bowl inscribed to a “gallant fighter for the liberty of the Press.” And as he prepared to board a train for Paris from the Bahnhof Zoo, Messersmith rushed over from a dinner party to give him an embrace. Others were at the train station in a more official capacity, making sure that the correspondent who had been such an irritant really departed. Shortly before his departure, a young German official sardonically asked him: “And when are you coming back to Germany, Herr Mowrer?” “Why, when I can come back with two million of my countrymen,” the correspondent replied. It took a moment for the official to absorb the import of his statement: Mowrer was envisaging a day when American soldiers would march into a defeated Germany. “Aber nein. Impossible,” the official protested loudly. Mowrer didn’t let that pass; he wasn’t about to leave Germany without having the last word. “Not for the Führer,” he said. “The Führer can bring anything about... even that.”

Excerpt from HITLERLAND by Andrew Nagorski

[booksijustread]

HITLERLAND

I'm not a huge non fiction reader but as soon as I heard a brief description of Hitlerland, by Andrew Nagorski, I knew I wanted to read it.  Nagorski's Hitlerland is a well-researched, engagingly written, and fascinating portrait of Americans living in Nazi Germany.  You can read an adapted excerpt here, and indeed, the excerpt is about one of my favorite people from the fascinating cast of characters that makes up this book.  I say characters because even though every person is real, and everything they did is real and documented, the people are singularly interesting and one of a kind. 

Martha Dodd, for example, was the daughter of William Dodd, the United States Ambassador to Germany.  She became a Soviet spy and was known for the many relationships she had with various men during her time in Germany.  Martha is just one of many people profiled in Hiterland, all of whom have an interesting progression in their opinions on Nazi Germany, and display real humanism in their behavior while living through and in one of the most interesting times and places in the 20th century.