Quotes from Erik Larson

Roosevelt understood that the political costs of any public condemnation of Nazi persecution or any obvious effort to ease the entry of Jews into America were likely to be immense, because American political discourse had framed the Jewish problem as an immigration problem.

Hardly anyone thought that the threats against the Jews were meant seriously," wrote Carl Zuckmayer, a Jewish writer. "Even many Jews considered the savage anti-Semitic rantings of the Nazis merely a propaganda device, a line the Nazis would drop as soon as they won governmental power and were entrusted with public responsibilities." Although

Americans coming to Germany will find themselves surrounded by influences of the Government and

My darling atheist," she recalled telling him, "why do you help me decorate a Christmas tree to celebrate the birth of Christ?" He laughed. "This isn't for Christians or for Christ, liebes Kind," he said, "only for pagans like you and me. Anyway, it is very beautiful.

Hindenburg—known widely as the Old Gentleman—remained the last counterbalance to Hitler's power and several days before Dodd's departure had made a public declaration of displeasure at Hitler's attempts to suppress the Protestant Church.

Elsewhere in the government, Dodd thought he detected a new and decidedly moderate bent, at least by comparison to Hitler, Göring, and Goebbels, whom he described as "adolescents in the great game of international leadership." It was in the next tier down, the ministries, that he found cause for hope.

I felt like a child, ebullient and careless, the intoxication of the new regime working like wine in me.

had had enough of blood and terror to last me for the rest of my life.

A woman who may report on a neighbor for disloyalty and jeopardize his life, even cause his death, takes her big kindly-looking dog in the Tiergarten for a walk. She talks to him and coddles him as she sits on a bench and he attends to the requirements of nature.

He had become the living representation of how men liked to think of themselves: one man doing an awful duty and doing it well, against the odds.

Nor could one have imagined that such a terroristic performance as that of June 30 would have been permitted in modern times." Dodd continued to hope that the murders would so outrage the German public that the regime would fall, but as the days passed he saw no evidence of any such outpouring of anger. Even the army had stood by, despite the murder of two of its generals.

In his dispatches Messersmith reprised one theme again and again: how impossible it was for casual visitors to understand what was really happening in this new Germany. "The Americans coming to Germany will find themselves surrounded by influences of the Government and their time so taken up by pleasant entertainment, that they will have little opportunity to learn what the real situation is.

With that news her life had been abruptly, irrevocably altered. Come

Recalling his first impression of Hitler, Hanfstaengl wrote, "Hitler looked like a suburban hairdresser on his day off.

He told Hitler, "There is evident injustice in the French attitude; but defeat in war is always followed by injustice." He raised the example of the aftermath of the American Civil War and the North's "terrible" treatment of the South.

Dodd's main reason for wanting to see Dieckhoff was to express his dismay at having been made to seem naive by Goebbels's Jews-as-syphilis speech after all he had done to quiet Jewish protests in America.

Whenever they come up against someone who will not stand for their arrogance, they climb down from their perch and behave," she wrote. "They respect character when they meet it, and if more people had shown firmness to Hitler's handyman Papen and his acolytes in small every day contacts, as well as in big affairs of state, the Nazi growth could have been slowed up.

Its 300 stokers, trimmers, and firemen, working 100 per shift, would shovel 1,000 tons of coal a day into its 192 furnaces to heat its 25 boilers and generate enough superheated steam to spin the immense turbines of its engines.

that German leaders were inevitably leading these docile and kindly masses into another war against their will and their knowledge.

In part, he knew, this happiness was fostered by German law, which forbade cruelty to animals and punished violators with prison, and here Dodd found deepest irony. "At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of expecting.

the Kodak being a new kind of portable camera that eliminated the need for lens and shutter adjustments.

Contrary to the predictions of many students of international problems, I feel fairly certain that we shall not have war in the near future.

As the opposite of death is life, I think I shall get seduced by Rupert tomorrow. . . Well, that's done and I'm glad it's over! If that's really all there is to it I'd rather have a good smoke or go to the pictures.

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