#635 in Biographies
Reddit mentions of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Sentiment score: 2
Reddit mentions: 4
We found 4 Reddit mentions of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. Here are the top ones.
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Features:
Specs:
| Color | Black |
| Height | 9.53 Inches |
| Length | 6.53 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Release date | May 2011 |
| Weight | 1.55 Pounds |
| Width | 1.58 Inches |
That incident is much better described in In the Garden of the Beasts or in Martha's own memoirs.
According to In the Garden of the Beasts, which focuses entirely on the Dodd family when Marth's father was an ill-equiped Ambassador to Germany in the 1930s, Martha Dodd was shocked by the scene of poor Ana Rath, but even that wasn't enough for her to truly change her mind - she had been having too good a time enjoying the fun and bright side of Nazi society in Berlin, even occasionally interceding on behalf of her romantic connections from the party (including the head of the Gestapo Rudolf Diels and Hitler's friend and aide Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl) with her father, the US Ambassador. It was only when things got a lot worse in Berlin itself, especially following the Night of the Long Knives, that she lost faith. Until then she was willing to believe that Germany was on the right track, and that such incidents were aberrations.
She ultimately ended the romantic and physical side of things with most of her lovers in favor of Boris Vinogradov, a Soviet diplomat and spy, a serious relationship that ended only when he had to return to the USRR (and was himself imprisoned and executed, although Martha did not know that for a long time - he was forced to send her a positive letter from prison to prevent her from becoming disillusioned with the USSR). While with Boris, she began spying on her father and the US Embassy for the Soviet Union. Martha and Boris were engaged, but when he returned to Russia (and was imprisoned, although she didn't know it at the time), she returned to the US and married a millionaire. She ultimately convinced her husband to help spy on the US too, until they were discovered years later and the two fled to the country, ending up in Prague.
TL;DR The article misses a lot about the actual incident, there already are at least two published accounts that do it better. The victim, Ana Rath, sounds like a brave and principled woman in love, but Martha Dodd appears less deserving of favorable coverage, or even of coverage suggesting that she was "properly" affected by the scene. She appears more to have been a woman uninterested in politics on her own, but more interested in and swayed by her personal love affairs to such a degree that she supported first Nazi interests when influencing her father, the US Ambassador to Germany during a sensitive time, and then spied on him and his embassy for the Soviets.
I happen to be a military historian specializing in the 20th century, so it's difficult to take your attempts at "educating" me on the topic as anything other than an insult.
There's little point in getting into what is so biased about your approach: you equate the Tory immigration policy (which is virtually identical to that of the Liberals before them) with eugenics carried out by the Nazis. Obviously you are the one who needs to educate yourself on the actual situation in Nazi Germany.
I suggest reading "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson if you're interested in giving yourself a rudimentary education on the subject.
http://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Beasts-Terror-American-Hitlers/dp/0307408841
But somehow, I get the feeling you'd prefer to remain ignorant so that you can compare the Nazis to whoever you currently disagree with politically, that must be much more convenient. You wouldn't want things like facts clouding your conscience, no doubt.
Check out [In the Garden of Beasts] (http://www.amazon.com/In-Garden-Beasts-American-Hitlers/dp/0307408841/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1374099854&sr=8-1) by Erik Larsen. It is non-fiction but reads very much like a novel. It is super fascinating.
I recently listened to the Axis of Time series, which is speculative fiction about a near-future fleet being transported back to just before the Battle of Midway, and their impact on the war and its outcome/aftermath. Pretty decent, mostly mindless fun, but interesting for a history nerd like me.
Erik Larson has another book coming out in May that sounds like another amazing true story.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Also I would recommend Unbroken if you haven't read it. Pretty incredible non-fiction.