In the Garden of Beasts

Ambassador Dodd’s daughter, Martha, accompanies him to Berlin and finds the city to her liking. She becomes a toast of the town and enjoys affairs with several people, including high-ranking Nazi officials. An aspiring author, Martha writes copious notes and letters that trace her shift, over four years, from ardent Nazi enthusiast to anti-Nazi Communist sympathizer. Martha has an extended relationship with Boris Winogradov, a Soviet diplomatic attaché and NKVD spy who tries to recruit her to his Communist ways. Martha publishes a memoir and a novel about her experiences in Berlin. Eventually, she spies for the Soviets; for her trouble, the US government exiles her to Czechoslovakia with her second husband, Alfred Stern.

Martha represents the changing times and a new age for feminism. Free with her emotions, and her body, she is a fearless adventurer who would rather leave her husband than miss out on an opportunity to explore Germany. Her adventuring lands her in several interesting positions, whether that be witnessing the burgeoning violence of the Third Reich, having a blind date with Hitler, or becoming a Soviet spy. 

Unassuming in person, Hitler can rally a crowd to emotional heights and move millions to do his bidding. A daring and ruthless political gamesman, Hitler becomes chancellor in 1933, outmaneuvers his political enemies, and launches a program of remilitarization coupled with suppression of non-Aryan ethnic groups, particularly the Jews. By 1939 he has begun his conquest of Europe. His actions launch World War II.

Despite maintaining a controlled façade, Hitler proves to be quick to anger in his interactions with Dodd and socially awkward in his interactions with Martha. These personal accounts reveal that there was a real man behind the “monster” figure that we associate with Hitler today.

A Soviet spy posing as a minor diplomat in Berlin, Boris tries to recruit Martha Dodd to his cause but, in the process, falls in love with her. Their relationship is stormy; they talk of marriage, but Martha moves back to America, where she marries another man. Though Boris seems sincerely in love with Martha, he was previously married and his letters to his superiors suggest Martha was not his only love interest. The Stalin government executes Boris during the purges of the late 1930s. 

Diels is the first director of the Gestapo. He develops ruthless techniques to spy on and control German citizens. Diels strikes up a friendship with Martha Dodd, confessing to her his doubts about the Gestapo. He loses his job, and nearly his life, when Himmler decides to put his own, much more savage, man in as Gestapo head. Diels resurfaces as regional commissioner of Cologne. Adept at political maneuvering, he survives the war only to die in a hunting accident in 1957. 

An early dissenter against anti-Jewish atrocities, American Consul General Messersmith finds himself at odds with Ambassador Dodd. He has a keen eye, however, and his many missives to the State Department help the US understand the dangers of the Hitler regime. Messersmith leaves Berlin to become ambassador to Vienna, Austria. 

President Roosevelt appoints William Dodd as ambassador to Germany. Dodd informs Roosevelt that Hitler is becoming a threat, and the president agrees with his ambassador that America will have to deal with Germany sooner or later. Roosevelt encourages Dodd to speak out against German belligerence and atrocities. 

Mildred and her husband, Arvid, hold salons in Berlin where intellectuals and artists gather to discuss politics and culture. Mildred befriends Martha Dodd, and they become close, with Mildred’s left-wing orientation influencing Martha. The Harnacks’s support for the anti-Nazi underground gets them arrested; during the war, the Nazis execute them both. 

Called “Putzi” by everyone, Hanfstaengl is a larger-than-life pal of Hitler who helps with Nazi public relations and who tries, and fails, to set Martha up on a date with the Führer, hoping that an American girl will relax Hitler’s resolve. Hanfstaengl takes a quick trip to America to attend a reunion of his Harvard class during The Night of the Long Knives. He returns to Germany, survives the war, and dies at age 88 in Munich.