In the Garden of Beasts

Besieged by economic misfortune, exhausted by the recent World War, and beset by nagging anti-Semitism, America, and many European nations, want to avoid anything resembling a confrontation with Germany. This reluctance comes even as the Germans have begun to break the Versailles Treaty with a military build-up and to abuse the German Jewish population.

American diplomatic leaders are more interested in getting Germany to repay its debts than to stand down from its new program of harassing its Jewish population. Many US State Department officers are anti-Semitic and thus largely unmoved by Germany’s treatment of its Jewish citizens. Their bias reflects a widespread feeling shared by Americans, who, in any case, find it hard to believe that a modern nation would commit the atrocities attributed to Germany.

Ambassador Dodd, hesitant because of his civility, at first doesn’t believe what he hears about Nazi abuses. He finds himself reluctant to get involved, in part, because there is so little he can do beyond voicing American objections to Germany’s treatment of its minorities.

For their part, England and France must deal with poor economic situations at home, where voters have no stomach for another devastating war over issues that, they hope, will simply go away. Hitler, to most Europeans, is something of a joke, with his operatic speeches and costumes and his prancing private armies. No one wants to believe he is serious, to the point where his vividly violent actions at first evoke little more than uncomfortable shrugs. Hitler is aware of European timidity, and he takes full advantage of it.