In The Garden Of Beasts Part 13

Diels was proud of it. "You know most of this is my work," he said. "I have really organized the most effective system of espionage Germany has ever known."

If he possessed such power, Martha asked him, why was he so clearly afraid?

He answered, "Because I know too much."

Diels needed to sh.o.r.e up his defenses. He told Martha that the more he and she could be seen together in public, the safer he would feel. This was no mere line aimed at rekindling their romance. Even Goring was coming to see Diels as an a.s.set of fading value. Amid the storm of clas.h.i.+ng pa.s.sions whirling through Berlin that spring, the gravest danger to Diels arose from the fact that he continued to resist choosing a side and as a result was distrusted in varying degrees by all camps. He grew sufficiently paranoid that he believed someone was trying to poison him.

Martha had no objection to spending more time with Diels. She liked being a.s.sociated with him and having the insider's view he afforded her. "I was young and reckless enough to want to be as closely in on every situation as I possibly could," she wrote. But again, she possessed what Diels did not, the a.s.surance that as the daughter of the American amba.s.sador she was safe from harm.

A friend warned her, however, that in this case she was "playing with fire."

Over the weeks that followed, Diels stayed close to Martha and behaved, she wrote, "like a frightened rabbit," though she also sensed that a part of Diels-the old confident Lucifer-reveled in the game of extricating himself from his predicament.

"In some ways the danger he thought he was in was a challenge to his slyness and shrewdness," she recalled. "Could he outwit them or not, could he escape them or not?"

CHAPTER 35.

Confronting the Club Dodd's s.h.i.+p arrived at quarantine in New York harbor on Friday, March 23. He had hoped that his arrival would escape notice by the press, but once again his plans were frustrated. Reporters routinely met the great ocean liners of the day on the presumption, generally valid, that someone of importance would be aboard. Just in case, Dodd had prepared a brief, five-sentence statement, and he soon found himself reading it to two reporters who had spotted him. He explained that he had come back to America "on a short leave...in order to get some much-needed rest from the tense European atmosphere." He added, "Contrary to the predictions of many students of international problems, I feel fairly certain that we shall not have war in the near future."

He was heartened to find that the German vice consul in New York had come to meet the s.h.i.+p bearing a letter from Hitler for delivery to Roosevelt. Dodd was especially pleased that his friend Colonel House had sent his "handsome limousine" to pick him up and bring him to the colonel's Manhattan home at East Sixty-eighth Street and Park Avenue to wait for his train to Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.-a lucky thing, Dodd wrote in his diary, because taxi drivers were on strike "and if I had gone to a hotel the newspaper folk would have pestered me until my train for Was.h.i.+ngton departed." Dodd and the colonel had a candid talk. "House gave me valuable information about unfriendly officials in the State Department with whom I would have to deal."

Best of all, soon after his arrival Dodd received the latest chapter of his Old South Old South, freshly typed by Martha's friend Mildred Fish Harnack and sent via diplomatic pouch.

IN WAs.h.i.+NGTON, DODD CHECKED into the Cosmos Club, which at the time stood on Lafayette Square, just north of the White House. On his first morning in Was.h.i.+ngton, he walked to the State Department for the first of many meetings and lunches. into the Cosmos Club, which at the time stood on Lafayette Square, just north of the White House. On his first morning in Was.h.i.+ngton, he walked to the State Department for the first of many meetings and lunches.

At eleven o'clock he met with Secretary Hull and Undersecretary Phillips. All three spent a good deal of time puzzling out how to respond to Hitler's letter. Hitler praised Roosevelt's efforts to restore America's economy and stated that "duty, readiness for sacrifice, and discipline" were virtues that should be dominant in any culture. "These moral demands which the President places before every individual citizen of the United States, are also the quintessence of the German State philosophy which finds its expression in the slogan, 'The Public Weal Transcends the Interests of the Individual.'"

Phillips called it a "strange message." To Dodd, as well as to Hull and Phillips, it was obvious that Hitler hoped to draw a parallel between himself and Roosevelt and that the obligatory U.S. reply would have to be drafted very carefully. That task fell to Phillips and Western European affairs chief Moffat, the goal being, Moffat wrote, "to prevent our falling into the Hitler trap." The resulting letter thanked Hitler for his kind words but noted that his message applied not to Roosevelt personally but rather to the American people as a whole, "who have freely and gladly made heroic efforts in the interest of recovery."

In his diary Phillips wrote, "We sought to sidestep the impression that the President was becoming a Fascist."

The next day, Monday, March 26, Dodd strolled to the White House for lunch with Roosevelt. They discussed a surge of hostility toward Germany that had arisen in New York in the wake of the mock trial earlier in the month. Dodd had heard one New Yorker express the fear that "there might easily be a little civil war" in New York City. "The president also spoke of this," Dodd wrote, "and asked me, if I would do so, to get Chicago Jews to call off their Mock Trial set for mid-April."

Dodd agreed to try. He wrote to Jewish leaders, including Leo Wormser, to ask them "to quiet things if possible" and wrote as well to Colonel House to ask him to exert his influence in the same direction.

As anxious as Dodd was to get to his farm, he did relish the prospect of a conference set for early that week at which he at last would have the opportunity to bring his criticism of the policies and practices of the Foreign Service directly to the boys of the Pretty Good Club.

HE SPOKE BEFORE an audience that included Hull, Moffat, Phillips, Wilbur Carr, and Sumner Welles. Unlike in his Columbus Day speech in Berlin, Dodd was blunt and direct. an audience that included Hull, Moffat, Phillips, Wilbur Carr, and Sumner Welles. Unlike in his Columbus Day speech in Berlin, Dodd was blunt and direct.

The days of "Louis XIV and Victoria style" had pa.s.sed, he told them. Nations were bankrupt, "including our own." The time had come "to cease grand style performances." He cited an American consular official who had s.h.i.+pped enough furniture to fill a twenty-room house-and yet had only two people in his family. He added that a mere a.s.sistant of his "had a chauffeur, a porter, a butler, a valet, two cooks and two maids."

Every official, he said, should be required to live within his salary, be it the $3,000 a year of a junior officer or the $17,500 that he himself received as a full-fledged amba.s.sador, and everyone should be required to know the history and customs of his host country. The only men sent abroad should be those "who think of their country's interests, not so much about a different suit of clothes each day or sitting up at gay but silly dinners and shows every night until 1 o'clock."

Dodd sensed that this last point struck home. He noted in his diary, "Sumner Welles winced a little: the owner of a mansion in Was.h.i.+ngton which outs.h.i.+nes the White House in some respects and is about as large." Welles's mansion, called by some the "house with a hundred rooms," stood on Ma.s.sachusetts Avenue off Dupont Circle and was renowned for its opulence. Welles and his wife also owned a 255-acre country estate just outside the city, Oxon Hill Manor.

After Dodd concluded his remarks, his audience praised him and applauded. "I was not fooled, however, after two hours of pretended agreement."

Indeed, his lecture only deepened the ill feelings of the Pretty Good Club. By the time of his talk, some of its members, most notably Phillips and Moffat, privately had begun to express real hostility.

Dodd paid a visit to Moffat's office. Later that day Moffat wrote a brief a.s.sessment of the amba.s.sador in his diary: "He is...by no means a clear thinker. He will express great dissatisfaction with a situation and then reject every proposal to remedy it. He dislikes all his staff but yet does not wish any transferred. He is suspicious by turns of nearly everyone with whom he comes in contact and a little jealous." Moffat called him "an unfortunate misfit."

Dodd seemed unaware that he might be conjuring forces that could endanger his career. Rather he delighted in p.r.i.c.king the clubby sensibilities of his opponents. With clear satisfaction he told his wife, "Their chief protector"-presumably he meant Phillips or Welles-"is not a little disturbed. If he attacks it certainly is not in the open."

CHAPTER 36.

Saving Diels The fear Diels felt grew more p.r.o.nounced, to the point where in March he again went to Martha for help, this time in hopes of using her to acquire a.s.sistance from the U.S. emba.s.sy itself. It was a moment freighted with irony: the chief of the Gestapo seeking aid from American officials. Somehow Diels had gotten wind of a plan by Himmler to arrest him, possibly that very day. He had no illusions. Himmler wanted him dead.

Diels knew he had allies at the American emba.s.sy, namely Dodd and Consul General Messersmith, and believed they might be able to provide a measure of safety by expressing to Hitler's regime their interest in his continued well-being. But Dodd, he knew, was on leave. Diels asked Martha to speak with Messersmith, who by now had returned from his own leave, to see what he could do.

Despite Martha's inclination to view Diels as overly dramatic, this time she did believe he faced mortal peril. She went to see Messersmith at the consulate.

She was "obviously in a greatly perturbed situation," Messersmith recalled. She broke down in tears and told him that Diels was to be arrested that day "and that it was almost certain that he would be executed."

She composed herself, then pleaded with Messersmith to meet with Goring at once. She tried flattery, calling Messersmith the only man who could intercede "without being in danger of his own life."

Messersmith was unmoved. By now he had grown to dislike Martha. He found her behavior-her various love affairs-repugnant. Given her presumed relations.h.i.+p with Diels, Messersmith was not surprised that she had come to his office in "this hysterical state." He told her he could do nothing "and after a great deal of difficulty was able to get her out of my office."

After she left, however, Messersmith began to reconsider. "I began thinking about the matter and realized that she was correct in saying one thing, and that is that Diels after all was one of the best in the regime, as was Goring and that in case anything happened to Diels and Himmler came in, it would weaken the position of Goring and of the more reasonable element in the party." If Himmler ran the Gestapo, Messersmith believed, he and Dodd would have far more difficulty resolving future attacks against Americans, "for Himmler was known to be even more cold-blooded and ruthless than Dr. Diels."

Messersmith was scheduled to attend a luncheon that afternoon at the Herrenklub, a men's club for conservatives, hosted by two prominent Reichswehr generals, but now, recognizing that a talk with Goring was far more important, Messersmith saw that he might have to cancel. He called Goring's office to arrange the meeting and learned that Goring had just left for a luncheon of his own-at the Herrenklub. Messersmith hadn't known until then that Goring was to be the guest of honor at the generals' lunch.

He realized two things: first, that the task of speaking with Goring had suddenly become much simpler, and second, that the luncheon was a landmark: "It was the first time since the n.a.z.is came to power that the highest ranking officers of the German Army...were going to sit down to a table with Goring or any high ranking member of the n.a.z.i regime." It struck him that the lunch might signal that the army and government were closing ranks against Captain Rohm and his Storm Troopers. If so, it was an ominous sign, for Rohm was not likely to jettison his ambitions without a fight.

MESSERSMITH ARRIVED AT THE CLUB shortly after noon and found Goring conversing with the generals. Goring put his arm around Messersmith's shoulders and told the others, "Gentlemen, this is a man who doesn't like me at all, a man who doesn't think very much of me, but he is a good friend of our country." shortly after noon and found Goring conversing with the generals. Goring put his arm around Messersmith's shoulders and told the others, "Gentlemen, this is a man who doesn't like me at all, a man who doesn't think very much of me, but he is a good friend of our country."

Messersmith waited for an appropriate moment to take Goring aside. "I told him in very few words that a person in whom I had absolute confidence had called on me that morning and told me that Himmler was bent on getting rid of Diels during the course of the day and that Diels was actually to be b.u.mped off."

Goring thanked him for the information. The two rejoined the other guests, but a few moments later Goring offered his regrets and left.

What happened next-what threats were made, what compromises struck, whether Hitler himself intervened-isn't clear, but by five o'clock that afternoon, April 1, 1934, Messersmith learned that Diels had been named Regierungsprasident Regierungsprasident, or regional commissioner, of Cologne and that the Gestapo would now be headed by Himmler.

Diels was saved, but Goring had suffered a significant defeat. He had acted not for the sake of past friends.h.i.+p but out of anger at the prospect of Himmler trying to arrest Diels in his own realm. Himmler, however, had won the greatest prize, the last and most important component of his secret-police empire. "It was," Messersmith wrote, "the first setback that Goring had had since the beginning of the n.a.z.i regime."

A photograph of the moment when Himmler officially took control of the Gestapo, at a ceremony on April 20, 1934, shows Himmler speaking at the podium, his aspect bland as ever, as Diels stands nearby, facing the camera. His face seems swollen as if from excess drink or lack of sleep, and his scars are exceptionally p.r.o.nounced. He is the portrait of a man under duress.

In a conversation with a British emba.s.sy official that occurred at about this time, quoted in a memorandum later filed with the foreign office in London, Diels delivered a monologue on his own moral unease: "The infliction of physical punishment is not every man's job, and naturally we were only too glad to recruit men who were prepared to show no squeamishness at their task. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the Freudian side of the business, and it was only after a number of instances of unnecessary flogging and meaningless cruelty that I tumbled to the fact that my organization had been attracting all the s.a.d.i.s.ts in Germany and Austria without my knowledge for some time past. It had also been attracting unconscious s.a.d.i.s.ts, i.e. men who did not know themselves that they had s.a.d.i.s.t leanings until they took part in a flogging. And finally it had been actually creating s.a.d.i.s.ts. For it seems that corporal chastis.e.m.e.nt ultimately arouses s.a.d.i.s.tic leanings in apparently normal men and women. Freud might explain it."

APRIL BROUGHT STRANGELY LITTLE RAIN but a b.u.mper crop of fresh secrets. Early in the month, Hitler and Defense Minister Blomberg learned that President Hindenburg had become ill, gravely so, and was unlikely to survive the summer. They kept the news to themselves. Hitler coveted the presidential authority still possessed by Hindenburg and planned upon his death to combine in himself the roles of chancellor and president and thereby at last acquire absolute power. But two potential barriers remained: the Reichswehr and Rohm's Storm Troopers. but a b.u.mper crop of fresh secrets. Early in the month, Hitler and Defense Minister Blomberg learned that President Hindenburg had become ill, gravely so, and was unlikely to survive the summer. They kept the news to themselves. Hitler coveted the presidential authority still possessed by Hindenburg and planned upon his death to combine in himself the roles of chancellor and president and thereby at last acquire absolute power. But two potential barriers remained: the Reichswehr and Rohm's Storm Troopers.

In mid-April, Hitler flew to the naval port of Kiel and there boarded a pocket battles.h.i.+p, the Deutschland Deutschland, for a four-day voyage, accompanied by Blomberg; Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the navy; and General Werner von Fritsch, chief of the army command. Details are scarce, but apparently in the intimate quarters of the s.h.i.+p Hitler and Blomberg crafted a secret deal, truly a devil's bargain, in which Hitler would neutralize Rohm and the SA in return for the army's support for his acquisition of presidential authority upon Hindenburg's death.

The deal was of incalculable value to Hitler, for now he could go forward without having to worry about where the army stood.

Rohm, meanwhile, became increasingly insistent on winning control over the nation's armed forces. In April, during one of his morning rides in the Tiergarten, he watched a group of senior n.a.z.is pa.s.s by, then turned to a companion. "Look at those people over there," he said. "The Party isn't a political force anymore; it's turning into an old-age home. People like that...We've got to get rid of them quickly."

He grew bolder about airing his displeasure. At a press conference on April 18, he said, "Reactionaries, bourgeois conformists, we feel like vomiting when we think of them."

He declared, "The SA is the National Socialist Revolution."

Two days later, however, a government announcement seemed to undercut Rohm's declarations of self-importance: the entire SA had been ordered to go on leave for the month of July.

ON APRIL 22, Heinrich Himmler appointed his young protege Reinhard Heydrich, newly thirty, to fill Diels's job as chief of the Gestapo. Heydrich was blond, tall, slim, and considered handsome, save for a head described as disproportionately narrow and eyes s.p.a.ced too closely. He spoke in a near falsetto that was perversely out of step with his reputation for being coolly and utterly ruthless. Hitler dubbed him "the Man with the Iron Heart," and yet Heydrich was said to play the violin with such pa.s.sion that he would weep as he executed certain pa.s.sages. Throughout his career he would battle rumors that he was in fact Jewish, despite an investigation by the n.a.z.i Party that purported to find no truth to the allegation. 22, Heinrich Himmler appointed his young protege Reinhard Heydrich, newly thirty, to fill Diels's job as chief of the Gestapo. Heydrich was blond, tall, slim, and considered handsome, save for a head described as disproportionately narrow and eyes s.p.a.ced too closely. He spoke in a near falsetto that was perversely out of step with his reputation for being coolly and utterly ruthless. Hitler dubbed him "the Man with the Iron Heart," and yet Heydrich was said to play the violin with such pa.s.sion that he would weep as he executed certain pa.s.sages. Throughout his career he would battle rumors that he was in fact Jewish, despite an investigation by the n.a.z.i Party that purported to find no truth to the allegation.

With Diels gone, the last trace of civility left the Gestapo. Hans Gisevius, the Gestapo memoirist, recognized at once that under Himmler and Heydrich the organization would undergo a change of character. "I could very well venture combat with Diels, the unsteady playboy who, conscious of being a bourgeois renegade, had a good many inhibitions holding him back from foul play," Gisevius wrote. "But as soon as Himmler and Heydrich entered the arena I should have prudently withdrawn."

TOWARD THE END OF APRIL the government at last revealed to the public the grave state of Hindenburg's health. Suddenly the question of who would succeed him became a matter of pressing conversation everywhere. All who were aware of the deepening split between Rohm and Hitler understood that a new element of suspense now propelled the narrative. the government at last revealed to the public the grave state of Hindenburg's health. Suddenly the question of who would succeed him became a matter of pressing conversation everywhere. All who were aware of the deepening split between Rohm and Hitler understood that a new element of suspense now propelled the narrative.

CHAPTER 37.

Watchers While all this was occurring, another nation's spies became interested in the Dodds. By April, Martha's relations.h.i.+p with Boris had caught the interest of his superiors in the NKVD. They sensed a rare opportunity. "Tell Boris Winogradov that we want to use him to carry out a project that interests us," one wrote in a message to the agency's Berlin chief.

Somehow-possibly through Boris-Moscow had come to understand that Martha's infatuation with the n.a.z.i revolution was beginning to wane.

The message continued: "It has to do with the fact that, according to our information, the sentiments of his acquaintance (Martha Dodd) have fully ripened for her to be recruited once and for all to work for us."

CHAPTER 38.

Humbugged What most troubled Dodd during his leave was his sense that his opponents in the State Department were growing more aggressive. He became concerned about what he saw as a pattern of disclosures of confidential information that seemed aimed at undermining his standing. A troubling incident occurred on the night of Sat.u.r.day, April 14, as he was leaving the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Was.h.i.+ngton. A young State Department officer, whom he did not know, approached him and began a conversation in which he openly challenged Dodd's appraisal of conditions in Germany, citing a confidential dispatch the amba.s.sador had cabled from Berlin. The young man was much taller than Dodd and stood very close in a manner Dodd found physically intimidating. In an angry letter that Dodd planned to hand in person to Secretary Hull, he described the encounter as "an intentional affront."

Most distressing to Dodd, however, was the question of how the young man had gotten access to his dispatch. "It is my opinion," Dodd wrote, "...that there is a group somewhere in the Department who think of themselves and not the country and who, upon the slightest effort of any amba.s.sador or minister to economize and improve, begin consorting together to discredit and defeat him. This is the third or fourth time entirely confidential information I have given has been treated as gossip-or made gossip. I am not in the service for any personal or social gain and/or status; I am ready to do anything possible for better work and co-operation; but I do not wish to work alone or become the object of constant intrigue and maneuver. I shall not resign, however, in silence, if this sort of thing continues."

Dodd decided not to give the letter to Hull after all. It ended up filed among papers he identified as "undelivered."

What Dodd apparently did not yet know was that he and fifteen other amba.s.sadors had been the subject of a major article in the April 1934 issue of Fortune Fortune magazine. Despite the article's prominence and the fact that it must surely have been a topic of rabid conversation within the State Department, Dodd only learned of its existence much later, after his return to Berlin, when Martha brought home a copy she had received during an appointment with her Berlin dentist. magazine. Despite the article's prominence and the fact that it must surely have been a topic of rabid conversation within the State Department, Dodd only learned of its existence much later, after his return to Berlin, when Martha brought home a copy she had received during an appointment with her Berlin dentist.

Ent.i.tled "Their Excellencies, Our Amba.s.sadors," the article identified the appointees and indicated their personal wealth by placing dollar signs next to their names. Jesse Isidor Straus-amba.s.sador to France and former president of R. H. Macy & Company-was identified as "$$$$ Straus." Dodd had a single "" next to his name. The article poked fun at his cheapskate approach to diplomacy and suggested that in renting his Berlin house at a discount from a Jewish banker he was seeking to profit from the plight of Germany's Jews. "So," the article stated, "the Dodds got a nice little house very cheap and managed to run it with only a few servants." The article noted that Dodd had brought his weary old Chevrolet to Berlin. "His son was supposed to run it for him evenings," the writer said. "But the son wanted to go the places and do the things sons have a habit of doing, and that left Mr. Dodd chauffeurless (though top-hatted) in his Chevrolet." Dodd, the article claimed, was left having to cadge rides from junior emba.s.sy officers, "the luckier of them in their chauffeured limousines."

The writer called Dodd "a square academic peg in a round diplomatic hole" who was hampered by his relative poverty and lack of diplomatic aplomb. "Morally a very courageous person, he is so intellectual, so divorced from run-of-mine human beings, that he talks in parables, as one gentleman and scholar to another; and the brown-s.h.i.+rted brethren of blood and steel can't understand him even when they care to. So Dodd boils inwardly, and when he tries to get tough, n.o.body pays much attention."

It was immediately clear to Dodd that one or more officials within the State Department and perhaps even his office in Berlin had revealed fine-grained details of his life in Germany. Dodd complained to Undersecretary Phillips. The article, he wrote, "reveals a strange and even unpatriotic att.i.tude, so far as my record and efforts here are concerned. In my letter of acceptance I said to the president that it must be understood I was to live on my salary income. How and why so much discussion of this simple and obvious fact for me?" He cited diplomats from history who had lived modestly. "Why all this condemnation of my following such examples?" He told Phillips that he suspected people within his own emba.s.sy were leaking information and cited other news accounts that had carried distorted reports. "How all these false stories and no reference to real services I have attempted to render?"

Phillips waited nearly a month to respond. "With regard to that article in Fortune Fortune," he wrote, "I would not give it another thought. I cannot imagine where the information to which you refer came from any more than I can imagine how the Press gets hold of gossip (usually erroneous) in regard to myself and other colleagues of yours." He urged Dodd, "Don't let this particular item disturb you in the least."

DODD DID GET to spend a little time in the Library of Congress doing research for his to spend a little time in the Library of Congress doing research for his Old South Old South and managed to carve out two weeks on his farm, where he wrote and tended farm matters, and he was able to travel to Chicago as planned, but this did not yield the pleasant reencounter he had antic.i.p.ated. "Once there," he wrote to Martha, "everybody wanted to see me: telephones, letters, visits, luncheons, dinners all the time." He fielded many inquiries about her and her brother, he wrote, "but only one about your problem in New York," meaning her divorce. A friend wanted to show him examples of "how decently Chicago papers treated it," but, he wrote, "I did not care to read clippings." He gave speeches and resolved faculty squabbles. In his diary he noted that he also met with two Jewish leaders whom he had contacted previously in fulfilling Roosevelt's directive to damp Jewish protest. The two men described "how they and their friends had calmed their fellows and prevented any violent demonstrations in Chicago as planned." and managed to carve out two weeks on his farm, where he wrote and tended farm matters, and he was able to travel to Chicago as planned, but this did not yield the pleasant reencounter he had antic.i.p.ated. "Once there," he wrote to Martha, "everybody wanted to see me: telephones, letters, visits, luncheons, dinners all the time." He fielded many inquiries about her and her brother, he wrote, "but only one about your problem in New York," meaning her divorce. A friend wanted to show him examples of "how decently Chicago papers treated it," but, he wrote, "I did not care to read clippings." He gave speeches and resolved faculty squabbles. In his diary he noted that he also met with two Jewish leaders whom he had contacted previously in fulfilling Roosevelt's directive to damp Jewish protest. The two men described "how they and their friends had calmed their fellows and prevented any violent demonstrations in Chicago as planned."

A personal crisis intruded. While in Chicago Dodd received a telegram relaying a message from his wife. After enduring the inevitable spasm of anxiety that telegrams from loved ones sparked, Dodd read that his old Chevy, icon of his amba.s.sadors.h.i.+p, had been totaled by his chauffeur. The kicker: "THEREFORE HOPE YOU CAN BRING NEW CAR."

So now Dodd, while on his supposedly restorative leave, was being asked in the matter-of-fact language of telegraphy to buy a new car and arrange for its s.h.i.+pping to Berlin.

He wrote to Martha later, "I fear Mueller was driving carelessly, as I noted several times before I came away." Dodd could not understand it. He himself had driven between his farm and Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., many times and had driven all over the city without ever having an accident. "While this may prove nothing, it suggests something. People who do not own the car are far less careful than those who do." In light of what was to happen a few years hence, Dodd's crowing about his own driving prowess can only raise a chill. He wanted a Buick but deemed the price-$1,350-too much to spend given the limited time his family expected to stay in Berlin. He also worried about the $100 he would have to pay to s.h.i.+p the car to Germany.

Ultimately he got his Buick. He instructed his wife to buy it from a dealer in Berlin. The car, he wrote, was a basic model that his emba.s.sy protocol experts disparaged as "ridiculously simple for an Amba.s.sador."

DODD WAS ABLE to make one more visit to his farm, which cheered him but also made his final departure all the more painful. "This was a beautiful day," he wrote in his diary on Sunday, May 6, 1934. "The budding trees and the apple blooms were most appealing, especially since I must leave." to make one more visit to his farm, which cheered him but also made his final departure all the more painful. "This was a beautiful day," he wrote in his diary on Sunday, May 6, 1934. "The budding trees and the apple blooms were most appealing, especially since I must leave."

Three days later, Dodd's s.h.i.+p sailed from New York. He felt he had achieved a victory in getting Jewish leaders to agree to ease the intensity of their protests against Germany and hoped his efforts would bring further moderation on the part of Hitler's government. These hopes were chilled, however, when on Sat.u.r.day, May 12, while in midocean, he got word via wireless of a speech just delivered by Goebbels in which the propaganda minister called Jews "the syphilis of all European peoples."

Dodd felt betrayed. Despite n.a.z.i promises about arrest warrants and closure of the Columbia House prison, clearly nothing had changed. He feared that now he appeared naive. He wrote to Roosevelt of his dismay, after all the work he had done with American Jewish leaders. Goebbels's speech had rekindled "all the animosities of the preceding winter," he wrote, "and I was put in the position of having been humbugged, as indeed I was."

He reached Berlin on Thursday, May 17, at 10:30 p.m. and found a changed city. During his two months away, drought had browned the landscape to a degree he had never seen before, but there was something else. "I was delighted to be home," he wrote, "but the tense atmosphere was revealed at once."

PART VI.

Berlin at Dusk

Goring's bedroom at Carinhall ( (photo credit p6.1)

CHAPTER 39.

Dangerous Dining.