This is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel. It is the story of the first U.S. Ambassador to Hitler's Nazi Regime, William Dodd. Ambassador Dodd came from a modest background, being a university professor in Chicago and a part time farmer in Virginia. He was not someone with wealth and he disapproved of those who flaunted their wealth in diplomatic circles. He was definitely the odd man out in Germany and Europe at that time.

He and his family, which included a wild-child beautiful daughter who was already a divorced woman, went to Berlin in 1933 and stayed through the beginning of the atrocities that were part and parcel of the Third Reich. He met with Hitler and the whole gang and warned of what was to come. His daughter partied with a lot of Hitler's henchmen and probably would have slept with Hitler, too, if given the opportunity to do so. That is how she is portrayed in the book.

In fact, Mr. Dodd, was virtually the only so-called diplomat who could see the forest for the trees. He warned and warned, but was met with ridicule and loathing by his fellows, to the lasting shame of the Foreign Service and the State Department.

When I think of how the State Department is cozying up to Iran now in desperate search of an agreement, I am reminded of Hitler's appeasers and coddlers from so long ago. History repeats itself in the Foreign Service and at the helm of the State Department, apparently. In that circumstance, only Roosevelt was listening to Mr. Dodd.

This is an inside look at a disaster of monstrous and barbaric proportions as it happened.

anyone who wants to learn about the THird Reich from the viewpoint of Americans who tried to tell themselves it wasn't really happening at first. Denial is the first response in a situation so horrific as was Berlin in the 1930's. They were beasts indeed in that Garden in Berlin.

Mr. Dodd's courage and determination to do what he thought was right, once he realized what was happening.

I also liked the ingenuity of the Jewish family who leased their home to Mr. Dodd. It seemed to insure their preferential treatment and maybe, in the end, their survival. I wanted to know what happened in the end to them and I didn't get an answer on that one.

his idiotic daughter who was attracted to the young men of the Third Reich. She was gross and only wised up at the end.

it is a great way to learn about courage and not doing what the crowd is doing when the crowd is wrong and sometimes even worse than wrong - monstrous.

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Created Mar 24, 2015 at 10:08am • Submit your own review...