In the Garden of Beasts

Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

De: Erik Larson

Narrado por: Stephen Hoye

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the best-selling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first, Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany”, she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate.

As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance - and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming - yet wholly sinister - Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively listenable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

©2011 Stephen Hoye (P)2011 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"In this mesmerizing portrait of the Nazi capital, Larson plumbs a far more diabolical urban cauldron than in his bestselling The Devil in the White City... a vivid, atmospheric panorama of the Third Reich and its leaders, including murderous Nazi factional infighting, through the accretion of small crimes and petty thuggery." ( Publishers Weekly)

"By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history….Powerful, poignant…a transportingly true story." ( The New York Times)

"[L]ike slipping slowly into a nightmare, with logic perverted and morality upended….It all makes for a powerful, unsettling immediacy." (Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair)

A history lesson leading up to WW II in Europe

An interesting listen of a American Diplomats family life in Germany and USA's isolation policies at the time.

How did Hitler come to Power?

That is a question that has puzzled me most of my life, from reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" to more modern histories.

Briefly, the story is about the American Ambassador, appointed at the beginning of Hitler's reign, and his family, principally his 20s- year old daughter and their experiences in Germany. Interestingly, they were Jewish and the Ambassador was a historian of the American South and on the faculty at U of Chicago.

They went to Germany and soon were approached by journalists and others who told them of the horrors, but they did not see what was happening. At first, they saw the economic and educational gains and told these bearers of bad news that things could not be that bad. Over time, they came to see the other side of Germany. It must be remembered that they would see things that most people did not see and even they had a hard time at first in believing that the problems were as bad as they were. So, if they had a hard time, maybe it is too easy to call it racism? Maybe the problem is that people are not perceptive enough, or willing enough, to face the reality of evil when they see it.

They were also somewhat limited by money and philosophically not extravagant. For these reasons, they did not fit into the lifestyle of either the German or the American diplomatic community and were looked down-upon by both. The daughter had several affairs, most notably with a Soviet diplomat. Both the Ambassador and his daughter kept extensive diaries apparently and these documents, and those of others such as journalists, provided insights into many prominent persons, German and otherwise.

Over time, they came to see what was happening: not just to Jewish people, but also how Germany was arming itself. Even non-Jewish Americans would get attacked on the street if they did not "Heil Hitler". As the Ambassador became more concerned, he wrote letters back to Washington to try to sound the alert, but it was ignored. Some of this might have been due to social class issues as the fussy professor did not well fit the image of the state department royalty. His missives were ignored and sometimes diverted.

In thinking about it, some of them probably got to Roosevelt who seemed well aware of the dangers of Hitler. In other books on Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Eastern Front, Roosevelt was ahead of the American public in recognizing the dangers Germany posed and the letters from the Ambassador may well have allowed him to make the devil's deal with Stalin in WW2.

Probably mostly for political reasons, the Ambassador lost his post. He went back to the US and spent the brief time he had left in his life traveling the country and telling groups, often in the Jewish community, about the dangers of the Nazis and of Hitler.

Despite having read many books and even spoken to people who lived in Germany at the time, this book gave me read insight into the mindset of the German people at that time. It is hard for many people to realize that nothing like Hitler had come to the mind of modern society. People have a hard time believing how bad things are. It is becoming clear that, in every society, there are people who, when given power without oversight, will abuse that power. It happened in Germany, with the Mongols, the Armenians, the Inquisition, the Balkans, and in many other situations. When this type of person gets in power, and if they get the ability to kill or threaten others, they will use that power to control many others who cannot or will not confront them. Those who see the problem also have to face the unbelief of many others who will not face up to the reality of evil in their own societies (think about our prison system, for example).

How will human society confront the dangers of criminals in power? There are no answers in this book, but it shows how it can happen and how it will happen again, until we find the answers.

Gripping and affecting

I’ve given this audiobook five stars across the board. This is my second encounter with an Erik Larson book, the first being Devil in the White City. Here, as in that work, Larson shows his deftness at focusing the lens of history in on the experience of a few particular individuals, in this case two members of one family who unwittingly bore witness to and participated in a pivotal time in history. His scope is intimate (indeed I think that exact descriptor is used in the introduction), but not so much that one cannot sense the growing menace brewing all around our protagonists. As an avid student of history, WWII is a frequent time I visit in my reading, but the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s is often skirted over in other works I’ve read in favor of focusing on the war itself, particularly after America joined the fray. This book brings to life that time of history in a visceral way. This is aided by the narration of Stephen Hoye, which I found quite engaging, and I readily lent my ear as he gave breadth and depth to Larson’s written words. I’d recommend to anyone interested in knowing more of what Germany, in particular Berlin, was like as Hitler was coming into power, especially as seen through the eyes of two Americans. A hauntingly beautiful portrait indeed.

Rating depends on personal perspective.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

Speaking as one who has a special interest in the whole Hitler phenom, and has read all I could get my hands on regarding this, for at least a decade, this book was a slight disappointment because it did not offer me anything at all new. The main idea of the book was supposedly one family's experiences living in Berlin during the Nazi's brutal rise to power, with all the terror that implies. But in fact, this was a US ambassador, his wife and two grown children. They were obligated to maintain certain social interactions with German government personnel, which came to include Hitler's people, and beyond that, the daughter did venture off on her own and form relationships with people she encountered in line with her father's status.

But at no time did this family actually experience anything like what the German citizens, not to mention those who were Jewish, did. In fact, the diplomat and his family members spent most of their couple years' stay there in near-total denial that Hitler would have done such things as they were witnessing with their own eyes. That part felt vaguely troubling to me, but not due to any inferior writing but rather because it reflected badly on the supposed American values that US citizens were supposedly living by, at home. It revealed a shallowness.

To step one bit further into this shallowness idea, it appears that the main reason for the ambassador to be there in the first place was to try to see to it that Germany paid the very substantial sums that were then owing to American businesses, that were at risk what with the turmoil going on in Germany. Even after some atrocities against the Jews came to light, the ambassador's main concern regarded that money. What the German government did to their own citizens was more or less an internal matter, even after the atrocities were known.

The 20 year old daughter Martha did indulge in a very free lifestyle including obvious affairs, some even with Nazi officials. She did not leave with a good reputation. But I see her as just an upper-class, spoiled American who was doing what probably many of the younger generation might do, given a chance to try out a privileged lifestyle in another country..... The world is not nearly so judgmental today as in the 1930's.

So, while the book did offer glimpses into both the changes taking place in Germany, and smaller ones into perhaps world reaction, including in the US, and it also provided quite detailed descriptions of the daughter's activities, and less so of the ambassador's, overall to me it read like tiny tastes of various items that would have held so much promise, had they been developed more completely. Since I was already versed in the subject, I did not feel too cheated, but I definitely would have, had I approached the book with a strong interest but without pre-acquired knowledge of the subject.

The narrator is one of my favorites, Even with a lot of German and a bit of Russian thrown in, he did a wonderful job. I could listen to no one but him and be happy.

Incredible story of the build up to WWII

I found this book amazing. To get an up close and personal glimpse of the rise of the Nazi's in Germany is incredible. As seen through the eyes of the U.S. ambassador and his daughter brings it home as reality, not just as a history lesson. The writing was on the wall about what was about to happen, but few listened. And Martha Dodd, the daughter of the ambassador led a very colorful love life while in Germany. She could have had a book about her on her own. Fascinating listening to this.

Thoroughly Riveting Story

The true story of the U.S. ambassador to Germany in the early 1930’s, William Dodd and his promiscuous daughter Martha who bedded various German officials, a Soviet spy and many others as the Dodds witness Hitler’s rise to power and the growing anti-Jewish fervor and repression growing in Germany at a pivotal point in the evolution of the Nazi state. An engrossing read and enjoyable narration. Readers of history are likely more familiar with the period of Nazi Germany after Hitler took control and started World War II, but this book puts all those events in context as we read about a time when Germans were just starting to fall into order behind Hitler's growing racism and power hungry ambitions. In my view the best (so far) of Erik Larson's histories.

Couldn't stop listening

What a great book - full of juicy details about Germany, Hitler's rise, and the lead up to WWII. This book really gives the reader an understanding of the individual characters surrounding Hitler, and differentiates them in a way I never had before. It explains the genesis, differences and rivalries of the SS, Gestapo and "Brown shirts". It explains the "night of the long knives", Kristallnacht, etc, and all in an entertaining and riveting way. Also a clarity about the operations of our own diplomatic corps, its politics and failings. Plus, guess what, very fun to read (listen to).

Ok but ultimately disappointing

The parts of the book concerning the history on Germany during 1933-34 was interesting and well written, but the parts concerning the Ambassador and his daughter were like reading an uninteresting diary. The priggish Ambassador really seemed out of his depth in his appointment, whining and worrying about trivial matters while ineffectually conveying the alarm over the growing menace.

Behind the scenes...

I thought this would be more interesting and exciting. I thought i'd be more engaged. It's a good sale book.

Solid read by Hoye.

Fascinating and well written

This was my first exposure to Erik Larson and I think he is a fantastic author and brilliant historian. This book will transport you to the banal beginnings of the greatest evil of the 20th century, and scare the heck out of you about what is to come starting January 20, 2025. Brilliant book!