In the Garden of Beasts

Martha and Boris return from their lakeside picnic to find “soldiers, weapons, and military trucks" (310) everywhere. Martha returns home to news that a prominent general, former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, and his wife were executed in their garden, that martial law is declared in Berlin, and that “dozens, perhaps hundreds, of official murders" (311) have occurred. Another general is shot, along with Berlin SA chief, Karl Ernst, a Catholic cleric, a music critic, and possibly Papen’s press secretary. Dodd wonders what has happened to Papen himself. 

Göring holds a press conference. Asked why a Catholic regime critic and Papen staffers are dead during a roundup of SA officers, Göring replies, “I expanded my task to take in reactionaries also" (314).

The number of executions climbs into the hundreds. Most of these, writes Dodd, “were in no sense guilty of treason; merely political or religious opposition" (314). A few manage to escape; one, the music critic, the men shot by mistake. Putzi Hanfstaengl, having guessed that this day was coming, has already escaped to America. 

Vice-Chancellor Papen is under house arrest. Dodd and Martha drive past Papen’s apartment slowly so the SS guards know diplomats are watching.

Hitler can’t decide whether to execute his old friend Röhm, "but eventually he bowed to pressure from Göring and Himmler" (320). He gives Röhm a chance to kill himself, but Röhm refuses. Dachau prison commander Theodor Eicke and a deputy carry out the execution. Hitler rewards Eicke with command of all concentrations camps, which come under his draconian system developed at Dachau.

The army leadership, glad to be rid of competition from the old SA leaders, publicly proclaims its loyalty to Hitler. The crisis is over. In Berlin, people on the street ask each other sardonically if they are still “among the living.”

Despite the recent horrors, Dodd continues with a planned Fourth of July party at the mansion. He invites 300 guests, including many Germans: “The diplomats seemed jittery […] The Germans were on edge" (322). Hitler’s cabinet has just enacted a law that makes the recent political murders retroactively legal as “emergency defense of the state" (323). Due to his close connection to President Hindenburg, the Nazis spare Papen.

Banker Wilhelm Regendanz, a friend of murdered General Schleicher, escapes Germany but leaves behind his wife and son. He sends a message to his family via Martha and Mrs. Dodd. Mrs. Regendanz is frantic for her son, who has gone missing. After a month, the son’s captors free him and he makes it to London, followed by Mrs. Regendanz.

In Washington, State Department officials remain frustrated at Dodd’s failure to win concessions from the German government over payment of war debts. Some officials “had begun referring to Dodd as ‘Ambassador Dud’” (326). For his part, Dodd “thought it pointless to pursue full payment, because Germany simply did not have the money, and there were far more important issues at stake" (327). To Secretary Hull he writes, “Our people will have to lose their bonds" (327).

Martha departs for her Russian trip. Her leave-taking reflects her disaffection with the Nazis: “I had had enough of blood and terror to last me for the rest of my life" (328).

German reaction to the recent putsch is quiet. Hindenburg lauds Hitler for having “nipped treason in the bud" (328). Dodd loses hope that the regime will end, and he considers resigning: "He vowed never to host Hitler, Göring, or Goebbels at the embassy or his home" (329). Of Hitler, Dodd writes, “I have a sense of horror when I look at the man" (329). 

On July 13, Hitler defends his putsch before the Reichstag to wild applause. The German people, tired of the SA’s brutality, also approve: “Assured of his safety by Foreign Minister Neurath" (333), Hanfstaengl returns to Berlin. The people at his office seem dazed by recent events.

Foreign diplomats, including Dodd, begin to realize that Hitler’s claim of a plot against the nation is false. Most conclude the putsch is “merely an internal settling of scores" (334) and hope that Hitler will once again be a “responsible statesman.” This hope will prove false.

On August 2, Hindenburg dies. Before the day is out, Hitler has assumed the presidency. With feigned modesty, Hitler insists the people call him merely “leader” (“Führer”).

Dodd notes that German law requires that the citizens treat animals well. Considering the treatment recently meted out to Hitler’s enemies—not to mention the loss of citizens’ rights—Dodd writes, “One might easily wish he were a horse!” (336).

Martha doesn’t enjoy her trip to Russia, and she writes angry letters to Boris. During her visit, Russian spies try to recruit her. Boris goes to Bucharest, and back in Berlin, Martha resumes dating other men. Despite this, in 1937, “during a second visit to Moscow, she formally petitions Stalin for permission to marry" (338).

Boris wants to delay the marriage. In communiqués with his Soviet handlers, he refers to Martha as “Juliet #2"; thus, “there might have been another woman in his life, a ‘Juliet #1’" (339). Boris tells Moscow cryptically that “if we deceive her, she may become embittered and lose faith in us" (339). 

Dodd continues to warn Washington that Germany is becoming a military threat: “Roosevelt largely shared his view, but most of America seemed more intent than ever on staying out of Europe’s squabbles" (340).

In March 1936, German troops re-occupy the Rhineland. In September, Hitler addresses a Nazi rally in Nuremberg, sending his adoring audience “into near hysteria" (341). Dodd, hamstrung, laments that “the stress is too great to be always doing nothing" (342). Once again, he thinks of resigning.

Dodd’s State Department critics keep up the pressure against him. William Bullitt, ambassador to Paris, writes to Roosevelt: “He hates the Nazis too much to be able to do anything with them or get anything out of them. We need in Berlin someone who can at least be civil to the Nazis and speaks German perfectly" (342). The press picks up the attack, one columnist implying Dodd has lost the president’s favor.

Dodd now feels unwilling to resign, lest it “leave the impression that he had been forced to do so" (343). His health declines, headaches and stomach pains worsening. "Dodd’s letters rambled and his handwriting degraded" (344).

Dodd returns to America on leave in July 1937 and consults a specialist in digestive disorders, who suggests he resign from the stressful Berlin posting. Messersmith later writes: “He was suffering from some form of mental deterioration" (344-45). Back on his farm, though, Dodd’s health improves. He visits Roosevelt, who asks him to stay on for a few months more.

While he is away, acting ambassador Prentiss Gilbert attends the Nuremberg rally, which angers Dodd, who believes such participation signals American support for the Nazis. He writes a private protest to Secretary Hull, and someone leaks his words to the press, angering the German government.

Dodd meets with Roosevelt again in October 1938, and Dodd comes away believing he has the president’s support. Behind the scenes, however, Roosevelt has already “bowed to pressure from both the State Department and the German foreign office and had agreed that Dodd should leave Berlin before the end of the year" (347). The president recalls Dodd, and he must leave Germany by late December 1937.

Martha meets Boris in Berlin to say goodbye, and she repeats her desire to marry him. Back in America, however, Martha promptly falls for a new man: wealthy divorcé Alfred Stern. They marry in June 1938.

Martha writes to Boris that “you meant more in my life than anybody else" (348) and expresses hope that she may see him in the future. Boris never gets the letter, as he’s been executed by his own government: “one of countless NKVD operatives who fell victim to Stalin’s paranoia" (348). 

Before he leaves Berlin, Dodd speaks at the local American Chamber of Commerce chapter. He laments that the world “must face the sad fact that in an age when international cooperation should be the keyword, nations are farther apart than ever" (349). Once home, Dodd speaks at a dinner in his honor, declaring that Western civilization is in danger.

Dodd continues speaking out against the German threat. He founds the American Council Against Nazi Propaganda and warns, in a speech to a Jewish congregation, that Hitler will take Austria “and that Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were at risk” (350). Dodd further predicts that Europe “would choose concessions over war" (350).

The Dodds move to their farm, Mrs. Dodd reluctantly. In May 1938, she dies suddenly of a heart attack. Martha blames the “strain and terror” of life in Berlin. At the funeral, "for only the second time, Martha saw tears in her father’s eyes" (351).

Dodd continues lecturing; in one speech, he “talked of Hitler’s hatred of Jews and warned that his true intent was ‘to kill them all”’ (351). The Nazis continue to fulfill Dodd’s predictions when, in November 1938, they launch Kristallnacht, a massive pogrom against the Jews.

In March 1939, while driving, Dodd hits a black girl, but he keeps driving “because I thought the child had escaped" (352). He pays the girl’s medical expenses, pleads guilty to charges, pays a fine, and loses “driving privileges and his right to vote" (352). Shattered by the experience, Dodd’s health worsens, and he undergoes a stint in the hospital. The German press taunts him.

In September 1939, Germany invades Poland. Dodd’s health worsens. In February 1940, he dies at his farm, his children at his bedside. Though criticized by American isolationists, many in Germany who “revered his willingness to stand up for American ideals even against the opposition of his own government" (354) mourn for him. Messersmith later admits “that there were very few men who realized what was happening in Germany more thoroughly than he did" (355).

In 1939, Martha publishes a memoir called Through Embassy Eyes, which the Germans ban. In 1941, Martha and Bill Jr publish their father’s diary. They also try to publish their father’s correspondence, asking Messersmith to contribute. He refuses; Martha says she may publish his letters anyway, whereupon Messersmith threatens to write a tell-all on her love life. According to Messersmith: “That ended the matter" (359).

In 1945, Martha publishes a novel, Sowing the Wind, “clearly based on the life of one of her past lovers, Ernst Udet" (359), about a war ace who falls into the clutches of Nazism. Martha also launches a successful salon whose guests include “Paul Robeson, Lillian Hellman, Margaret Bourke-White, and Isamu Noguchi" (360).

Martha and her husband adopt a baby boy, Robert. They also become Soviet spies. Though their efforts bear little fruit, they flee US authorities and escape to Prague, where Martha eventually becomes disillusioned with Communism and Robert develops schizophrenia.

Martha learns that the Nazis executed Mildred and Arvid Harnack for their anti-Nazi underground network. Her brother, Bill Jr, dies of cancer in 1952. Martha also hears that Rudolf Diels survives the war, only to die in 1957 in a hunting accident. Late in life, Martha corresponds flirtatiously with old lovers, including Max Delbrück and her first husband, Bassett.

In 1979, the US reluctantly drops all charges against Martha and Alfred, but they still owe more back taxes than they can afford, so they remain in Prague. Stern dies in 1986; Martha dies in 1990, age 82, “not precisely a hero but certainly a woman of principle" (364). 

Unearthed documents reveal a 1941 dinner conversation between Hitler and his aides. He laments that no one in the regime was able to get close to Martha and use her as leverage against her father. Such adventures, he believes, are the province of the diplomatic corps. “And it might end in marriage!” (365).