In the Garden of Beasts (58 page)

Chapter 43: A Pygmy Speaks

1
The names of two former chancellors: Wheeler-Bennett,
Nemesis
, 315–17.

2
“Everywhere I go men talk of resistance”: Dodd to Hull, June 16, 1934, Box 44, W. E. Dodd Papers.

3
“The speech took months of preparation”: Evans,
Power
, 29–30; Jones, 167–73; Gallo, 137–40; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 509–10, 744 n. 57; Shirer,
Rise
, 218–19.

4
“I am told,” he began: For text, see Noakes and Pridham, 209–10; and Papen, 307. Also see Jones, 172; Gallo, 139–40; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 509. In his memoir, published in 1953, Papen states, “I prepared my speech with great care.…” This claim has been widely discounted. Papen, 307.

5
“The thunder of applause”: Gallo, 141.

6
“It is difficult to describe the joy”: Wheeler-Bennett,
Titan
, 459.

7
“All these little dwarfs”: Gallo, 143–44; Shirer,
Rise
, 219. Also see Kershaw,
Hubris
, 510.

8
“If they should at any time”: Kershaw,
Hubris
, 510.

9
“were snatched from the hands of the guests”: Dodd to Hull, June 26, 1934, State/Foreign. For other details of the government’s reaction, see Evans,
Power
, 29–30; Jones, 172–74; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 510–11; Shirer,
Rise
, 218; Wheeler-Bennett,
Titan
, 460,
and Nemesis
, 319.

10
“There was something in the sultry air”: Gisevius, 128.

11
Someone threw a hand-grenade fuse: Ibid., 129.

12
“There was so much whispering”: Ibid., 129.

13
“Everywhere uncertainty, ferment”: Klemperer,
Witness
, 71. Klemperer looked to the weather to fuel his hopes that Hitler would be deposed. He wrote in his diary, “ ‘Beautiful weather’ = heat + lack of rain, abnormal lack of rain, such as has been causing havoc for three months now. A weapon against Hitler!”
Witness
, 72.

14
“There is now great excitement”: Dodd,
Diary
, 114; Dodd, Memorandum, June 18, 1934, Box 59, W. E. Dodd Papers.

15
“I spoke at Marburg”: Gallo, 152.

16
He promised to remove the propaganda: Evans,
Power
, 30; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 510.

17
“It was with cold calculation”: Gisevius, 131.

18
The next day, June 21, 1934: Evans,
Power
, 30; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 510–11; Wheeler-Bennett,
Nemesis
, 320.

19
“who after the Marburg speech”: Dodd,
Diary
, 114.

20
“The week closes quietly”: Ibid., 115.

Chapter 44: The Message in the Bathroom

1
“He was entirely calm and fatalistic”: Wheeler-Bennett,
Titan
, 462.

2
“Woe to him who breaks faith”: Wheaton, 443.

3
On the medicine chest: Jones, 173.

4
“beautiful Rhineland summer day”: Diels, 419.

Chapter 45: Mrs. Cerruti’s Distress

1
“During the last five days”: Dodd,
Diary
, 115–16.

2
“the situation was much as it was in Paris”: Ibid., 116.

3
“by the example of his magnetism”: Martha Dodd, “Bright Journey into Darkness,” 18, 21, Box 14, Martha Dodd Papers.

4
Under Stalin, peasants had been forced: Riasanovsky, 551, 556. A personal note here: While I was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, I took two wonderful courses from Riasanovsky’s brother, Alexander, who on one noteworthy evening taught me and my roommates how to drink vodka Russian-style. It was his delightful lecture style, however, that had the greater influence, and drove me to spend most of my time at Penn studying Russian history, literature, and language.

5
Tour No. 9, the Volga-Caucasus-Crimea tour: “Detailed Schedule of Tour No. 9 for Miss Martha Dodd,” Box 62, W. E. Dodd Papers.

6
“Martha!” he wrote, indulging his passion: Boris to Martha, June 7, 1934, Box 10, Martha Dodd Papers.

7
“I never plotted the overthrow”: Martha to Agnes Knickerbocker, July 16, 1969, Box 13, Martha Dodd Papers.

8
“It was the hottest day”: Cerruti, 153.

9
“seemed self-confident”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 140.

10
“You and Dr. Goebbels”: Dodd,
Diary
, 116.

11
“She sat by my father”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 141.

12
“Mr. Ambassador, something terrible”: Ibid., 141.

13
She found this astonishing: Cerruti, 153, 157.

14
“Temperature 101 and ½ in the shade today”: Moffat, Diary, June 29, 1934.

15
The three men undressed and climbed in: Ibid.

16
“Presumably the Ambassador has been complaining”: Phillips, Diary, June 15, 1934.

17
“well and in extremely high spirits”: Moffat, Diary, July 17, 1934.

Chapter 46: Friday Night

1
That Friday evening, July 29, 1934: For this chapter I relied on the following sources: Birchall, 203; Evans,
Power
, 31–32; Gallo, 33, 38, 106; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 511–15. For a lengthy excerpt of Kempka’s account, see Noakes and Pridham, 212–14.

PART VII: WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED

Chapter 47: “Shoot, Shoot!”

1
“strolled serenely through the streets”: Adlon, 207.
   Hedda Adlon, wife of the Adlon’s proprietor, liked driving about town in her white Mercedes, and was said to keep twenty-eight Pekinese dogs. De Jonge, 132.

2
“It was a beautiful serene blue day”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 141.

3
“Röhm,” Hitler barked: Various and varying accounts of this episode appear in the literature. I relied on Kershaw,
Hubris
, 514; Noakes and Pridham, 213–14; and Strasser, 250.

4
“It is never safe to despise a telephone call”: Birchall, 193.

5
“dead tired—[could] weep”: Schultz, Daily Logs, July 5, 1934, Box 32, Schultz Papers.

6
One of the most alarming rumors: Birchall, 198.

7
At the Hotel Hanselbauer, Röhm got dressed: Noakes and Pridham, 213.

8
“You have been condemned to death”: Kershaw,
Hubris
, 514.

9
“As I followed Daluege”: Gisevius, 150.

10
He looked troubled: Dodd,
Diary
, 117.

Chapter 48: Guns in the Park

1
“our heads giddy”: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 142.

2
“to his great sorrow”: Office of Der Stabschef der S.-A. to Dodd, June 29, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers.

3
“In view of the uncertainty of the situation”: Dodd,
Diary
, 117.

4
A wooden leg: German Office of Foreign Affairs to Dodd, May 28, 1935, Box 47, W. E. Dodd Papers.

Chapter 49: The Dead

1
“unbearable tension”: Quoted in Gallo, 257.

2
“For weeks we have been watching”: Birchall, 205–7; Gallo, 257.

3
No one knew exactly how many people lost their lives: I constructed this paragraph and the one following from an array of sources: Hugh Corby Fox, Memorandum, July 2, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers; H. C. Flack, Confidential Memorandum, July 7, 1934, Box 45, W. E. Dodd Papers; Wheeler-Bennett,
Nemesis
, 323; Gallo, 256, 258; Rürup, 53, 223; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 515; Evans,
Power
, 34–36; Strasser, 252, 263; Gisevius, 153; Birchall, 20; Metcalfe, 269.

4
One target, Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus: Gallo, 255; Martha offers a slightly different account in her memoir:
Embassy Eyes
, 155.

5
“To the king of Siam”: Adlon, 207–9.

6
poor Willi Schmid: Shirer,
Rise
, 224n. See also Birchall, 207; Evans,
Power
, 36; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 515.

7
Providently, he was in America: Casey, 340; Conradi, 143, 144, 148, 151, 157, 159, 163, 167–68;
New York Times
, July 1, 1934.

8
“against the background of a blood-red sky”: Gisevius, 160.

9
In a radio address propaganda chief Goebbels: Birchall, 205.

Chapter 50: Among the Living

1
“It was a strange day”: Dodd,
Diary
, 117.
   That Sunday, the Jewish newspaper
Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung
, still in operation—it would continue until 1937—published cautionary advice for its readers, urging them, according to one historian’s account, “to show more reserve, tact and dignity and to behave impeccably in public places so as not to offend.”
   That Sunday afternoon, Hitler held a tea party at his chancellery for members of his cabinet, various ministers, and their families. Children were invited. Hitler at one point walked to a window overlooking the street. A crowd gathered below roared its approval.
   The ever-present Hans Gisevius was there as well. Hitler spotted him and raised his hand in greeting. Gisevius wrote, “It occurred to me that if he could read my innermost thoughts, he would have me shot.” Dippel, 150; Gallo, 269; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 516; Gisevius quoted in Gallo, 270.

2
They drove past the entrance very slowly: Dodd,
Embassy Eyes
, 142–43.

3
The story, pieced together later: Evans,
Power
, 33; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 176, 516.

4
Accounts vary: Evans,
Power
, 33; Kershaw,
Hubris
, 516; Gallo, 270; Shirer,
Rise
, 221; Noakes and Pridham, 215.
   After Röhm’s murder, Hitler claimed that the SA chief’s homosexual practices had come as a complete surprise to him. A new joke promptly made the rounds in Berlin: “What will he do when he finally finds out about Goebbels’s club foot?”
   Another joke began circulating at about the same time: “It is only now that we can realize the full significance of Röhm’s recent address to Nazi youth, ‘Out of every Hitler Youth, a Storm Trooper will Emerge.’ ” Grunberger, 332, 335.

5
As a reward: Wheaton, 452.

6
“The
Führer
with soldierly decision”: Noakes and Pridham, 216; see slightly different version in Wheeler-Bennett,
Nemesis
, 325.