In The Garden Of Beasts Part 10

With that news her life had been abruptly, irrevocably altered. Come January she would join a wholly new social stratum consisting of thousands of people stunned to learn they had Jewish relatives somewhere in their past. Automatically, no matter how thoroughly they had identified themselves as Germans, they became recla.s.sified as non-Aryan and found themselves consigned to new and meager lives on the margins of the Aryans-only world being constructed by Hitler's government.

"n.o.body knew anything about it," Poulette told Fromm. "Now I lose my living."

By itself the discovery was bad enough, but it also coincided with the anniversary of the death of Poulette's husband. To Fromm's surprise, Poulette decided not to attend the Little Press Ball; she was feeling too sad to go.

Fromm hated to leave her alone that night but went to the ball all the same after resolving that the next day she would visit Poulette and bring her back to her house, where Poulette loved to play with Fromm's dogs.

Throughout the evening, in the moments when her mind wasn't engaged by the antics of those around her, Fromm found herself haunted by thoughts of her friend's uncharacteristic depression.

TO DODD, PAPEN'S REMARK ranked as one of the most idiotic he had heard since his arrival in Berlin. And he had heard many. An odd kind of fanciful thinking seemed to have bedazzled Germany, to the highest levels of government. Earlier in the year, for example, Goring had claimed with utter sobriety that three hundred German Americans had been murdered in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia at the start of the past world war. Messersmith, in a dispatch, observed that even smart, well-traveled Germans will "sit and calmly tell you the most extraordinary fairy tales." ranked as one of the most idiotic he had heard since his arrival in Berlin. And he had heard many. An odd kind of fanciful thinking seemed to have bedazzled Germany, to the highest levels of government. Earlier in the year, for example, Goring had claimed with utter sobriety that three hundred German Americans had been murdered in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia at the start of the past world war. Messersmith, in a dispatch, observed that even smart, well-traveled Germans will "sit and calmly tell you the most extraordinary fairy tales."

Now here was the nation's vice-chancellor claiming not to understand why the United States had entered the world war against Germany.

Dodd looked at Papen. "I can tell you that," he said, his voice just as level and even as before. "It was through the sheer, consummate stupidity of German diplomats."

Papen looked stunned. His wife, according to Sigrid Schultz, looked strangely pleased. A new silence filled the table-not one of antic.i.p.ation, as before, but a charged emptiness-until suddenly everyone sought to fill the chasm with flecks of diverting conversation.

In another world, another context, it would have been a minor incident, a burst of caustic banter readily forgotten. Amid the oppression and Gleichschaltung Gleichschaltung of n.a.z.i Germany, however, it was something far more important and symbolic. After the ball, as had become custom, a core group of guests retired to Schultz's flat, where her mother had prepared piles of sandwiches and where the story of Dodd's verbal swordplay was recounted with great and no doubt drunken flourish. Dodd himself was not present, inclined as he was to leave banquets as early as protocol allowed and head for home to close out the night with a gla.s.s of milk, a bowl of stewed peaches, and the comfort of a good book. of n.a.z.i Germany, however, it was something far more important and symbolic. After the ball, as had become custom, a core group of guests retired to Schultz's flat, where her mother had prepared piles of sandwiches and where the story of Dodd's verbal swordplay was recounted with great and no doubt drunken flourish. Dodd himself was not present, inclined as he was to leave banquets as early as protocol allowed and head for home to close out the night with a gla.s.s of milk, a bowl of stewed peaches, and the comfort of a good book.

DESPITE HER MOMENTS of upwelling anxiety, Bella Fromm found the ball delightful. Such a pleasure to see how n.a.z.is behaved after a few drinks and to listen in as they julienned one another with lacerating commentary delivered in a whisper. At one point the dagger-carrying duke, Koburg, happened to strut past Fromm as she was conversing with Kurt Daluege, a police official whom she described as "brutal and ruthless." The duke seemed to want to project arrogance, but the effect, Fromm noted, was comically undermined by "his stooped, dwarf-like figure." Daluege told Fromm, "That Koburg walks as though he were on stilts," then added with menace: "It might leak out that his grandmother deceived the Grand Duke with that Jewish court banker." of upwelling anxiety, Bella Fromm found the ball delightful. Such a pleasure to see how n.a.z.is behaved after a few drinks and to listen in as they julienned one another with lacerating commentary delivered in a whisper. At one point the dagger-carrying duke, Koburg, happened to strut past Fromm as she was conversing with Kurt Daluege, a police official whom she described as "brutal and ruthless." The duke seemed to want to project arrogance, but the effect, Fromm noted, was comically undermined by "his stooped, dwarf-like figure." Daluege told Fromm, "That Koburg walks as though he were on stilts," then added with menace: "It might leak out that his grandmother deceived the Grand Duke with that Jewish court banker."

At ten the next morning, Fromm telephoned Poulette but only reached her elderly maid, who said, "The Baroness has left a note in the kitchen that she is not to be disturbed."

Poulette never slept this late. "Suddenly I understood," Fromm wrote.

Poulette wouldn't be the first Jew or newly cla.s.sified non-Aryan to try suicide in the wake of Hitler's rise. Rumors of suicides were common, and indeed a study by the Berlin Jewish Community found that in 193234 there were 70.2 suicides per 100,000 Jews in Berlin, up sharply from 50.4 in 192426.

Fromm raced to her garage and drove as quickly as possible to Poulette's home.

At the door the servant told her Poulette was still asleep. Fromm brushed past and continued on until she reached Poulette's bedroom. The room was dark. Fromm opened the curtains. She found Poulette lying in bed, breathing, but with difficulty. Beside the bed, on a night table, were two empty tubes of a barbiturate, Veronal.

Fromm also found a note addressed to her. "I can't live anymore because I know I will be forced to give up my work. You have been my best friend, Bella. Please take all my files and use them. I thank you for all the love you gave me. I know you are brave, braver than I am, and you must live because you have a child to think of, and I am sure that you will bear the struggle far better than I could."

The household came alive. Doctors arrived but could do nothing.

The next day an official of the foreign office called Fromm to convey his sorrow and an oblique message. "Frau Bella," he said, "I am deeply shocked. I know how terrible your loss is. Frau von Huhn died of pneumonia."

"Nonsense!" Fromm snapped. "Who told you that? She committed-"

"Frau Bella, please understand, our friend had pneumonia. Further explanations are undesirable. In your interest, as well."

MOST GUESTS HAD FOUND the ball to be a lovely diversion. "We all had a really good time," wrote Louis Lochner in a letter to his daughter at school in America, "and the party was a jolly one." Amba.s.sador Dodd, predictably, had a different a.s.sessment: "The dinner was a bore, though the company present might under other circ.u.mstances have been most informing." the ball to be a lovely diversion. "We all had a really good time," wrote Louis Lochner in a letter to his daughter at school in America, "and the party was a jolly one." Amba.s.sador Dodd, predictably, had a different a.s.sessment: "The dinner was a bore, though the company present might under other circ.u.mstances have been most informing."

One result was unexpected. Instead of embittered estrangement between Dodd and Papen, there grew instead a warm and lasting a.s.sociation. "From that day on," Sigrid Schultz observed, "Papen himself cultivated the friendship of Amba.s.sador Dodd with the greatest a.s.siduity." Papen's behavior toward Schultz also improved. He seemed to have decided, she wrote, that "it was better to display his Sunday manners toward me." This, she found, was typical of a certain kind of German. "Whenever they come up against someone who will not stand for their arrogance, they climb down from their perch and behave," she wrote. "They respect character when they meet it, and if more people had shown firmness to Hitler's handyman Papen and his acolytes in small every day contacts, as well as in big affairs of state, the n.a.z.i growth could have been slowed up."

RUMOR SPREAD ABOUT THE true cause of Poulette's death. After the funeral, Fromm was accompanied home by a good friend to whom she felt a daughterly bond-"Mammi" von Carnap, wife of a former chamberlain to the kaiser and long an excellent source of information for Fromm's column. Although loyal to the old Germany, the Carnaps were sympathetic to Hitler and his campaign to restore the nation's strength. true cause of Poulette's death. After the funeral, Fromm was accompanied home by a good friend to whom she felt a daughterly bond-"Mammi" von Carnap, wife of a former chamberlain to the kaiser and long an excellent source of information for Fromm's column. Although loyal to the old Germany, the Carnaps were sympathetic to Hitler and his campaign to restore the nation's strength.

Mammi seemed to have something on her mind. After a few moments, she said, "Bellachen, we are all so shocked that the new regulations should have this effect!"

Fromm was startled. "But Mammi," Fromm said, "don't you realize? This is only the beginning. This thing will turn against all of you who helped to create it."

Mammi ignored the remark. "Frau von Neurath advises you to hurry up and get baptized," she said. "They are very anxious at the foreign office to avoid a second casus casus Poulette." Poulette."

Fromm found this astonishing-that someone could be so ignorant of the new realities of Germany as to think that mere baptism could restore one's status as an Aryan.

"Poor old fool!" Fromm wrote in her diary.

CHAPTER 27.

O Tannenbaum It was almost Christmas. The winter sun, when it shone at all, climbed only partway into the southern sky and cast evening shadows at midday. Frigid winds came in off the plains. "Berlin is a skeleton which aches in the cold," wrote Christopher Isherwood, describing the winters he experienced during his tenure in 1930s Berlin: "It is my own skeleton aching. I feel in my bones the sharp ache of the frost in the girders of the overhead railway, in the ironwork of balconies, in bridges, tramlines, lamp-standards, latrines. The iron throbs and shrinks, the stone and the bricks ache dully, the plaster is numb."

The gloom was leavened somewhat by the play of lights on wet streets-sidewalk lamps, storefronts, headlights, the warmly lit interiors of countless streetcars-and by the city's habitual embrace of Christmas. Candles appeared in every window and large trees lit with electric lights graced squares and parks and the busiest street corners, reflecting a pa.s.sion for the season that even the Storm Troopers could not suppress and in fact used to their financial advantage. The SA monopolized the sale of Christmas trees, selling them from rail yards, ostensibly for the benefit of the Winterhilfe-literally, Winter Help-the SA's charity for the poor and jobless, widely believed by cynical Berliners to fund the Storm Troopers' parties and banquets, which had become legendary for their opulence, their debauchery, and the volume of champagne consumed. Troopers went door-to-door carrying red donation boxes. Donors received little badges to pin on their clothing to show they had given money, and they made sure to wear them, thereby putting oblique pressure on those brave or foolhardy souls who failed to contribute.

Another American ran afoul of the government, due to a false denunciation by "persons who had a grudge against him," according to a consulate report. It was the kind of moment that decades hence would become a repeated motif in films about the n.a.z.i era.

At about four thirty in the morning on Tuesday, December 12, 1933, an American citizen named Erwin Wollstein stood on a train platform in Breslau waiting for a train to Oppeln in Upper Silesia, where he planned to conduct some business. He was leaving so early because he hoped to return later that same day. In Breslau he shared an apartment with his father, who was a German citizen.

Two men in suits approached and called him by name. They identified themselves as officers of the Gestapo and asked him to accompany them to a police post located in the train station.

"I was ordered to remove my overcoat, coat, shoes, spats, collar and necktie," Wollstein wrote in an affidavit. The agents then searched him and his belongings. This took nearly half an hour. They found his pa.s.sport and quizzed him on his citizenship. He confirmed that he was an American citizen and asked that they notify the American consulate in Breslau of his arrest.

The agents then took him by car to the Breslau Central Police Station, where he was placed in a cell. He was given "a frugal breakfast." He remained in his cell for the next nine hours. In the meantime, his father was arrested and their apartment searched. The Gestapo confiscated personal and business correspondence and other doc.u.ments, including two expired and canceled American pa.s.sports.

At five fifteen that afternoon the two Gestapo agents took Wollstein upstairs and at last read him the charges filed against him, citing denunciations by three people whom Wollstein knew: his landlady, a second woman, and a male servant who cleaned the apartment. His landlady, Miss Bleicher, had charged that two months earlier he had said, "All Germans are dogs." His servant, Richard Kuhne, charged that Wollstein had declared that if another world war occurred, he would join the fight against Germany. The third, a Miss Strausz, charged that Wollstein had loaned her husband "a communistic book." The book, as it happened, was Oil! Oil! by Upton Sinclair. by Upton Sinclair.

Wollstein spent the night in jail. The next morning he was permitted to confront his denouncers face-to-face. He accused them of having lied. Now, unprotected by the veil of anonymity, the witnesses wavered. "The witnesses themselves appeared to be confused and not sure of their ground," Wollstein recalled in his affidavit.

Meanwhile, the U.S. consul in Breslau reported the arrest to the consulate in Berlin. Vice Consul Raymond Geist in turn complained to Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels and requested a full report on Wollstein's arrest. That evening, Diels telephoned and told Geist that on his orders Wollstein would be released.

Back in Breslau, the two Gestapo men ordered Wollstein to sign a statement declaring that he would never "be an enemy to the German State." The doc.u.ment included a magnanimous offer: that if he ever felt his safety endangered, he could report for arrest under protective custody.

He was released.

MARTHA a.s.sIGNED HERSELF the task of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the family tree, an enormous fir placed in the ballroom on the second floor of the house. She enlisted the help of Boris, Bill, butler Fritz, the family chauffeur, and various friends who stopped by to help. She resolved to have a tree that was entirely white and silver and so bought silver b.a.l.l.s, silver tinsel, a large silver star, and white candles, eschewing electric lights for the more traditional and infinitely more lethal approach. "In those days," she wrote, "it was heresy to think of electric lights for a tree." She and her helpers kept pails of water nearby. the task of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the family tree, an enormous fir placed in the ballroom on the second floor of the house. She enlisted the help of Boris, Bill, butler Fritz, the family chauffeur, and various friends who stopped by to help. She resolved to have a tree that was entirely white and silver and so bought silver b.a.l.l.s, silver tinsel, a large silver star, and white candles, eschewing electric lights for the more traditional and infinitely more lethal approach. "In those days," she wrote, "it was heresy to think of electric lights for a tree." She and her helpers kept pails of water nearby.

Her father, she wrote, was "bored with all this foolishness" and avoided the project, as did her mother, who was busy with myriad other holiday preparations. Bill was helpful to a point but had a tendency to drift away in search of more engaging pursuits. The project took two days and two evenings.

Martha found it funny that Boris was willing to help, given that he claimed not to believe in the existence of G.o.d. She smiled as she watched him at work atop a stepladder dutifully helping her trim a symbol of the foremost holy day of the Christian faith.

"My darling atheist," she recalled telling him, "why do you help me decorate a Christmas tree to celebrate the birth of Christ?"

He laughed. "This isn't for Christians or for Christ, liebes Kind liebes Kind," he said, "only for pagans like you and me. Anyway, it is very beautiful. What would you like?" He sat at the apex of the ladder. "Do you want me to put my white orchids on top? Or would you prefer a handsome red star?"

She insisted on white.

He protested. "But red is is a more beautiful color than white, darling." a more beautiful color than white, darling."

Despite the tree and Boris and the overall cheer of the season, Martha felt that a fundamental element was absent from her life in Berlin. She missed her friends-Sandburg and Wilder and her colleagues at the Tribune Tribune-and her comfortable house in Hyde Park. By now her friends and neighbors would be gathering for cozy parties, caroling sessions, and mulled wine.

On Thursday, December 14, she wrote a long letter to Wilder. She felt keenly the withering of her connection to him. Just knowing him gave her a sense of credibility, as if by refraction she too possessed literary cachet. But she had sent him a short story of hers, and he had said nothing. "Have you lost even your literary interest in me or shall I say your interest in the literary me (what there is left of it, if there was anything to begin with). And your trip to Germany. Has it been definitely pa.s.sed up. Gosh, you have certainly given me the slip, to lapse back into Berlin slang for a moment!"

She had done little other writing, she told him, though she had found a certain satisfaction in talking and writing about books, thanks to her new friendship with Arvid and Mildred Harnack. Together, she told Wilder, "we have concluded we are the only people in Berlin genuinely interested in writers." Mildred and she had begun their book column. "She is tall and beautiful with a heavy burden of honey colored hair-dark honey in some lights.... Very poor and real and fine and not much in favor though the family is old and respected. An oasis really to me mad with thirst."

She alluded to her father's sense that a conspiracy was mounting against him from within the State Department. "Mazes of hate and intrigue in our Emba.s.sy have as yet failed to trap us," she wrote.

Hatreds of a more personal kind had touched her as well. In America her secret marriage to Ba.s.sett and her equally secret effort to divorce him had become public knowledge. "Nasty what my enemies cooked up about me in Chicago," she told Wilder. One woman in particular, whom Martha identified as f.a.n.n.y, had begun spreading especially unpleasant rumors out of what Martha believed to be jealousy over Martha's publication of a short story. "She insists that you and I have had an affair and it has come back to me from two people. I wrote to her the other day pointing out the dangers of slander unfounded and indicated the mess she might get into." She added, "I feel sorry for her, but it does not alter the fact that she is a rather slimy mouthed b.i.t.c.h."

She sought to capture for Wilder a sense of the wintry city outside her windows, this new world in which she found herself. "The snow is soft and deep lying here-a copper smoke mist over Berlin by day and the brilliance of the falling moon by night. The gravel squeaks under my window at night-the sinister faced, lovely lipped and gaunt Diels of the Prussian Secret Police must be watching and the gravel spits from under his soft shoes to warn me. He wears his deep scars as proudly as I would fling about in a wreath of edelweiss."

She expressed a deep and pervading sorrow. "The smell of peace is abroad, the air is cold, the skies are brittle, and the leaves have finally fallen. I wear a pony coat with skin like watered silk and m.u.f.f of lamb. My fingers lie in depths of warmth. I have a jacket of silver sequins and heavy bracelets of rich corals. I wear about my neck a triple thread-like chain of lapis lazulis and pearls. On my face is softness and content like a veil of golden moonlight. And I have never in all my lives been so lonely."

THOUGH MARTHA'S REFERENCE to "mazes of hate" was a bit strong, Dodd had indeed begun to sense that a campaign was gathering against him within the State Department and that its partic.i.p.ants were the men of wealth and tradition. He suspected also that they were a.s.sisted by one or more people on his own staff providing intelligence in sotto voce fashion about him and the operation of the emba.s.sy. Dodd grew increasingly suspicious and guarded, so much so that he began writing his most sensitive letters in longhand because he did not trust the emba.s.sy stenographers to keep their contents confidential. to "mazes of hate" was a bit strong, Dodd had indeed begun to sense that a campaign was gathering against him within the State Department and that its partic.i.p.ants were the men of wealth and tradition. He suspected also that they were a.s.sisted by one or more people on his own staff providing intelligence in sotto voce fashion about him and the operation of the emba.s.sy. Dodd grew increasingly suspicious and guarded, so much so that he began writing his most sensitive letters in longhand because he did not trust the emba.s.sy stenographers to keep their contents confidential.

He had reason to be concerned. Messersmith continued his back-channel correspondence with Undersecretary Phillips. Raymond Geist, Messersmith's number-two officer (another Harvard man) also kept watch on the affairs of Dodd and the emba.s.sy. During a stop in Washington, Geist had a long and secret conversation with Wilbur Carr, chief of consular services, during which Geist provided a wide range of intelligence, including details about unruly parties thrown by Martha and Bill that sometimes lasted until five in the morning. "On one occasion the hilarity was so great," Geist told Carr, that it drew a written complaint to the consulate. This prompted Geist to call Bill into his office, where he warned him, "If there was a repet.i.tion of that conduct it would have to be reported officially." Geist also offered a critique of Amba.s.sador Dodd's performance: "The Amba.s.sador is mild mannered and unimpressive whereas the only kind of person who can deal successfully with the n.a.z.i Government is a man of intelligence and force who is willing to a.s.sume a dictatorial att.i.tude with the Government and insist upon his demands being met. Mr. Dodd is unable to do this."

The arrival in Berlin of a new man, John C. White, to replace George Gordon as counselor of emba.s.sy could only have increased Dodd's wariness. In addition to being wealthy and p.r.o.ne to hosting elaborate parties, White also happened to be married to the sister of Western European affairs chief Jay Pierrepont Moffat. The two brothers-in-law carried on a chummy correspondence, calling each other "Jack" and "Pierrepont." Dodd would not have found the opening line of one of White's first letters from Berlin to be terribly rea.s.suring: "There appears to be a spare typewriter round here, so I can write you without other witnesses." In one reply, Moffat called Dodd "a curious individual whom I find it almost impossible to diagnose."

To make matters even more claustrophobic for Dodd, another new officer, Orme Wilson, who arrived at about the same time to become a secretary of emba.s.sy, was Undersecretary Phillips's nephew.

When the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune printed an article about Dodd's request for leave in the coming year, along with conjecture that he might quit his post, Dodd complained to Phillips that someone within the department must have revealed his leave request, intending harm. What especially galled Dodd was a comment in the article attributed to an unnamed State Department spokesman. The article stated: "Permanent retirement from the post of Amba.s.sador to Germany is not contemplated by Professor Dodd, it was insisted here." With the perverse logic of publicity, the denial actually raised the question of Dodd's fate-would he retire or was he being forced from his post? The situation in Berlin was difficult enough without such speculation, Dodd told Phillips. "I believe von Neurath and his colleagues would be considerably displeased if this report were forwarded to them." printed an article about Dodd's request for leave in the coming year, along with conjecture that he might quit his post, Dodd complained to Phillips that someone within the department must have revealed his leave request, intending harm. What especially galled Dodd was a comment in the article attributed to an unnamed State Department spokesman. The article stated: "Permanent retirement from the post of Amba.s.sador to Germany is not contemplated by Professor Dodd, it was insisted here." With the perverse logic of publicity, the denial actually raised the question of Dodd's fate-would he retire or was he being forced from his post? The situation in Berlin was difficult enough without such speculation, Dodd told Phillips. "I believe von Neurath and his colleagues would be considerably displeased if this report were forwarded to them."

Phillips replied, with his now-familiar textual smirk, "I cannot imagine who gave the Tribune Tribune information regarding your possible leave next Spring," he wrote. "Certainly no one has asked the question of me.... One of the princ.i.p.al joys of the newspaper world is to start gossip about resignations. At times we all suffer from that phobia and do not take it seriously." information regarding your possible leave next Spring," he wrote. "Certainly no one has asked the question of me.... One of the princ.i.p.al joys of the newspaper world is to start gossip about resignations. At times we all suffer from that phobia and do not take it seriously."

In closing, Phillips noted that Messersmith, who was then in Washington on leave, had visited the department. "Messersmith has been with us for a few days and we have had some good talks on the various phases of the German situation."

Dodd would have been right to read those last lines with a degree of anxiety. During one of these visits to Phillips's office, Messersmith provided what Phillips described in his diary as "an inside glimpse of conditions in the Emba.s.sy in Berlin." Here too the subject of Martha and Bill came up. "Apparently," Phillips wrote, "the Amba.s.sador's son and daughter are not a.s.sisting the Emba.s.sy in any way and are too much inclined to running around to night clubs with certain Germans of not particularly good standing and with the press."

Messersmith also met with Moffat and Moffat's wife. The three spent an afternoon talking about Germany. "We went over it from all angles," Moffat wrote in his diary. The next day he and Messersmith had lunch, and several weeks later they met again. During one conversation, according to Moffat's diary, Messersmith claimed to be "much concerned at letters received from Dodd indicating that he was turning against his staff."

Dodd's recently departed counselor, George Gordon, happened to be on a lengthy leave in the United States at the same time as Messersmith. Though Gordon's relationship with Dodd had begun badly, by now Dodd grudgingly had come to see Gordon as an a.s.set. Gordon wrote to Dodd, "Our mutual friend G.S.M."-meaning Messersmith-"has been staging a most active campaign in support of his candidacy for the Legation at Prague." (Messersmith had long hoped to leave the Foreign Service behind and become a full-fledged diplomat; now, with the emba.s.sy in Prague available, he saw an opportunity.) Gordon noted that a torrent of letters and newspaper editorials testifying to Messersmith's "sterling work" had begun flowing into the department. "A familiar touch was imparted to all this," Gordon wrote, "when I heard that he had told one of the high officials that he really was a little embarra.s.sed by all the press eulogies of himself because he did not like that kind of thing!!!!"

Gordon added, in longhand: "O sancta virginitas simplicitasque," Latin for "Such pious maidenly innocence!"

ON DECEMBER 22, a Friday, Dodd got a visit from Louis Lochner, who brought troubling news. The visit itself was not unusual, for by now Dodd and the a.s.sociated Press bureau chief had become friends and met often to discuss events and exchange information. Lochner told Dodd that an official high in the n.a.z.i hierarchy had informed him that the next morning the court in the Reichstag trial would declare its verdict, and that all but van der Lubbe would be acquitted. This was stunning news by itself and, if true, would const.i.tute a serious blow to the prestige of Hitler's government and in particular to Goring's standing. It was precisely the "botch" Goring had feared. But Lochner's informant also had learned that Goring, still incensed at Dimitrov's impudence during their courtroom confrontation, now wanted Dimitrov dead. His death was to occur soon after the end of the trial. Lochner refused to identify his source but told Dodd that in conveying the information the source hoped to prevent further damage to Germany's already poor international reputation. Dodd believed the informant to be Rudolf Diels. 22, a Friday, Dodd got a visit from Louis Lochner, who brought troubling news. The visit itself was not unusual, for by now Dodd and the a.s.sociated Press bureau chief had become friends and met often to discuss events and exchange information. Lochner told Dodd that an official high in the n.a.z.i hierarchy had informed him that the next morning the court in the Reichstag trial would declare its verdict, and that all but van der Lubbe would be acquitted. This was stunning news by itself and, if true, would const.i.tute a serious blow to the prestige of Hitler's government and in particular to Goring's standing. It was precisely the "botch" Goring had feared. But Lochner's informant also had learned that Goring, still incensed at Dimitrov's impudence during their courtroom confrontation, now wanted Dimitrov dead. His death was to occur soon after the end of the trial. Lochner refused to identify his source but told Dodd that in conveying the information the source hoped to prevent further damage to Germany's already poor international reputation. Dodd believed the informant to be Rudolf Diels.

Lochner had come up with a plan to scuttle the a.s.sa.s.sination by publicizing it but wanted first to run the idea past Dodd, in case Dodd felt the diplomatic repercussions would be too great. Dodd approved but in turn consulted Sir Eric Phipps, the British amba.s.sador, who also agreed that Lochner should go ahead.

Lochner weighed precisely how to execute his plan. Oddly enough, the initial idea of publicizing the impending a.s.sa.s.sination had been brought to him by Goring's own press adjutant, Martin Sommerfeldt, who also had learned of the imminent murder. His source, according to one account, was Putzi Hanfstaengl, though it is entirely possible that Hanfstaengl learned of it from Diels. Sommerfeldt told Lochner that he knew from experience that "there is one way of dissuading the general. When the foreign press claims one thing about him, he stubbornly does the opposite." Sommerfeldt proposed that Lochner attribute the story to an "unimpeachable source" and stress that the murder would have "far reaching international consequences." Lochner faced a quandary, however. If he published so inflammatory a report through the a.s.sociated Press, he risked enraging Goring to the point where Goring might shut down the AP's Berlin bureau. It was far better, Lochner reasoned, to have the story break in a British newspaper. He, Sommerfeldt, and Hanfstaengl revised their plan.

Lochner knew that a very green reporter had just joined the Berlin bureau of Reuters. He invited him out for drinks at the Adlon Hotel, where Hanfstaengl and Sommerfeldt soon joined them. The new reporter savored his luck at this apparently chance convergence of senior officials.

After a few moments, Lochner mentioned to Sommerfeldt the rumor of a threat against Dimitrov. Sommerfeldt, as per plan, feigned surprise-surely Lochner had gotten it wrong, for Goring was a man of honor and Germany was a civilized land.

The Reuters reporter knew this was a big story and asked Sommerfeldt for permission to quote his denial. With a great show of reluctance, Sommerfeldt agreed.

The Reuters man raced off to file his story.

Late that afternoon, the report made the papers in Britain, Lochner told Dodd. Lochner also showed Dodd a telegram to the foreign press from Goebbels, in which Goebbels, acting as spokesman for the government, denied the existence of any plot to murder Dimitrov. Goring issued his own denial, dismissing the allegation as a "horrid rumor."

On December 23, as Lochner had forecast, the presiding judge in the Reichstag trial announced the court's verdict, acquitting Dimitrov, Torgler, Popov, and Tanev but finding van der Lubbe guilty of "high treason, insurrectionary arson and attempted common arson." The court condemned him to death, while also stating-despite ma.s.ses of testimony to the contrary-"that van der Lubbe's accomplices must be sought in the ranks of the Communist Party, that communism is therefore guilty of the Reichstag fire, that the German people stood in the early part of the year 1933 on the brink of chaos into which the Communists sought to lead them, and that the German people were saved at the last moment."

Dimitrov's ultimate fate, however, remained unclear.

AT LAST CAME CHRISTMAS DAY. Hitler was in Munich; Goring, Neurath, and other senior officials likewise had left Berlin. The city was quiet, truly at peace. Streetcars evoked toys under a tree.

At midday all the Dodds set out in the family Chevrolet and paid a surprise visit to the Lochners. Louis Lochner wrote in a round-robin letter to his daughter in America, "We were sitting together drinking our coffee, when suddenly the whole Dodd family-the Amba.s.sador, Mrs. Dodd, Martha, and young Mr. Dodd-snowed in on us just to wish us Merry Christmas. That was awfully nice of them, wasn't it? I like Mr. Dodd the more I work with him; he's a man of profound culture and endowed with one of the keenest minds I have come in contact with." Lochner described Mrs. Dodd as "a sweet, womanly woman who...like her husband far rather visits with a family of friends than go through all the diplomatic shallow stuff. The Dodds don't pretend to be social lions, and I admire them for it."

Dodd spent a few moments admiring the Lochners' tree and other decorations, then took Lochner aside and asked for the latest news of the Dimitrov affair.

Dimitrov thus far appeared to have escaped harm, Lochner said. He also reported that his highly placed source-whose ident.i.ty he still would not reveal to Dodd-had thanked him for handling the matter so deftly.

Dodd feared further repercussions, however. He remained convinced that Diels had played a key role in revealing the plot. Dodd continued to be surprised by Diels. He knew his reputation as a cynic and opportunist of the first order, but he found him time and again to be a man of integrity and worthy of respect. It was Diels, indeed, who earlier in the month had persuaded Goring and Hitler to decree a Christmas amnesty for inmates of concentration camps who were not hardened criminals or clearly dangerous to state security. Diels's precise motives cannot be known, but he considered that time, as he went from camp to camp selecting prisoners to be freed, one of the best moments of his career.

Dodd feared that Diels might have gone too far. In his diary entry for Christmas Day, Dodd wrote, "The Secret Police Chief did a most dangerous thing and I shall not be surprised later to hear that he has been sent to prison."

In traveling about the city that day, Dodd was struck anew by the "extraordinary" German penchant for Christmas display. He saw Christmas trees everywhere, in every public square and every window.

"One might think," he wrote, "the Germans believed in Jesus or practiced his teachings!"

1934.

PART V.

Disquiet

Hitler and Rohm ( (photo credit p5.1)

CHAPTER 28.