Book 21 of 52: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

It's been a few weeks since I posted. This book took me a little longer to finish than I would have hoped. Glen (my sweet hubby) is transitioning out of his current job and reading hasn't been a priority during this stressful time. But his new start should mean more flexibility for our family and hopefully more reading and workout time for me!

I picked up this book on the recommendation of Carla, a co-worker and fellow bibliophile. It's non-fiction and takes place mainly during 1933 and 1934 as the Nazi's rose to power. I've read lots of books about the Holocaust and thought that this might fill in some gaps for me, as I really didn't understand how people could let it get so bad in Nazi Germany to begin with.

The book is essentially a biography of  the US Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, a mild-mannered, penny-pincher professor and writer. It explores what life was like in Berlin during the first years of Hitler's regime as seen through the eyes of both him and his daughter Martha. There was tremendous research put into it, with the last quarter of it as endnotes and references. Despite the details, it read more like fiction, although there were some slow spots that I hit occasionally which made it hard to stay awake past 1am.

It's not that I'm lazy here, but a quote from the Globe & Mail really describes this book in a nutshell:

"This is a very sad book, sad because it was clear that Hitler could have been stopped early on, sad because so many Germans blithely followed him into the house of horrors, and sad because the small acts of defiance – undiplomatically lecturing Nazi leaders on German history – and breaches of protocol that make William Dodd a hero to us now made him seem a bit of a fool to others then."

For me, I appreciated the detail and richness of Larson's descriptions of Berlin as it reminded me of my trip there in 1988 (visiting both East & West Berlin, before the Wall came down). I was only 15 at the time and didn't really understand how lucky I was to have the experience, especially seeing East Berlin. The strongest memories are of a terrifying interrogation at the border between East and West Berlin, and my first airport "pat-down" upon leaving East Berlin airport, which sadly are now commonplace in our Canadian airports today. Reading this book brought back these 'ugly' memories and made me realize just how lucky we are to have our human rights and how little by little they can be chipped away before we even know it.