In the Garden of the Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin is the story of William E. Dodd, a University of Chicago professor, who was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt as America’s first ambassador to Germany. Dodd was not Roosevelt’s first choice, nor was he is second choice, however he was the only person to accept this challenging position. The year was 1933, the year Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Together William Dodd and his family settled into a grand house located on Berlin’s central park, the Tiergarte (translation: garden of the beast).
While Dodd’s 24-year-old daughter Martha was out enjoying Berlin with the young handsome men of the Third Reich, Ambassador Dodd was beginning to realize that the acts of anti-Semitism he had heard so much about were not exaggerated as he originally believed to be the case. In The Garden of the Beasts is a riveting, frightening nonfiction book, based on the year the Dodd family spent in Berlin as Hitler rose to absolute power.
Please join us in reading In the Garden of the Beasts!
Friday Morning Bookclub 
If you like history, this is a great book. I felt like I was reading a text book. It took me a little time to get into it.
Comment by Lynn — April 2, 2012 @ 9:23 am |