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AMERICAN EYEWITNESSES IN GERMANY TO THE RISE & GROWTH OF THE THIRD REICH
While many books abound about the experiences of Americans in Paris and London during the 1920s and 1930s, there are correspondingly few books available about the experiences of those Americans who spent time in Germany from the 1920s to the early 1940s. This particular book stimulated my curiosity about some of the Americans --- journalists, military officers, writers, scholars, and diplomats --- who first became aware as early as 1922 of the leader of a then insignificant nationalist, right wing political party whose name was Adolf Hitler, and observed the subsequent growth of the Nazi Party and Hitler's ascension to power in Germany in 1933.
One of the most interesting tidbits I was surprised to learn from reading this book was that the Nazis allowed Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, the foremost African American intellectual and historian of his generation, to spend time in Germany on a fellowship from 1935 to 1936. His observations about the Berlin Olympics were fascinating. Indeed, "Hitlerland" is the book I would recommend to anyone who wants an insight into the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of Americans who served in Germany as witnesses to the growth and consolidation of Nazism and the Third Reich.
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