In The Garden Of Beasts

Even if you think you've heard it all about Hitler, you haven't. Monster is an understatement.

Very good historical book on the struggles of a family during Nazi rule. The Chicago family are the Dodd's, the American ambassadors to Germany during that time, so it's even more interesting because they had a direct communication with Hitler. The focus is more on Ambassador Dodd himself for the political side of what happened, and Martha, his highly promiscuous daughter who exposes herself to the social life of Germany.

Weird things I didn't know about Nazi rule (but I'm not surprised):

-If you were on the phone and were spelling something out, you couldn't say J as in Jacob because that's a Jewish name, You'd have to say J and is Joke or something non Jewish.

-German men could divorce their wives if they found out if they had Jewish lineage.

- America knew there was a lot of nonsense going on in Nazi Germany, and chose to stay out of it because they thought if they became involved Germany would default on the massive loan they owed American creditors. Money truly is the root of all evil.

-In addition to harassment to Jewish folks, Americans were brutalized if they didn't "heil Hitler" and raise their arms by the SS.

-Mentally retarded people were told they could not procreate, and it was actually passed as a law that they couldn't. This was to make sure that family lines in Germany were "strong".

Thankfully, this book goes into what happens before the concentration camp horrors reached its peak. It was prior to Germany invading Poland and France. So, this is the struggle before the real struggle.

Not for everyone, but I love my WWII history, so it was worth it for me. Also..it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that I gave someone a card on their wedding day that said "Thank you for being an Aryan", along with a poem inside about Aryan's. Scary. So scary....it goes to show how much this book bothered me.