Page 173 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

160 The American Diplomats

were about one hundred thousand political prisoners in Germany, many
more than the official figure of eighteen thousand. He also pointed out that
many Nazis incarcerated for serious crimes—often murder—were being
pardoned, and after their release the criminals were “given a rousing ova-
tion by the Nazis in their home town.” dodd spared no details in recount-
ing the barbaric treatment by the Nazis of suspected opponents. He related
the story of “Frau luedemann, the wife of a former Oberpräsident in sile-
sia,” who was imprisoned in the same camp as her husband because she had
made “untrue assertions about conditions in the concentration camp.” He
told of the arrest and imprisonment without trial of family members of the
former president of the Weimar republic, Friedrich ebert, for no reason
other than that they were related to a social democrat. dodd also noted
that there were daily announcements of political prisoners having been shot
while trying to escape. the brutality and sadism of the Nazis was thus well
known in Washington as early as the summer of 1933. 39
in mid-august, while dodd was pondering these unappealing features
of the New Order, he (and the chiefs of mission from other countries) re-
ceived an unexpected and unwelcome invitation to attend ceremonies to
be held in Nuremberg on september 2 and 3 at the time of the Nazi Party
caucus. these party meetings or rallies were major public events attended
by hundreds of thousands of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers to celebrate
the achievements of the National socialist movement. Hitler often made
major policy announcements at these gatherings. the invitation to dodd
indicated that the German government would make all the travel arrange-
ments, provide accommodations for chiefs of mission, and treat the foreign
diplomats as “personal guests” of the Führer. the invitation caused “much
perturbation” among all the ambassadors, with the exception of those who
represented Fascist states, such as italy and Hungary. 40
dodd immediately asked the state department for “full instructions” on
how to respond to this “entirely unprecedented” invitation, which he and
several other ambassadors considered “provocative.” He indicated that he
would like to decline to attend if he could find a gracious way of doing so.
He also let Washington know that if he and the British refused to attend the
event in Nuremberg, “it would strengthen the hand of the liberal and peace
forces in Germany.” William Phillips, the acting secretary of state, adopted
a cautious position: he did not think that the United states should take the
lead in this matter because the British and French had much more at stake.
But in the end the acting secretary left it up to dodd to decide how to re-
spond, not a very helpful or courageous stand. However, Phillips assured