Page 184 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The American Diplomats 171

clearly to oust Jews from all spheres of German culture as well as from the
economy. this campaign, as a dispatch noted on april 10, 1933, had been
63
given new stimulus by a speech Hitler had recently delivered to representa-
tives of Nazi medical associations; he vowed to purge “the German people,
and especially the intellectual circles, of Jewish influence, declaring that
the greatest achievements in the intellectual life had never been attained
by members of a foreign race, but only by those who embodied aryan and
pure German intellectual energy. to permit an unduly large proportion of
Jews in the professions could be interpreted as an admission of their intel-
lectual superiority, which, he declared, must be resolutely rejected.” 64
Within the staff of the american embassy, Consul Messersmith became
the most prolific and certainly the most influential exponent of the evils of
Nazi anti-semitism and of Nazism in general. Historians have often praised
him for his “substantive” warnings about Nazism, and Nazi leaders were
furious at him for that reason. Putzi Hanfstaengl, a favorite of Hitler and
his court jester, was so angry at Messersmith that he spread the canard that
he was a Jew. But even Messersmith initially misunderstood Hitler’s rac-
65
ism.
Messersmith was an interesting man whose rise to prominence in the
diplomatic corps followed an unusual path. He was born in 1883 to a family
whose ancestors had moved from Germany to Pennsylvania in the 1700s.
although he never completed his studies at college, he became a successful
teacher with a strong commitment to reform along “progressive lines,” and
while still in his twenties he published a book on civics. His vigorous cam-
paign for reform made him many enemies, and in 1913 he decided on a new
career. He took the examination for the Foreign service, which he passed,
but officials considered him unsuited for a career as a diplomat because
he lacked private means. He therefore joined the Consular service, which
handled the promotion of american commercial interests, the issuance of
passports, and the verification of individuals claiming to be U.s. citizens.
after a series of postings to consulates in Curaçao, the Netherlands, and
antwerp, he was assigned to Berlin in 1930. By now he was a respected of-
ficial who had demonstrated strong sympathy for the disadvantaged, a trait
especially noticeable in his work in Germany. 66
as a person of considerable ambition, Messersmith resented not being
allowed to write political reports, and during the hundred days between
sackett’s departure from Berlin and dodd’s arrival, he simply ignored the
restrictions and wrote a series of dispatches on conditions in Germany.
Gordon, the chargé d’affaires during those days, did not appreciate his col-