Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Diary, 1930-38

Life in Nazi Germany is one of my interests, and here is someone who lived at the very top of it: a social columnist who moved in the highest circles. The book is made of small, medium, and large diary entries in which Bella Fromm hob nobs with everyone who matters, right up to the most important Nazi leaders. It's fascinating to see people from history encountered as just party guests, people you run into on the street, and so on. Of special note: you read how much the powerful thought they could use the Nazis, then saw the Nazis take over everything. It's right there in page after page--and Bella Fromm called it correctly at every turn. A fascinating book.

imagine a fashion reporter being in the middle of the nazi takeover. its like 'sex and the city' crossed with a horror movie. what can i say. a gossip hound who instead of reporting on stars and celebrities and politicians... revealing their foibles, she instead gives us the gossip on the nazi leaders. the hypocrisy of their attitudes and philosophy, stands out like green on yellow. if jon stewart had something to say about the nazis he might have pointed out the things that Bella did. for example, she describes over and over the nazis ability to appreciate art, but they just dont seem to get it. they like the look of it, the feeling of being there, but it doesnt raise anything in them... or does it? one time, hitler is watching a performance, and he says 'this fellow is wonderful, pity he is a jew'. doesnt he have jews working for him? the strangest thing is when she meets hitler. he compliments her, and she secretly wonders what hed think if only he knew. yes all the powerful have stupid secrets, things they are so sure of that are empty and revealed easily by the most ordinary and unermarkable, at least to the angels of historical bombast and power pretense, of people. it is simply incredible. she observes these people, goering, hitler himself, the way youd find ordinary people described in other books. hitler and the others are not towering figures they are not titans of anything, she cuts them down with a few comments about their demeanor or their social skills, or lack thereof. --------------------------------- the experience of a german citizen , relatively well off, watching the nazis slowly take over, watching her world slowly sour and rot around her, is amazing... truly amazing. there is nothing abstract about the take over, no dates and facts dryly presented as a history book. no instead one of the young men workers at her office gets caught up in the propaganda, joins the SS, and ends up being murdered because he talked too much about what they were doing, the evil of their tactics. imagine the silliest american drama/comedy set in the editorial offices of the socialite section of a newspaper, then throw in the take over by the nazis, people disappearing, and our hero, a normal writer, an unassuming reporter... her acts of defiance are to help dozens of people escape by using her social and political connections. and eventually she has to escape herself, complete with nazi assasins on her tail, where she finds a new life in america, starting at the bottom of the economic ladder and trying to work her way back to normalcy. i only wish there were a movie of it.