How Did William Dodd Last Long

Cheyanne Sitch
Pod Cast Extra Credit
William Dodd was a US Ambassador who was assigned in Germany. During this time, Hitler was about to come into office. Many people did not think Hitler would last long because he was such an overbearing kind of guy he created kayos. He had an abnormal manner about him and was violent. Diplomats around the world did not think that Hitler would last long because of his actions. They thought that the Germanic people would not tolerate his actions for very long. This was a really strong belief even after he had been in office for over a year. At one point in time, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration had been warned by Germany that Hitler wished that the general public knew how much power they were going to rise into, and how powerful their government was going to become. There was also the comment that was made saying some of
the men in office in Germany were supposed to be receiving treatment for being crazy.
Dodd was sent to Germany with goals of standing for American values while trying to get Germany to payback their vast amount of debt.
America wanted to get this money back for obvious reasons along with the fact that America was trying to get back on their feet from the depression. Hitler at this time, did not have complete control yet but he was already starting coordination campaigns. This was a formal campaign to get everyone involved with the anti-Nazi campaign. During this time, people who were returning from other countries going back to Berlin became completely shocked when they returned. When these people returned people of Berlin were: dressing different, had self-coordination, and doing the Hitler solute a certain times of the day. These were all practices associated with being anti-Nazi. Even though all of these practices where going on, Dodd was still convinced that the government was becoming moderate. Dodd had arrived among the people who were moderate. Dodd was under the impression that these types of people under Hitler would gain more control over time and mellow Hitler down a little
bit.
When Dodd had moved from America to Berlin, his daughter Martha had come along too. This was a completely new experience for her and she had many affairs with the Germans. Martha Dodd was 24 years old at this time. Berlin was a very vibrant city in her opinion at this time with all of the parties and street life. There was an incident that happened when they first arrived however; this is when she saw a girl drug through the city by storm troopers with people watching as if it was a parade. There was also a plaque that said “I offered myself to a Jew.” At first she did not think too much of this, but over time she started to come to the realization of what was really going on. Over time, Dodd also started coming to the same realization and how dangerous it truly was there. Dodd wanted to make a statement, but not one that would bring a bunch of attention to himself. Dodd and others were invited to an anti-Nazi event. Dodd wanted to decline but knew that it would be frowned upon so, he created an excuse that he and others went along with. The state department disagreed with it however.
The state department made a few statements about places being filled with Jews. During this time many embraced this kind of behaver. There were even times that Dodd wrote to the state department that he had too many Jews in his department. His receptionist was anti-Nazi so it created a lot of problems. When Dodd and Hitler were in an interview together, Dodd had asked Hitler why he pulled Germany from the League of Nations; this only angered Hitler. When Dodd had gone to this interview, he was expecting Hitler to be dressed how the media presented him. When Hitler was asked certain questions he would be calm prior and then out of nowhere he would become agitated and crazy. Hitler talked about Jews in a way that indicated he wanted to put an end to the existence to all of them. At this time Dodd did not think that Hitler would actually go to those measures. Over time, Dodd got the point that Hitler was being serious. In the summer of 1934, things turned for the worse in Germany. There was a purge; this was a horrific event that all started with a conflict between Hitler and a long term friend. Hitler did not want to share his power which caused conflict. This was when a weekend purge was planned. As many as 700 Nazis were killed. Unfortunately, many of these people were people whom Dodd knew. This was Dodd’s pivotal turning point where he became fully aware of what was going on. Dodd tried expressing this to the state department but they did not care though. They only cared about getting the debt paid back. Shortly after that, in 1937 Dodd left due to medical issues he was having. Dodd was then replaced by Hue Wilson. Wilson was the opposite of Dodd; Wilson was sympathetic to Hitler in the beginning. Then the Chrystal riot (the night of broken glass) happened and this completely changed Wilson’s opinion. This time of history was incredibly hard to live in, so hard in fact, that now authors have a hard time writing about events that happened during this time.