Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary - Hardcover

Fromm, Bella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559720557 ISBN 13: 9781559720557

Publisher: Birch Lane Press, 1990

Synopsis

The diary, smuggled out of Nazi Germany, of a Jewish woman who wrote the social column for a major Berlin newspaper, and was able to observe the rise of the Nazis

About this title

Review

As a Berlin social reporter in the years leading up to WWII, Bella Fromm mingled with some of the most important and influential members of Hitler's rising Third Reich. Given the Nazis' appreciation for propaganda, this fact alone would be unremarkable, but her writings take on special interest when coupled with the knowledge that she received such access while openly proclaiming her own Jewish background and anti-Nazi sympathies. As she dutifully reported on the countless dinners, galas, and cultural events attended by German high society, Fromm also kept a secret diary that chronicled the seemingly inexplicable growth and horrifying consequences of National Socialism: "It's not curious that all this is beginning to make me feel like a stranger in my own country, that I am beginning to be aware of a feeling of hostility...."

Fearing for her life, Fromm fled Germany in 1938, smuggling her incriminating diary out in separate parcels before she left. First published in 1943, these recollections wear the patina of an Allied effort at public relations, but the prescient accuracy of her dire predictions is intriguing nonetheless. And, while invariably placing herself in the shining glow of absolute moral and ethical integrity, her insightful observations offer an interesting record of the many actions--both heroic and cowardly--she witnessed during this particularly ugly period of mass hysteria. --George Laney

Edition details

• Publisher: Birch Lane Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 1559720557
• ISBN 13: 9781559720557
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 338