March 2012 Newsletter

February 26, 2012 Vol # 2 No. 14
Next meeting: Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Our next lecturer will be Andrew Nagorski who will discuss his newest book, just published, Hitlerland, American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. John McLaughlin met Andrew at the Hoover Institution 3 years ago when Andrew was doing research for his book. At the time John was completing his research for the Wedemeyer biography and some of the research overlapped.

Hitlerland is the story of Americans who happened to be in Berlin during the fateful years of the Nazi buildup of power that led to the Second World War.

Some of the Americans in Weimar and then Hitler's Germany were merely casual observers, others deliberately blind; a few were Nazi apologists. But most slowly began to understand the horror of what was unfolding, even when they found it difficult to grasp the breadth of the catastrophe.

Among the journalists, William Shirer, Edgar Mowrer, and Dorothy Thompson were increasingly alarmed. Counsel General George Messersmith stood out among the American diplomats because of his passion and courage. Truman Smith, the first American to meet Hitler, was an astute political observer and a resourceful military attache.

Observing Hitler up close, the most perceptive of the Americans helped their reluctant countrymen begin to understand the nature of Nazi Germany as it ruthlessly eliminated all the political opponents, instilled hatred of Jews and anyone deemed a member of an inferior race.
Nagorski was the first lecturer at the start of the Book Club three years ago and drew a large audience. Don't miss this exciting lecture.

Carol Schultz Vento
Ms. Vento's lecture February 21 about her book The Hidden Legacy of World War II generated a good deal of interest. We had about 65 people in attendance.

Future Programs
On April 17 Leila Levinson will talk about her new book Gated Grief, the story of her father, an army surgeon who landed at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 along with the first wave of American soldiers. He tended to hundreds of wounded, but was not prepared for what he experienced, when among the first group of Americans who liberated Nordhausen, the infamous Nazi Concentration Camp, he saw what had happened to tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners who had perished.

On Tuesday, May 15, 2012 we will have a lecture by Dr. Josh Botts of the State Department. Dr. Botts is an expert on the subject of Yalta the most important Allied Conference of World War II.
John McLaughlin's biography of General Wedemeyer, will be available at the book stores in April 2012.