Last Train From Berlin

[stonemint]

Has anyone read this? It was written in 1941 by the last American journalist to leave Germany, Howard K Smith (the broadcaster, for those who watched the news back in the early 70's).

I am interested in any opinions, pro or con before I add another book I don't have space for.

[stonemint]

No one has read this? It was recently republished.

[tgn]

I read the book. Howard K. Smith was a left wing fanatic. He excused the excesses (i.e. murders) by the the communists as an unfortunate ends to a means, but of course condemned everything the Germans did at the same time. I can't believe this guy was once an "unbiased" news caster after the war.

The book is leftist slanted propaganda...

BTW, it was published years ago, only recently reprinted.

Tom

[stonemint]

I read the book. Howard K. Smith was a left wing fanatic. He excused the excesses (i.e. murders) by the the communists as an unfortunate ends to a means, but of course condemned everything the Germans did at the same time. I can't believe this guy was once an "unbiased" news caster after the war.

The book is leftist slanted propaganda...

BTW, it was published years ago, only recently reprinted.

Tom

Tom, thanks for the review--I will skip it.

[LarryHW.]

RE: Last Train From Berlin

I don't defend or attack Howard K. Smith's record. He was a major force in TV News, moderating the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, among other things. His views varied over time. In the late 60's and early 70's he was a strong supprter of the US effort in Vietnam and, for a time, a favorite of President Nixon. He did view the Soviets as the lesser evil than the Nazis, as did most people in the US and England at that time. You can read more about him on Wikipedia. His son, Jack Smith, is an still an ABC News correspondent, I think.

Smith spent the years 1936-41 in Europe, mostly in Germany. This book, which was a bestseller, is significant because it offered one of the few looks at Germany in the years 1940 through the end of 1941 that was then available to Americans. Smith was CBS correspondent in Berlin during that time. He was a witness to a lot of history. Before deciding you want to pass on the book, you might want to consider that it is a factually accurate eyewitness view of that time and place.

One of the key points Smith makes in the book, which was written in 1942, is that the Nazis were committed to making the Jews the scapegoats for their (even then) likely defeat and, that once they began to believe that victory was not possible, were going to try to kill every Jew in their control. (Which, in fact, was the case.) He wrote of how anti-Jewish propaganda began to increase just as Germany ran into difficuties near Moscow. Smith was witness to the beginning of the deportation of Jews from Germany to Poland and Russia. He lived next to a old Jewish woman, and her daughter and describes their arrest and the Gestapo siezure of the apartment and auctioning off of all possesstions inside.

Smith also sensed that most Germans, outside of hardcore Nazis, would have given up most of their conquests for an end to the war. Others have also written of this, too. He also described the "wear and tear" that war was beginning to take on German home life by late 1941, describing what it was like to ride on a streetcar, people increasingly short tempered wtih each other and the increasingly limited food and clothing access. He also talked about the huge demand for speed pills like Prevetin, which civilians would try to get from German servicemen. Remember, none of these things were known much outside of Germany at the time.

Last Train Out of Berlin is stil an interesting read, from a journalist who was there. The book has stood the test of time as a factual report. Given what we know about the history of that time and place, it remains a worthwhile historical work. You might even be able to read portions of it for free on Google.