Publishers Weekly
07/22/2019
As historian Breitman recounts in this inspiring history, U.S. consul Raymond Geist’s tireless work in extracting victims of Nazism from Germany before WWII called for extreme finesse and a rare balancing act. As the U.S. consul in Berlin, Geist’s job entailed handling visas for emigrants to the U.S. Breitman explains that, as Hitler’s regime slowly began its systematic oppression and extermination of Europe’s Jews, Geist (1885–1955) tangled with the American government. Negotiating immigration quotas and constantly changing standards (such as a provision barring anyone “likely to become a public charge”), Geist worked to gently but firmly cajole, persuade, and manipulate his superiors. At the same time, he was meeting with and personally pressuring Nazi officials such as Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler to allow Jews to leave the country—and hiding his romantic relationship with a German man. In securing visas for hundreds of unaccompanied children and expediting the emigration of such people as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, Breitman writes, “Geist fought against Nazi Germany indirectly.” Breitman heralds Geist’s heroism, noting that he was among the first to sound the alarm about Hitler’s plans for world domination and genocide. This stirring history, which unearths a little-known role model of resistance, will move readers. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Breitman has...located a 1938 document, published in full as an appendix, which today reads with a terrifying clairvoyance. 'The Germans are determined to solve the Jewish problem without the assistance of other countries, and that means eventual annihilation,' Geist wrote. This, Breitman says, amounts to the first, explicit warning of the coming Holocaust by an American official, and certainly qualifies as the book's most significant contribution to the historical record."—James Kirchick, Tablet
"Inspiring...This stirring history, which unearths a little-known role model of resistance, will move readers."—Publishers Weekly
"A vivid chronicle of 1930s Germany conveyed through the life of a lesser-known historical figure."—Kirkus Reviews
"No American knew Nazi Germany better than Raymond Geist—and no one is better qualified to tell his story than Richard Breitman. As the long-serving US consul in Berlin, Geist served as the trusted intermediary between terrified Jews and their Gestapo tormentors. One of America's leading Holocaust historians, Breitman has skillfully pieced together Geist's extraordinary, largely untold life, including a politically risky homosexual romance. A thrilling read, and a great achievement."—Michael Dobbs, author of The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village caught in between
"In Berlin Mission, Richard Breitman tells us the riveting story of Raymond Geist, an American diplomat stationed in Nazi Germany throughout the pre-war years. Based on entirely new documentation, the book presents the difficult path of an official in charge of visas to the United States, who witnessed and understood the growing plight of German Jews and helped many to reach the American safe haven, notwithstanding a restrictive immigration policy. Geist's efforts became the more crucial as, in early as in December 1938, he deduced from his contacts at the highest ranks of the Gestapo that the Jews remaining under Hitler's domination would ultimately perish. He conveyed his assessment to Washington. In our times of moral uncertainty, this book is a must."—Saul Friedländer, professor emeritus in history, UCLA
Kirkus Reviews
2019-08-07
The story of Raymond Geist (1885-1955), United States consul in Berlin from 1929 to 1939.
Breitman (Emeritus, History/American Univ.; co-author: FDR and the Jews, 2013, etc.) maintains convincingly that Geist was the most competent American diplomatic figure in Germany, especially after the Nazis took power in 1933. A professional actor and scholar (Harvard doctorate), he was overqualified in 1921 when he joined the Consular Service, at the time separate and inferior to the Diplomatic Service, concerned mostly with visa matters and problems of American citizens. During Geist's assignment in Berlin, these duties became a matter of life and death. Few colleagues knew how to deal with the Nazis, and the ambassadors were callow political appointees. Far more educated, fluent in German, and a natural schmoozer, Geist became so valuable that superiors kept him in Berlin for a decade even though consuls usually rotated after a few years. Most scholars agree on the value of Geist's reports to U.S. officials, in which he emphasized the Nazi regime's brutality, predicted Hitler's intention to go to war, and described the vicious persecution of Jews, warning that it would end in mass murder. He worked hard and often creatively to process the avalanche of requests for U.S. visas, but, a loyal civil servant, he obeyed America's restrictive immigration laws. The sad truth is that most Americans, including members of Congress, overwhelmingly opposed admitting refugees, and many high officials in the State Department were anti-Semitic. Although sympathetic, Franklin Roosevelt refused to twist arms. "In the fiscal year from July 1, 1933, to June 30, 1934, 891 people got US immigration visas in Berlin," writes Breitman. "This means that somewhere around twelve thousand people were either formally rejected or, more commonly, placed on the informal and inactive waiting list." The author deplores this heartless policy, but he mostly praises Geist's efforts, which were admirable but never heroic.
A vivid chronicle of 1930s Germany conveyed through the life of a lesser-known historical figure.
