For information call: Clifford Laube at (845) 486-7745
The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents an author talk and signing
with
Richard Breitman author of
THE BERLIN MISSION:
THE AMERICAN WHO RESISTED
NAZI GERMANY FROM WITHIN
Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents an author talk and signing with
Richard Breitman author of THE BERLIN MISSION: THE AMERICAN WHO RESISTED NAZI GERMANY FROM WITHIN on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. The program will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home.
This is a free public event but registration is required.
Synopsis:
THE BERLIN MISSION: THE AMERICAN WHO RESISTED NAZI GERMANY FROM WITHIN
An unknown story of an unlikely hero -- the U.S. consul who best analyzed the threat posed by Nazi Germany and predicted the horrors to come.
In 1929, Raymond Geist went to Berlin as a consul and handled visas for emigrants to the US. Just before Hitler came to power, Geist expedited the exit of Albert Einstein. Once the Nazis began to oppress Jews and others, Geist's role became vitally important. It was Geist who extricated Sigmund Freud from Vienna and Geist who understood the scale and urgency of the humanitarian crisis.
Even while hiding his own homosexual relationship with a German, Geist fearlessly challenged the Nazi police state whenever it abused Americans in Germany or threatened U.S. interests. He found ways to work around the restrictive U.S. immigration quotas, and secured exit visas for hundreds of unaccompanied children. All the while, he maintained a working relationship with high Nazi officials such as Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Hermann Göring.
While U.S. ambassadors and consuls general cycled in and out, the indispensable Geist remained in Berlin for a decade. An invaluable analyst and problem solver, he was the first American official to warn explicitly that what lay ahead for Germany's Jews was what would become known as the Holocaust.
Richard Breitman
is distinguished professor emeritus in History at American University and the author or co-author of twelve books and many articles in German history, U.S. history, and the Holocaust. He is the coauthor of FDR AND THE JEWS and the author of THE ARCHITECT OF GENOCIDE: HIMMLER AND THE FINAL SOLUTION and OFFICIAL SECRETS: WHAT THE NAZIS PLANNED, WHAT THE BRITISH AND AMERICANS KNEW. He lives in the D.C. metro area.
