【双语阅读】没有事后诸葛亮.

　　一些关于纳粹德国的书让人发问，“我会怎么做?” 《希特勒的国土》一书的读者可能会改问，“我会怎么看?” 安德鲁·纳戈尔斯基写了一部有趣的编年史，内容是两次世界大战之间直到1941年日本袭击珍珠港期间在德的美国人的看法。 随着德国由魏玛王朝的杂乱无章变为希特勒主义的疯狂，这些美国人如何解读这个国家呢?

　　Books and Arts; Book Review;Americans in Nazi Germany;Without hindsight;

　　Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. By Andrew Nagorski.

　　Some books about Nazi Germany prompt the question, “What would I have done?” Readers of “Hitlerland” may instead ask, “What would I have thought?” Andrew Nagorski has written an entertaining chronicle of the views of Americans in Germany during the interwar years until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941. What did they make of the country as it moved from the messiness of Weimar to the madness of Hitlerism?

　　Germany was a popular place at the time, giving Mr Nagorski a rich cast of characters. “The world was being created here,” wrote Philip Johnson, an American architect, of pre-Nazi Berlin. Hitler’s rise brought yet more fascination. Charles Lindbergh, an American aviator, was clueless enough to be used by both the Nazis and the Americans. John F. Kennedy makes a rambunctious appearance as a university student.

　　This book reintroduces us to Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, a backslapping German-American graduate of Harvard, who positioned himself between Hitler and the foreign press and who fancied himself the Führer’s bridge to America itself. Hitler in turn fancied Hanfstaengl’s wife, who grabbed his gun bore he could shoot himself after the failed beer hall putsch of 1923. Hanfstaengl eventually fell out of favour, and narrowly escaped being tossed out of a plane (with a parachute) over Republican-held territory in Spain. His infatuation with Hitler remained.

　　Little wiser was Martha Dodd, the boy-crazy daughter of the American ambassador. She flirted with Nazism (by way of handsome Nazis), but later took a Soviet lover and became a spy.

　　A veteran journalist, formerly with Newsweek, Mr Nagorski seems most interested in the stories of diplomats and fellow hacks. They come off a bit better than their sightseeing countrymen, even if their early views were wide of the mark. Dorothy Thompson, celebrity journalist and wife of the novelist Sinclair Lewis, published a 1932 book called “I Saw Hitler!”. She found him to be a “Little Man” with an “actor’s face…capable of being pushed out or in”, whereas President Hindenburg appeared “cut out of rock.” Hitler’s “tragedy” she wrote, “is that he has risen too high.” He seized power a year later.

　　By 1934 Thompson’s tone had changed, and her reports made her the first journalist to be expelled by the Nazis. On her return to America she said: “Germany has gone to war already and the rest of the world does not believe it.”

　　George Messersmith, a prescient American Consul General in Berlin, “made a habit of not allowing himself to be fooled by the Nazis,” writes Mr Nagorski. “A little man has taken the measure of still smaller men,” observed Edgar Mowrer, who won the Pulitzer prize for the Chicago Daily News. By the time Hitler became Führer in 1933, his thuggery was harder to dismiss.

　　On the whole, Americans in pre-war Berlin had the wit to sense what was coming, and thus helped prepare their countrymen for “the years of bloodshed and struggle ahead”. Yet “Hitlerland” brings back to life some early delusions about Hitler’s rise that now seem unthinkable. Any reader trying to puzzle out today’s world will be unsettled by the reminder of how easy it is to get things wrong.

　　【中文对照翻译】

　　文艺;书评;在纳粹德国的美国人;没有事后诸葛亮;

　　《希特勒的国土：纳粹崛起执政的美国目击者》;安德鲁·纳戈尔斯基;

　　一些关于纳粹德国的书让人发问，“我会怎么做?” 《希特勒的国土》一书的读者可能会改问，“我会怎么看?” 安德鲁·纳戈尔斯基写了一部有趣的编年史，内容是两次世界大战之间直到1941年日本袭击珍珠港期间在德的美国人的看法。 随着德国由魏玛王朝的杂乱无章变为希特勒主义的疯狂，这些美国人如何解读这个国家呢?

　　当时的德国是一个受欢迎的地方，纳戈尔斯基的人物阵容庞大，角色多样。 “世界正在这里被创造”，美国建筑师菲利普·约翰逊这样写纳粹前的柏林。 希特勒的崛起益发给德国带来了更多的魅力。 美国飞行员查尔斯·林德伯格太过愚笨，纳粹党人和美国人都利用了他。 约翰·肯尼迪作为一名大学生外表粗犷放纵。

　　本书让我们重新认识了恩斯特·普希·汉夫施滕格尔，他是德裔美国人，哈佛大学的毕业生，喜好相互吹捧，置身于希特勒和外国记者之间，自诩为元首与美国本身的桥梁。 反过来，希特勒喜欢汉夫施滕格尔的妻子，1923年啤酒店暴动失败后他开枪自杀，这位女士在他开枪前抓住了他的枪。 汉夫施滕格尔最终不再受青睐，在西班牙，当飞机飞过共和党控制的领土上空时险遭被逼跳机(背着降落伞)的命运。 他对希特勒的迷恋依然存在。

　　玛莎·多德小有聪明，她是美国大使的女儿，象男孩一样疯。 她与纳粹主义有染，方式就是跟英俊的纳粹分子调情，但后来找了个苏联情人，并成了一名间谍。

　　作为《新闻周刊》的前资深记者，纳戈尔斯基似乎对外交官和雇佣文人的故事最感兴趣。 即使他们早期的观点有些离谱，也比来观光的同胞稍好一点。 知名记者桃乐茜·汤普森是小说家辛克莱·刘易斯的妻子，她1932年出版了一本书，名为《我看到了希特勒!》。 她发现希特勒是个“小个子”，有张“演员的脸……能屈能伸”，而总统兴登堡却看似“切削出的岩石”。 她写道，希特勒的“悲剧在于他爬得太高”。 一年后，希特勒夺取了政权。

　　到了1934年，汤普森的论调变了，她的报导让她成为第一个被纳粹驱逐出境的记者。 在她返回美国时，她说：“德国已经开始备战，而其它国家的人不予相信。”

　　乔治·梅瑟史密斯是美国在柏林的总领事，颇有先见之明，纳戈尔斯基写道，乔治·梅瑟史密斯“习惯不让自己被纳粹愚弄”。 为《芝加哥每日新闻报》赢得过普利策奖的埃德加·莫勒评论说，“一个小个子采取了更小人的手段。” 1933年希特勒成为元首时，他的谋财害命已难遏止。

　　基本上，战前柏林的美国人警觉到了即将发生什么，从而帮着他们的同胞为“多年的流血抗争”提前做好准备。 但是，《希特勒的国土》一书让我们回到了生活在希特勒崛起的一些早期错觉之中，如今看来希特勒的崛起似乎不可思议。 把事情搞错非常容易，看到作者的这一提醒，任何试图解读当今世界的读者都会不安。

　　一些关于纳粹德国的书让人发问，“我会怎么做?” 《希特勒的国土》一书的读者可能会改问，“我会怎么看?” 安德鲁·纳戈尔斯基写了一部有趣的编年史，内容是两次世界大战之间直到1941年日本袭击珍珠港期间在德的美国人的看法。 随着德国由魏玛王朝的杂乱无章变为希特勒主义的疯狂，这些美国人如何解读这个国家呢?

　　Books and Arts; Book Review;Americans in Nazi Germany;Without hindsight;

　　Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. By Andrew Nagorski.

　　Some books about Nazi Germany prompt the question, “What would I have done?” Readers of “Hitlerland” may instead ask, “What would I have thought?” Andrew Nagorski has written an entertaining chronicle of the views of Americans in Germany during the interwar years until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941. What did they make of the country as it moved from the messiness of Weimar to the madness of Hitlerism?

　　Germany was a popular place at the time, giving Mr Nagorski a rich cast of characters. “The world was being created here,” wrote Philip Johnson, an American architect, of pre-Nazi Berlin. Hitler’s rise brought yet more fascination. Charles Lindbergh, an American aviator, was clueless enough to be used by both the Nazis and the Americans. John F. Kennedy makes a rambunctious appearance as a university student.

　　This book reintroduces us to Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, a backslapping German-American graduate of Harvard, who positioned himself between Hitler and the foreign press and who fancied himself the Führer’s bridge to America itself. Hitler in turn fancied Hanfstaengl’s wife, who grabbed his gun bore he could shoot himself after the failed beer hall putsch of 1923. Hanfstaengl eventually fell out of favour, and narrowly escaped being tossed out of a plane (with a parachute) over Republican-held territory in Spain. His infatuation with Hitler remained.

　　Little wiser was Martha Dodd, the boy-crazy daughter of the American ambassador. She flirted with Nazism (by way of handsome Nazis), but later took a Soviet lover and became a spy.

　　A veteran journalist, formerly with Newsweek, Mr Nagorski seems most interested in the stories of diplomats and fellow hacks. They come off a bit better than their sightseeing countrymen, even if their early views were wide of the mark. Dorothy Thompson, celebrity journalist and wife of the novelist Sinclair Lewis, published a 1932 book called “I Saw Hitler!”. She found him to be a “Little Man” with an “actor’s face…capable of being pushed out or in”, whereas President Hindenburg appeared “cut out of rock.” Hitler’s “tragedy” she wrote, “is that he has risen too high.” He seized power a year later.

　　By 1934 Thompson’s tone had changed, and her reports made her the first journalist to be expelled by the Nazis. On her return to America she said: “Germany has gone to war already and the rest of the world does not believe it.”

　　George Messersmith, a prescient American Consul General in Berlin, “made a habit of not allowing himself to be fooled by the Nazis,” writes Mr Nagorski. “A little man has taken the measure of still smaller men,” observed Edgar Mowrer, who won the Pulitzer prize for the Chicago Daily News. By the time Hitler became Führer in 1933, his thuggery was harder to dismiss.

　　On the whole, Americans in pre-war Berlin had the wit to sense what was coming, and thus helped prepare their countrymen for “the years of bloodshed and struggle ahead”. Yet “Hitlerland” brings back to life some early delusions about Hitler’s rise that now seem unthinkable. Any reader trying to puzzle out today’s world will be unsettled by the reminder of how easy it is to get things wrong.

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