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American in Hitler's Berlin

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This is the first published edition of the diary of Abraham Plotkin, an American labor leader of immigrant Jewish origin who lived in Berlin between November 1932 and May 1933. A firsthand account of the Weimar Republic's final months and the early rise of Nazi power in Germany, Plotkin's diary focuses on the German working class, the labor movement, and the plight of German Jews. Plotkin investigated Berlin's social conditions with the help of German Social-Democratic leaders whose analyses of the situation he records alongside his own.Most accounts of Hitler's rise to power emphasize political institutions by focusing on the Nazi party's clashes with other political forces. In contrast, Plotkin is especially attentive to socioeconomic factors, providing an alternative view from the left that stems from his access to key German labor and socialist leaders. Chronologically, the diary reports on the moment when Hitler's seizure of power was not yet inevitable and when leaders on the left still believed in a different outcome of the crisis, but it also includes Plotkin's account of the complete destruction of German labor in May 1933.
''Plotkin's writing is lively and conveys a vivid portrayal of German political and economic life on the eve of the Nazi takeover. It also provides an excellent sense of the impact of the Great Depression on German society. A valuable contribution to German history, labor history, and Jewish history.'' Vicki Caron, author of Uneasy Asylum: France and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1933-1942 ''Once I started reading this work, I could not put it down. Plotkin's diary is a remarkable analysis 'from the bottom up' of German society, working-class institutions, and politics in the period of transition from the Weimar Republic to the rise of Hitler. A very important book.'' Fraser Ottanelli, University of South Florida
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