Blood & Banquets

Fromm, too, was a journalist alarmed by the rise of Nazism and Germans’ increasing embrace of hatred and falsehood. She differs from Halton and Shirer in that she was 1) born in Germany, and thus had a deeper perspective on Nazism’s place in German history and culture, 2) a woman, and thus expected to report on “society” and fashion stories, although her interests and abilities soon drew her to politics, and 3) Jewish, and therefore subjected to the daily indignities, threats, and violence that in 1938 led her to flee a land her family had inhabited for five centuries. Fromm… show more.

Bella Fromm’s diary is far more than a book of gossip from a fashion reporter who delivers light-hearted columns during peaceful times. Bella started writing about Berlin’s political high society already in 1930. By the time Hitler took over power in 1933, she was a known observer of what the new leaders had in mind. And fashion played always a very important fact in her writing. She still managed to write her articles with skill and bravery.

Her diaries are a true story of a Jewish reporter who became an intimate witness to the rise of Nazism in Germany. Fromm… show more.