American who defected to East Germany

“A Socialist Defector”
This is a good book. I’m really enjoying it. Maybe ‘enjoy’ is the wrong word.
The author was an American for 25 years or so. He was a socialist Jewish guy. Joined the military. But he signed a paper saying he had never been a part of any radical organizations. He lied. And when it became apparent the US Military was checking on him, he defected to the USSR. The rooskies accepted him and sent him to East Germany. He built a life in East Germany and witnessed the pluses and minuses of that nation. He compares the pluses and minuses to West Germany. Very even-handed I’d say. He writes a lot about the propaganda of the West, and the West’s protection of the Nazis.

He writes a lot about how West Germany ended up with a ton of ex-Nazis running things. East Germany was the opposite. A lot of socialists who fought for democracy in Spain, ended up leading East Germany. They rooted out Nazis in East Germany.

Too much good stuff in this book to list. Good book.

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A Socialist Defector
By Victor Grossman

“…….Herbert Quandt, the BMW boss said: ‘Why did Hitler gain power? Because, I can say frankly, he declared war on Communism in Germany over and over in an impressive and robust manner.’
The banker Kurt von Schroeder made it even clearer in 1947 at the War Crimes court in Nuremberg: ‘The business world…wanted to see a strong Fuhrer in Germany, one who could form a strong government and stay in power a long time…a common interest of the economy lay in its fear of Boshevism…’

….Maybe I should explain that the name National Socialism given his movement by Hitler did not have the slightest connection with the socialism anyone else meant. The word was simply stolen to lure people who blamed war profiteers and other capitalists for the mass murder of the First World War and wanted big changes…..
……….A major early Nazi supporter was the Thyssen family, steel producers,…On March 24th 1945, at its family palace in Austria, daughter Margaretta Thyssen held a party for Nazi bigwigs. She ordered up 180 Hungarian Jews, too sick and exhausted to continue digging defenses against the approaching Red Army and handed weapons to fifteen guests. ‘The Jews were forced to undress completely and then try to flee from the drunken guests, who, after murdering them, returned to the palace for drinking and dancing till morning.’ The hostess fled to Switzerland and became a highly successful racehorse breeder and was never tried. Two key witnesses were mysteriously murdered…”