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The ambassador’s daughter is prone to treason

Harry November 14, 2024

More than books

Young Martha Dodd had no interest in politics when she arrived at the American embassy in Berlin in 1933. When he left four years later, he was a dedicated Soviet spy.

Martha Dodd is the daughter of the American ambassador in 1930s Berlin. (Getty Images)

In June 1933, 24-year-old Martha Dodd, the daughter of the newly appointed American ambassador to Berlin, arrived in the German capital with her parents and older brother. He knew little about politics and cared even less. According to him, Adolf Hitler, who seized the greatest power in Germany, was just ‘a clown who looked like Charlie Chaplin’.