Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People

by Julia Boyd

During the second week of the Olympics, the Vansittarts, along with the rich and glamorous from all over Europe and America, attended one extravagant entertainment after another. ‘Orchids have been sold out in Berlin for two days,’ proclaimed the Chicago Tribune, ‘and new flowers are being rushed up to the capital from outlying cities because women attending the official parties given by the German government in honour of the Olympic Games have bought every flower available.’43 As the French ambassador pointed out, Hitler was always keen that high-ranking foreigners should attend such events. He wanted them of course to be dazzled by Nazi style and panache, but he also wanted his public to know that they were being dazzled. ‘The German people, like their master,’ wrote François-Poncet, ‘combined an inferiority complex with a sense of pride.’44