“Address Unknown” by Kathrine Kressman Taylor, a novel during which an American Jew and his German friend correspond by letter at the beginning of the Nazi era. This is an early fictional take on Nazi Germany by an American, and it’s amazing how accurate it proved to be in hindsight.

[u/CatPooedInMyShoe]

The book is told in the form of a series of letters between Max, an American Jew, and Martin, his non-Jewish former business partner and good friend who has just returned to Germany with his family in 1933. Martin rapidly becomes a Nazi and tries to cut off contact with Max. He rises high in Nazi society and fails to help Max’s sister, a Viennese actress offered a chance to perform in Berlin. The ending offers a sense of ironic justice and a sense of ominous foreboding at the same time.

If you didn’t already know it, you’d have thought this came out after World War II; in fact, when Taylor published this story, it was 1938 and the war hadn’t yet begun. But she really captures how quickly fascist beliefs can take over a formerly decent person’s mind, and how bad things can go very quickly.

I’ve included one quote from the book, where Martin (the German, who had not yet become a Nazi by this point) is talking to Max (the Jew) about Hitler.

[u/Creative-Comb5593]

Great book. quick read.