and people like, for instance, josephine baker who we always associate with performing in paris, in 1925, she decides to bring her whole on psalm to a berlin theater and even though there's protesters outside, inside, she gets a tremendous ovation. she's showered with gifts, jewelry, furs invited to these wild after parties. and where she often performs in her loin cloth and she says, you know, paris parties are nothing to compare with. someone like phillip johnson comes for the architecture. he's also a young, gay american. and he's just astounded by the atmosphere in berlin. so all of this brings an amazing cast of american kashlgters to germany. people like sinclair lewis, thomas wolf, george cannon later who was associated much more with russia, howard case smith who is a very famous anchorman. even the young john f. kennedy flips through the pages of hitlerland with a short visit. of course, his main entries into his diaries have to do with this "young bundle of fun" he picked up at the border. but the -- and this is a term, you know, that's also incredibly pro-american. yes, the u.

and people like, for instance, josephine baker, we associate with performing in paris. in 1925, she brings her theater to germany. she is showered with gifts and jewelry and furs, invited to these wild after parties. and where she often performs in her loin cloth and said paris parties are nothing to compare with. someone like phillip johnson, the famous architect comes for the architecture and he is a young gay american, he is astounded by the atmosphere in berlin, all of this brings an amazing cast of american characters to germany. people like sinclaire lewis, thomas wolfe, george cannon, and howard k smith. he becomes a famous anchor man. and even the young john f kennedy flits through the pages of hitler land, with a short visit, most of his entries in his diaries have to do with his young bundle of fun he picked up at the border. this is a germany that is incredibly pro-american. yes, germany had, the u.s. had entered the war against germany but late in the game. the main characteristic about the americans had was that they were not the french. while americans wer

kennedy and singer josephine baker to name a few. much has been written about american expatriots in paris and london between the wars but very little has been chronicled about these americans in berlin. former "newsweek" journalist and author andrew nagorski has set out to correct that with his new book "hitlerland: american witnesses to the nazi rise to power." it's the story of a handful of americans who were the first to take the measure of hitler and his followers, showing how difficult it is to see the future when caught up in the present-- even in the eye of the storm. i spoke with andrew nagorski about his book and the times. andy nagorski, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, margaret. >> warner: paint a picture for us, first of all, of berlin, in the '20s and '30s. as hitler was rising to power, what was it like... what was it like for the americans there? >> warner: first of all, you have to remember, this was a country, a city that was totally devastated after world war i. the germans had lost something like two million m