Books: Mann on Germany

For four years after Hitler came to power, Nobel Prizewinner Thomas Mann, greatest of exiled German writers, evaded questioners who pressed him for his opinion of fascism in Germany. When he visited the U. S. in 1934 and 1935—the first time to be honored on his 5gth birthday, the second to receive an honorary degree from Harvard—he maintained a controlled silence about politics that was exceptional among literary exiles,,extraordinary in view of the anti-Nazi activities of his brother Heinrich, his son Klaus and daughter Erika. Sometimes he said he kept silent to protect his German readers. Sometimes, when reporters got him...