A European Past: Memoirs, 1905-1945

“Felix Gilbert. . .has incarnated the virtues of history as a vocation. Master of a variety of fields, from the Italian Renaissance through eighteenth century America to modern Europe, Professor Gilbert has contributed in each, works that stand as models of historical scholarship, rich in empirical specificity, yet resonant with a wider significance for understanding history as a whole.” ―William L. McNeill, past president of the American Historical Association, on the occasion of giving Felix Gilbert the Association’s first Award for Scholarly Distinction Felix Gilbert begins this book of memoirs by describing his peaceful and protected childhood in Germany before the First World War. That war, and the revolutionary events that followed it, strongly influenced his choice of profession; he studied history at Heidelberg, Munich, and the University of Berlin. He gives a firsthand account of the intellectually stimulating and politically restless atmosphere in 1920s Berlin. During the first six months of 1933, when the Nazi takeover occurred in Germany, Mr. Gilbert was at work in the archives in Italy. There he received letters from relations and friends in Germany; published here, these letters convey the impact of Nazism on the daily lives of these people. In other chapters of the book Mr. Gilbert, who served as a member of the OSS, vividly describes wartime London, liberated Paris, and occupied Germany. These memoirs end with an account of a mission to Berlin which, for Mr. Gilbert, was also a search for what remained of a world that once had been.