Like other Americans, Martha would find herself frequently in Hanfstaengl's company, dancing with him at parties and gladly taking advantage of his offers to introduce her to Nazi luminaries. But Reynolds was already developing a healthy sense of skepticism. About a month after Reynolds arrived, he ran into Hanfstaengl at the bar of the Adlon Hotel.

"You've been here a month now, and you haven't asked me about our so-called Jewish problem or written anything about it to annoy me," Putzi told him. "How come, Quent?"

"Give me time, Putzi," Reynolds replied. "I haven't been here long enough to know what's going on."

By the time he met Martha, Reynolds not only knew more but was eager to explore more for himself. In August, he suggested to Martha and her brother Bill that they take their Chevrolet and travel to southern Germany and Austria with him -- an idea that immediately appealed to Martha. As they drove south, she recognized the word "Jude" in banners strung across the road; they realized this was anti-Semitic propaganda but, as Martha put it, "we didn't -- at least I didn't -- take it too seriously."

In fact, Martha was so swept up by the sight of marching Brownshirts and the apparent enthusiasm of the people, she responded equally enthusiastically. When Germans saw their special license plate, they assumed the trio of Americans were top officials -- and welcomed them with "Heil Hitler" greetings. "The excitement of the people was contagious and I 'Heiled' as vigorously as any Nazi," she recalled.

Around midnight, the Americans stopped for the night in Nuremberg. As they reached their hotel, they were surprised to find the street filled with an excited crowd and speculated that they may have run into a toymakers' festival. As he registered, Reynolds asked the hotel clerk if there was going to be a parade. The clerk laughed. "It will be kind of a parade," he replied. "They are teaching someone a lesson."

The visitors walked out to join the crowd. Everyone seemed in a good mood, with the sound of a band adding to the festive atmosphere. Then they saw Nazi banners and swastikas, and the source of the music: a marching band of Storm Troopers. Two tall Troopers were dragging someone between them. "I could not at first tell if it was a man or a woman," Reynolds wrote. "Its head had been clipped bald, and face and head had been coated with white powder. Even though the figure wore a skirt, it might have been a man dressed as a clown." As the Brownshirts straightened out their victim, the Americans spotted the placard around its neck: "I wanted to live with a Jew."

As the "lesson" continued, the Americans learned that this was a woman named Anna Rath. The reason for her harsh punishment: she had tried to marry her Jewish fiancé. Martha remembered the image of her "tragic and tortured face, the color of diluted absinthe." She also was startled by Reynolds's reaction. She had believed him to be a "hard-boiled" journalist, but "he was so shaken by the whole scene that he said the only thing he could do was to get drunk, to forget it."