The Fuse Sputters in Europe (1946)

"Twenty-Two High Officers of the Hitler Regime Are on Trial":
First Edition of The Fuse Sputters in Europe, 1946

Gannett, Frank. The Fuse Sputters in Europe. Rochester: Gannett Newspapers, 1946.

Octavo. Softcover. 1st Edition.

First edition of this fascinating 80-page book on Europe after the war, covering everything from a visit to the Nuremberg Trials to Dachau to tensions in Berlin. A year after V-E Day, journalist and publisher Frank Gannett set out on a War Department tour to Europe. He wrote his observations in a series of articles that were subsequently condensed into this booklet. Gannett ably captures the confusion and uncertainty of the time. He visits the Nuremberg tribunal with curiosity, but perhaps only a burgeoning idea of the historical importance the trials will come to have--still more developed than most of the time. He visits Dachau and expresses horror at the suffering of the Jews in various camps, at the fate of the wandering refugees with no homes to return to. Perhaps most importantly, he recognizes the tensions emerging in post-war Europe between once-allied nations, caused by cultural conflicts, the impatience of the Russians, and the grinding, slow work of the Americans. Fine condition.