Suddenly, police and paramilitary guards were everywhere and individuals were being taken

In 1929, Christopher Isherwood, 25, was drawn to Berlin's decadence. He left abruptly in early 1933 amid drastic changes. His Berlin diaries, Goodbye to Berlin, would remain "diary sequences and sketches" (as he called them) and later become Cabaret. It is considered unlikely he would have survived if he had stayed in Berlin.