He served as Chargé d'affaires in Berlin beginning in May 1939 and became the senior officer when the American ambassador , Hugh R. Wilson , was recalled to protest the anti-Jewish attacks of Kristallnacht . Though his status was too low to allow access to important officials in the German government , he communicated with them by staging conversations close to a device the Germans used to eavesdrop on his conversations . '' Time '' called him " adroit " in his " uncomfortable post . " He developed contacts with Germans who opposed the Nazi regime and became convinced , in spite of Germany 's early victories , that the war would end badly for Germany . Discussing with noted dissident Helmuth James von Moltke the need for Germany to suffer complete defeat with no one to blame but its Nazi leaders , he said : " Do you want to know my solution ? It 's a flood without an ark . " During the war , in 1943 , Moltke twice tried without success to contact Kirk , whom he trusted as an intermediary between the German opposition and the Allies
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Alexander Comstock Kirk