Nazi Wives
The Women at the Top of Hitler's Germany
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ISBN10: 1250815967
ISBN13: 9781250815965
Trade Paperback
288 Pages
$17.99
CA$24.99
Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Hess, Bormann—names synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margarete, Lina, Ilse and Gerda . . .
These are the women behind the infamous men—complex individuals with distinctive personalities who were captivated by Hitler and whose everyday lives were governed by Nazi ideology. Throughout the rise and fall of Nazism these women loved and lost, raised families and quarreled with their husbands and each other, all the while jostling for position with the Fuhrer himself. Until now, they have been treated as minor characters, their significance ignored, as if they were unaware of their husbands' murderous acts, despite the evidence that was all around them: the stolen art on their walls, the slave labor in their homes, and the produce grown in concentration camps on their tables.
James Wyllie's Nazi Wives explores these women in detail for the first time, skillfully interweaving their stories through years of struggle, power, decline and destruction into the post-war twilight of denial and delusion.
Reviews
Praise for Nazi Wives
“[Wyllie] recounts their stories with a bracing combination of scholarship and an almost cinematic approach to spinning a compelling narrative.”—The Washington Post
“Wyllie tells the stories of the wives of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and others . . . a distinctive prism through which to view the period.”—The Guardian
“Wyllie’s study of the other halves of the Third Reich is exhaustive and studded with fascinating detail.”—The Tablet (UK)
"Wyllie provides insight into the daily public and private lives of Nazi elite and Adolf Hitler’s close inner circle . . . Recommended for readers of popular World War II history."—Library Journal
“A chilling and richly detailed group portrait of the women who married Third Reich leaders . . . Wyllie sets a brisk pace through colorful material drawn from primary and secondary sources."—Publishers Weekly
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BOOK EXCERPTS
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INTRODUCTION
On the evening of 10 July 1937 the German-Jewish journalist Bella Fromm, who wrote the society column in a Berlin newspaper, went to the cinema to see the romantic comedy Broadway Melody. Loosely based on the 1929...