Nazi Wives: The Women at the Top of Hitler’s Germany
Synopsis:
Nazi Wives is a fascinating look at the personal lives, psychological profiles, and marriages of the wives of officers in Hitler’s inner circle .
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.
My thoughts: I was glad to see that someone had done a book on the female main players around Hitler, instead of acting as if they didn’t exist. So I was happy to get a chance to read this ARC on the subject. I’ve read about different things involving World War II from many aspects, and this would be a new one to add. If you like books about this era, and would like one that’s a bit different, you may want to give this one a look over. It could end up on your TBR list.
There was a bit more intrigue than I would have imagined between the women, but they were very different and had different agendas at times too. And of course there was a lot going on at that time. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author James Wyllie, and publisher St. Martin’s Press.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – 288 pages
Publication: Nov 3rd, 2020
My rating: 4/5 STARS
About the Author– James Wyllie is an author, award-winning screenwriter and broadcaster. He is the author of GOERING AND GOERING, THE TIME TRAVELER’S HANDBOOK, and CODEBREAKERS: THE TRUE STORY OF THE SECRET INTELLIGENCE TEAM THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR. He has worked on numerous films for the BBC and Film4 and has written for a number of TV drama series.
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