The Nazi Officer's Wife: A Jewish Woman's Story of Survival During the Holocaust

Jim: This narrative told an incredible tale of survival, and ultimately the guilt that accompanies that survival ….although the guilt part is subtly buried between the lines of the narrative ……

The decisions this individual - and many like her - had to make in order to survive are daunting. And even though survival is central to this tale, the extemporaneous events and reactions of contemporaries is just as integral to this story. So inconceivable to us yet so like the events we continue to live through. Frightening.

United States on Jul 10, 2023

Bunny: I bought this after watching the documentary film of the same name on Youtube. I enjoyed the book and it reinforced something I felt whilst watching the film - that Edith made a bad choice in men. When it came to the crunch Pepi thought only of himself; Werner saved Edith's life but ultimately returned to his arrogant self, wanting only a subservient obedient wife with no life other than him. The fact that he married 7 times proves he did not change. I would have liked to know more about Edith's life in England and her third husband Mr Beer but they don't get much of a mention except for Edith to say she never practiced law again. Why?

United Kingdom on Feb 12, 2018

Sverre Svendsen: I have read a number of biographies and novels by or about the victims of the Holocaust and the inhumane systemic persecution of Jews in the 1930s and ‘40s (not only in Germany but in most of Europe). The story of Edith Hahn is somewhat unique in a number of areas. Although Hahn spent some time in a forced-labour situation, she avoided going to an extermination camp. Survival by stealth is the theme of her existence under Nazi oppression. She is a pragmatist first and foremost, even to the extent of marrying a Nazi when that seems to offer a means of survival. She assumes a new name and manages to obtain essential credentials, shedding all association with her Jewish heritage. The book claims that her child was probably the only Jewish baby born in a German hospital during the war.

The book offers fascinating details of how German society dealt with the restrictive autocratic laws, the lack of food and material goods and the new style of oppression brought on by the Soviet ‘liberation’ of eastern Germany. On the positive side, the communists permit Hahn to become a judge within their judicial system, a position she had been denied by the Nazis because of her being...

Canada on Sep 02, 2016

Paul Russell: A truly remarkable read, so well written, a real page-turner. It is a remarkable account of the extraordinary survival skills of an amazing woman in extraordinary times. It conveys not only the brutality of the Nazi regime but also those examples of simple humanity that made a difference between life or death. What struck me most was how the Nazi propaganda machine worked on the people. It was over many years like a drop of water dripping on limestone. Eventually it wore people's humanity away. Ordinary people, became oblivious to other people's needs. The criminal and deadly view that the Jewish people , and many others, were subversive and the cause of Germany s economic and cultural downfall, was cultivated over many years. Could it happens again? Unfortunately it has in places as varied as Syria, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, northern Ireland, .....the list is endless. We must remember that it is so easy to rationalise wrong doings. We must never forget what happened here and thanks to Edith and many other survivors, we have been gifted with a historical account of what can happen when humanity takes a second seat to greed and prejudice.

United Kingdom on Apr 21, 2015

Gerald T. Westbrook: the Nazi Officer¡¯s Wife

How one Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

Report One

by Edith Hahn Beer, with Susan Dworkin

This story has been buried for many years. Edith Hahn Beer (January 24, 1914 - March 17, 2009) was reluctant to discuss her life ¡ª as a fugitive from the Gestapo ¡ª living under a false identity. She ¡°preferred to forget as much as possible and not to burden younger generations with sad memories.¡± It was her daughter, Angela, who urged her to provide a written record. As such an archive has been created, with the help of many, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in New York.

Introduction
When I start to read a new book, I like to inspect the Table of Contents and the Index first. This book has neither. I can¡¯t do much about the Index, but a Table of Contents follows on the next page.
This is a story that has couples to several items in my past:
¡ñ First it reminded me of the story told in ¡°Hedy¡¯s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr (HL). HL was born as Hedwig Kieslir. Her family was Jewish, but never announced it. In prewar Vienna it did not matter what one¡¯s...

United States on Jun 21, 2014

Jackie Collins: I started to read this book as this year the students in my class seemed to be quite fascinated by the concept of Jewish people who managed to get false identification papers in order to survive in Nazi Germany. When I later read an extract to the class after telling them the basic story they were all enthralled. Interesting to see that the Aryan husband Werner Vetter is remarkably similar to Adolf Hitler in that he is a frustrated artist and also that he believes in the " Big Lie." Also since Edith Hahn lives the closeted life of a Nazi housewife, she is completely unaware of the Final Solution until 1944. I found this book a brilliant read in that it showed how heartbreaking it was for an intellectual woman to almost get her degree and then to have to deny her intelligence for so long. It was very moving when she finally is able to use her law degree for a short time to help others when the Russians arrive.

United Kingdom on Nov 30, 2012

JD01: A dear friend loaned me her copy of this book earlier in the year. I read it from cover to cover in two days willing Edith on through her many enduring trials.
It moved me so much that I bought every female member of my family a copy, and I am sure that they will be just as moved as I am.
The story is multi-faceted, not just about Edith being a Nazi Officers wife, but more about what led her to that dark place. What lengths will a human being go to survive?

You get a real sense of what life was like for her and of course for many others in this dark chapter of our history.

It will remain in my top 5 books forever.

Shalom

United Kingdom on Nov 18, 2012

Jana L.Perskie: Edith Hahn Beer is a Jewess, now living in Netanya Israel. In 1938, pro-Nazi Vienna, she was an intelligent, inquisitive law student, with an adventurous spirit. After Anschluss, the German's pressed the Austrian Jews for all their money and valuables in return for exit visas. Some families had to decide, because of a lack of funds, which of their children could leave for safer havens, and which were doomed to stay in Austria with their parents, and almost certain deportation. Edith's two sisters left the country, but she remained with her childhood friend and lover, Pepi, with the hope they would soon marry.
She was sent to a labor camp in the north of Germany to do backbreaking farm work, 12 hours a day, six days a week. The motto of some of the Jewish laborers was, "Life is beautiful, and it begins tomorrow." Her mother was deported to the East while Edith was in Germany, helpless to assist or join her beloved parent. When she finally returned to Vienna, her home and family were gone. Her remaining friends, Jew and Gentile, with few exceptions, were afraid to assist her. Her beloved Pepi, whose Jewish father had married a non-Jew, was a weak man, dominated by his mother. And...

United States on Jul 05, 2003