The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn-Beer with Susan Dworkin

This story is off-genre for MRB. It’s a crime novel only in the sense that it takes place during one of the greatest crimes against humanity, the holocaust. I typically avoid reading anything to do with the holocaust because I’ve already read enough about it and I don’t need to be reminded about horrors of it. But, the three women in my family have already read this one, and they raved about it, and after five consecutive crime novels, I was ready for a change. It was a 1999 autobiography about one Jewish woman’s survival of the war despite living in Vienna which was the worst place a Jew could have been. The book was made into a 2003 mini-series, starring Julia Ormond with Susan Sarandon as the narrator.

Edith Hahn-Beer, who could pass for an Aryan, described the details of her life, which, as the title suggests, incredibly led to her marrying and having a child with a Nazi officer. The story was boldly and intimately revealing. The author did a great job laying the groundwork for Hahn’s decision to marry, and she only met her Nazi husband halfway into the book. Even though she confessed her true identity prior to the marriage, he was so smitten with her that he still went through with the marriage, even knowing that if the truth was discovered, that they both would be murdered. The book gives an inside look at life during the war, what the characters knew, thought, and feared as the war continued and spiraled downward from a German perspective. This was not just a book which reviewed the usual list of atrocities. It was up close and personal. If you can use the word “beautiful” in regard to anything about the Nazis, then it’s fair to say that this book was beautifully written. It was well worth the time I spent with it, and I give it a strong recommendation.