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

Oct 08, 2011 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio, history, austria, religion, text-checked, germany

NO SPOILERS!!

This is a four star book. Recently another GR friend rated this with three stars, and to be honest, I was flabbergasted. "HOW CAN YOU NOT BE MOVED BY THIS BOOK?" zinged through my head?! I will try and explain without giving spoilers. First of all, if you are the kind of person, like me, that highly values straight talk, and talk that does not shy away from ANY subject - sex, love, cruelty, motherhood, lying, corruption, guilt and survival - then this is a book for you. Edith will s...more

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May 21, 2008 Nari (The Novel World) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, 2008

At the age of 27, and only one test away from achieving her law degree, Edith was turned away from her University due to the ridiculous rules set up by Hilter and the Reich. Edith and her mom are trapped in the slow and agonizing decline of Jewish civil rights as they lose their ability to sustain themselves. Edith is sent to work in various work camps for years, under the promise that while she works, her family will be kept safe from the concentration camps. Her boyfriend Pepi, is often a deta...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Found on the history clearance cart at our local HPB, The Nazi Officer’s Wife was a surprise, weaving itself into the heart of my WW2 studies. Author Edith Hahn Beer’s personal story of survival remained untold for almost 50 years until encouragement from her daughter, born in a Nazi Germany hospital, inspired her to share the memories she’d long lived in silence with: “I did not discuss my life as a “U-boat,” a fugitive from the Gestapo living under a false identity beneath the surface of socie...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ich habe es endlich übers Herz gebracht eine Rezi zu schreiben. Wahrscheinlich habe ich nur eine kleine Pause gebraucht um nach diesem Buch meine Gefühle wieder unter Kontrolle zu haben.

Das Cover finde ich wirklich sehr schön, obwohl es in diesem Buch um keine klassische "Liebesgeschichte" geht. Ich verstehe auch nicht warum man diese Lebensgeschichte als so etwas verkaufen zu versucht. Aber die Wege der Verleger sind unergründlich, sicher erhoffeten sie sich so mehr Käufer. Nun, trotz meiner e...more

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May 08, 2010 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: WW2 history buffs

Shelves: biography, history, non-fiction

Edith, an aspiring lawyer, does not leave Austria with her sister as the Nazis were coming into power. She is assigned by the nazi's to work on a farm as a sort of slave. When the growing season is over, instead of allowing her to return to her family, Edith is sent to a factory. She keeps hoping her boyfriend will marry her but he is under the thumb of his mother and can't seem to think for himself. Edith ends up going into hiding, using a gentile friend's name etc.- with permission, of course....more

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Nov 09, 2008 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was thrilled and horrified by this book. I've read several accounts of Nazi-occupied Germany, of the camps that were the eventual end of thousands of innocent men, women and children, and of the occasional survivor, who was able - using luck, brains and skill - to forge a new life for themselves with a false identity, but this is the first I've read that was told in such a direct voice.

Edith was one of the more lucky ones. She was fortunate enough to find a way to escape both her ghetto and th...more I was thrilled and horrified by this book. I've read several accounts of Nazi-occupied Germany, of the camps that were the eventual end of thousands of innocent men, women and children, and of the occasional survivor, who was able - using luck, brains and skill - to forge a new life for themselves with a false identity, but this is the first I've read that was told in such a direct voice.

Edith was one of the more lucky ones. She was fortunate enough to find a way to escape both her ghetto and the labor camp that she was forced into, and was able to procure a false identity, sneak her way into Munich, and start a new life.

That would have been harrowing enough, but as if living under an assumed identity in a hostile country isn't enough, she meets and is swept into a romantic relationship with a Nazi Officer. He pursues her relentlessly, convinced he wants to marry her, and she, in her distress, admits her identity and secret to him. He calls her names, but doesn't turn her in (astonishingly good luck for her, as she was essentially handing her death papers to him and begging him to sign them), and agrees to keep her secret during their marriage.

So now, poor Edith is living a lie, married to a man who makes a living eliminating her people, and is trapped by questions of other Nazi officers, wanting to know about her parents and her family. She even opts for natural childbirth - no drugs to help ease her pain - because she's sure that she'll say something telling to the nurses while in the grip of the drugs.

What's more amazing, though, is that Ms. Beer managed to save documents and photographs that, if confiscated, would have meant her life. Even after her children were born, knowing the danger, she still kept these items hidden, hoping for a time when it wouldn't be necessary to lie about herself or hide her documents.

This was written with amazing directness, and the reader could feel Ms. Beer's fear, uncertainty, disgust and eventual relief from start to finish.(less)

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May 07, 2007 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nazi-ww2, on-visualbookshelf

This work is an autobiography of a woman, Edith Hahn, who survived in Austria and Germany during WWII. I read this book right after reading The Holocaust Industry, so I wonder if some of my reaction to the book was colored by some of the issues Finkelstein brought up.

The book was unusual - Hahn wasn't in a camp, and she wasn't in hiding in the way Anne Frank did. Instead, she managed to work the system, finding people to help her (often people who weren't family or close friends, and a lot of s...more

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Jun 12, 2007 Laren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, holocaust

The title is somewhat sensational. This is the story of a Jewish woman during WWII who spent time in work camps, then was able to adopt a false identity with the help of a friend, and ended up married to a man who was then drafted into Nazi officer service late in the war (he knew about her real identity before they married). Still, as the story develops, it is a fascinating read. A&E aired a special documentary on this story which I watched a few years ago. The book goes into much more deta...more

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Apr 09, 2013 michaelben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: jewish-themes

I'm never quite sure how I feel after reading a tale of survival like this. I'm always relieved for the individual of course, as I am for author Edith Hahn Beer naturally. I'm grateful for the acts of courage that enable survival, which especially important in this story. But I get angry to the point of bitterness about the many small moments of kindness, which to me just magnify the absolute madness of the bizarrely organized and efficient cruelty of the what happened in Europe.

Ms. Hahn Beer wa...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Pamela rated it 5 of 5 stars

For anyone who knows me, you already understand that I have an odd obsession with Hitler and the Holocaust--maybe it's because I have warring factions within my family (half Polish, half German), or maybe it's because I just can't understand how the systematic elimination of a group of people happens (and keeps happening). It's a mindset that fascinates and horrifies me, and this book brings it to an eerily personal level.
Edith Hahn is a Jew living in Vienna--she has a close-to-idyllic childhoo...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Karmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, pbswap, 2013, nonfiction-history

I wavered between 3 & 4 stars.

The story of Edith's life as she goes from university life, studying law, to living under the Reich is one that is welcome. To read the gradual progression of the rescinding of the rights of Jews to the most basic services.

As a fellow & hopefully lifelong student of life, I was as heartbroken as Edith when she is informed that she cannot take her lawyer's exam; she had completed all her course-work.

The small & random acts of kindness she received are e...more

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Nov 28, 2012 David P added it

Shelves: holocaust, jewish-topics

This is a story of courage, resourcefulness, luck and survival, one of many to emerge from the Nazi Holocaust--each unique, each different.

Edith Hahn grew up in Vienna and witnessed the Nazi takeover, of a city which by an large welcomed its new masters. The persecution of Jews started quite early in Vienna. In 1938 Edith had successfully finished her university studies of law, but she was denied her diploma and instead had to find work as tutor and seamstress. Then in 1940 she and other young...more This is a story of courage, resourcefulness, luck and survival, one of many to emerge from the Nazi Holocaust--each unique, each different.

Edith Hahn grew up in Vienna and witnessed the Nazi takeover, of a city which by an large welcomed its new masters. The persecution of Jews started quite early in Vienna. In 1938 Edith had successfully finished her university studies of law, but she was denied her diploma and instead had to find work as tutor and seamstress. Then in 1940 she and other young women were sent to a labor camp, to do slave-work in fields of German farmers, and later in a box factory, receiving no more than a near-starvation diet.

Edith's father, a waiter, had died in 1936, and her sisters managed to emigrate, but her mother was left behind. By 1942 the mother--and many other Vienna Jews--were being sent away for "resettlement" in Poland, and Edith asked for permission to return to Vienna and join her. She could not have imagined that "resettlement" meant a one-way trip to Auschwitz or similar places, nor that such fate also awaited other women in the labor camp, soon replaced by non-Jewish slave workers. But her mother was sent away before Edith boarded the train to Vienna (together with a few friends on a similar trip), and they were therefore ordered to follow on a later transport.

Instead, they secretly ripped the yellow stars off their jackets, then blended into Vienna crowds. Searching out friends, they were advised not to join any transport. But existing in Vienna was not possible either, with no documents and no ration cards: they might well be killed if caught, as would anyone who harbored them. Edith's former gentile boy-friend was too frightened to shield her, but her circle of friends came through and helped her obtain false papers--not good enough to stand close scrutiny, but adequate. With these she boarded a train to Munich, in Germany.

Constantly fearful, she landed a job as a nurse, and in the end married a paint-shop foreman in an airplane factory, a German whose loss of an eye kept him out of the army. She actually told him who she was, but he was pressed himself, in the last stages of a rancorous divorce, and let it pass.

It was a strange existence. Later such people would be called "U-boats" or submarines, submerged Jews hiding in Nazi society, pretending to be who they were not, forever fearful that some slip of tongue or bureaucratic trap would betray them. Under the name of Grete Denner, Edith blended and observed. Jews were never mentioned "as if they had never existed in this country," and for a while life seemed to be deceptively solid, for anyone who toed the official line. Then the air war began hitting harder, and an increasing number of young Germans never returned from the Eastern front. She bore a daughter, Angela--refusing any pain drug during delivery, having witnessed (during her service in a maternity ward) how mothers under the influence of drugs often revealed what was best left unsaid.

It is a frightening story. As the Russian army approaches from the east, her husband too is conscripted, is even commissioned as an officer, but soon he is wounded, captured and sent to Siberia. Edith, now a judge under the Russian occupation (her law papers, hidden in the cover of a book, were finally recognized), keeps pressing the authorities for his release, and after two years he suddenly reappears, unannounced. The reunion does not last, and neither does Edith's stay in Germany.

This is a revealing book--about the resiliency of human character, about the bonds of friendship, about the many Austrians and Germans who willingly embraced Nazi rule, and the brave few--far too few--who tried to temper it with mercy and secret help. Forget the phony tales of survival told on TV: here is a piece of reality which may give you the shivers even when you read it in the safety of your home. (less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Karyl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, bookstore-finds, non-fiction, favorites

I have read so many Holocaust stories, but I think this is probably my favorite. Edith Hahn was a bright young woman, growing up with her family in Vienna, and studying to become an Austrian judge. She was Jewish, but really in name only, as her parents weren't religious. But then the Germans invaded Austria. She watched her friends and family leaving, then being deported, and somehow she managed to stay one step ahead of the Nazis. And then, one day, she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member w...more

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May 26, 2012 Irving Koppel rated it 4 of 5 stars

The "Nazi Officer's Wife" reads like a novel,but it is really an autobiography. Edith Hahn Beer has
presented her unbelievable tale of survival in a most readable manner. She was a Jewish girl from
Vienna who had lived a rather upper middle-class life. She had studied law at the University where
she had almost completed her degree when the Germans marched in in 1938.

Her life and the lives of her fellow Jews changed dramatically for the worse after the Nazis,both
Austrian and German took over. Bef...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mps-player, world-war-ii

This is the true story of Edith Hahn Beer, who was a young women in Austria. She loved learning, and she was studying law. She avoided being sent to a consentration camp, but worried all the time about being found out. Her parents would never have approved of her marrying a gentile. When she met her future husband, she had obtained false identity papers. He asked her to marry him, and she told him she was a
Jew. He had also lied to her about his marriage. He got a divorce, but Edith was afraid t...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies

Zonderkidz | October 15, 1999 | Hardcover |ISBN 978-0-688-17776-8
Story Description:

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into a ghetto, issuing them papers branded with a "J." Soon, Edith was taken away to a labor camp, and though she convinced Nazi officials to spare her mother, when she returned home, her mother had been deported. Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith tore the yellow star from her clothing and went...more Zonderkidz | October 15, 1999 | Hardcover |ISBN 978-0-688-17776-8
Story Description:

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into a ghetto, issuing them papers branded with a "J." Soon, Edith was taken away to a labor camp, and though she convinced Nazi officials to spare her mother, when she returned home, her mother had been deported. Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith tore the yellow star from her clothing and went underground, scavenging for food and searching each night for a safe place to sleep. Her boyfriend, Pepi, proved too terrified to help her, but a Christian friend was not. With the woman's identity papers in hand, Edith fled to Munich. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who fell in love with her, and despite her protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity secret.

In vivid, wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear. She tells of German officials who casually questioned the lineage of her parents; of how, when giving birth to her daughter, she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal her past; and of how, after her husband was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia, Edith was bombed out of her house and had to hide in a closet with her daughter while drunken Russians soldiers raped women on the street.

Yet despite the risk it posed to her life, Edith Hahn created a remarkable collective record of survival. She saved every set of real and falsified papers, letters she received from her lost love, Pepi, and photographs she managed to take inside labor camps.

On exhibit at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents form the fabric of an epic story--complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

My Review:

I don’t really have a lot to add here for a review since the story description was so liberal and thorough. It was truly an amazing story of an immensely intelligent and strong woman. I’m not sure I could have done what Edith accomplished and my hat goes off to her. The story was well written and was truly heartbreaking in areas and even a bit of humour was injected in other parts. On the whole, I’m really glad that I stumbled across this book while searching for something to read on the Chapters.Indigo website. If you get a chance, pick up a copy and read a most amazing story!
(less)

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Oct 26, 2011 Jordan Boone rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

This unique topic drew me in. The issues of the book really intrigued me. At first I thought it would just be about Edith Hahn Beer's life being married to a Nazi officer, but it delves much more into the Holocaust than that. This shows an unusual way one Jewish woman survived World War II.
Though the diction and sentence structure is relatively easy to read (despite the few German words woven into the sentences), I love how the book really engulfs you in the way the world was in the 1930s and 1...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Edith Hahn was a child in a loving Jewish family in Vienna. Assimilated Jews, they spoke little yiddish or Hebrew, attended no synagogue, and lived their lives like most other middle class Viennese. Except they were Jews, and despite outward appearances of acceptance, Austria was a country with anti-semitic roots, and Vienna in the 1930s was a city heading towards embracing the anti-semitism of Nazi Germany.

This is Edith's story, told in the first person, of how she survived the 1930s and 1940s...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Cynthia Egbert rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a very intriguing read. I highly recommend it for those who have an interest in stories from the Holocaust. Yet another view of what went on and the psychology of how people handled the monstrosities of war and of outrageous policies. Some favorite quotes:

"I told Mina the stories of all the books I was reading...I told Mina of the story of 'The Legends of Christ' by Selma Lagerlof. 'Think of our kind forewoman as Veronica,' I whispered. 'Veronica wiped the brow of Jesus as he was carryi...more This was a very intriguing read. I highly recommend it for those who have an interest in stories from the Holocaust. Yet another view of what went on and the psychology of how people handled the monstrosities of war and of outrageous policies. Some favorite quotes:

"I told Mina the stories of all the books I was reading...I told Mina of the story of 'The Legends of Christ' by Selma Lagerlof. 'Think of our kind forewoman as Veronica,' I whispered. 'Veronica wiped the brow of Jesus as he was carrying his cross to Golgotha, and his face remained imprinted on her cloth. Our faces will be imprinted on the hearts of those who are kind to us, like a blessing.'"

"We made a million boxes for red compote and millions more for artificial coffee and artificial honey, for macaroni and spaghetti, for chewing tobacco. Every time a German opened one of those boxes, he touched us."

"I did not realize it then, but through art, we might have understod reality."

"But also...but also, you see, there were two white marble statues: Muter mit Kind by Josef Thorak, a mother nursing her baby; and Die Woge - The Wave - by Fritz Klimsch, a woman lying outstretched, leaning on one arm, one knee bent, her hand on her knee. I looked at the statue, and something happened to me. How shall I explain this to you? It was a kind of epiphany. "The Wave" washed over me. I heard the statue speak to me. 'Komm, Edith, komm zu mir.' I heard the voice of "The Wave" calling like my mother's voice, and in it I heard love, security, kindness, blessing. It was a fantasy, of course; but it happened, I swear to you - it happened to me in my time of greatest fear and confustion, when I was about to un-become myself. This white marble statue spoke to me about peace and freedom and the promise of life. I felt that in the next minute she would leave the screen, her marble skin would warm and become flesh, and she would embrace me and tell me that I would be safe. 'I have decided to go to Munich,' I said to Frau Doktor. I was never in my life more confident of any decision."

"I murdered the personality I was born with and transformed myself from a butterfly back into a caterpillar. That night I learned to seek the shadows, to prefer silence. I thought: Now I am like Dante. I walk through hell, but I am not burning."

"The soul withdrew to a rational silence."

"You know, we have moments of passion when we are in pain. And then of course the moment ends, and with it the passion and the pain, and we forgive and forget. But I think that every time you hurt somebody that you care for, a crack appears in your relationship, a little weakening - and it stays there, dangerous, waiting for the next opportunity to open up and destroy everything."

"One of the soldiers whispered in my ear: 'Don't act so happy, madam. Hitler may hear you.' 'Hitler has killed himself, Sergeant. That's for sure. Hitler and Goebbels did not wait to greet the Russians along with us plain people. That's why it was the admiral we heard on the radio.' 'You never know,' he said. 'Careful.' In the middle of that tremendous defeat, the sky blazing with bombs and roaring with Russian cannon, he was still afraid to say a word. It was the habit of silenc, you see. The habit of silence gets into you; it spreads from this one to the next one. If the Germans wanted to be phobic about an infectious disease, they should have picked silence, not measles."(less)

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Aug 18, 2010 Jude Malta rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 14, 2010 AnnaMay rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was so beautifully written.

It was different than other WWII memorial-type books I've read. This one really portrays the overall effects of the war--some I hadn't really contemplated before. It was interesting to me how each person was the decider of their outlook and treatment of Jews and prisoners of war. She demonstrated how some of her 'close calls' didn't turn into tragedies simply because the other person followed a 'whim' to act a certain way, thus saving her from disaster. Very inter...more This was so beautifully written.

It was different than other WWII memorial-type books I've read. This one really portrays the overall effects of the war--some I hadn't really contemplated before. It was interesting to me how each person was the decider of their outlook and treatment of Jews and prisoners of war. She demonstrated how some of her 'close calls' didn't turn into tragedies simply because the other person followed a 'whim' to act a certain way, thus saving her from disaster. Very interesting.

I learned more about how war affects people's relationships-love life, friendships, families. I was broken-hearted for Edith so many times. She was so resilliant, but I appreciated her candor in admitting that she was never the same again, that it took a long long time to rediscover Edith after she was no longer required to live under her false identity.

I felt pity for her first husband. In regular life, he probably would have been a regular Joe Shmoe, but the war really 'played with him' and he probably ended up a lot like his mother, I'm guessing.

The brilliance of Edith and her reactions in scenarios really impressed me. I don't think I would be counted amongst the survivors. I tend to get really 'clammed up' in a distressing situation. I was so glad Edith left in the end rather than being part of the Russian's new regime. A person can't be second-guessing who their friends are all of the time.

I was surprised to read another perspective on the Russians as they came through in victory. Other accounts focus on them coming to liberate concentration camps and portray them as a kind of Savior. I'd read one other account of their coming through Germany and their raping and looting, but I'd forgotten. I was surprised to be reminded of that. I think my brain tends to remember the good parts of stories, evidently, and pushes the hard-to-handle parts into the recesses of my mind.

Reading books on WWII really cause me to analyze myself and try to determine my values, how I treat people and under what circumstances those values and that treatment would change.

There is one conclusion that seems to be consistent after a book like this: Wicked rulers cause such destruction and terror and even the good rulers don't seem so good to those who are suffering under their policies. There are always more than two sides to a story. I have to remember that simultaneous with my enjoying the comforts of life, someone else is going through hellish experiences somewhere else, or even very close by. I'm left to ask: what am I to do about it?(less)

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Dec 31, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-ww-ii, lit-germany-austria, letters-diaries-memoirs, history-germany-and-austria

My doctor wants to know why this year I have taken to reading books about the Holocaust.

I don't know. It's not the time period I'm usually interested in. I much prefer the Tudors. Yet, when I taught Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl earlier this year, I did some more reading, and haven't stopped for whatever reason.

Maybe it is because I'm P*ssed off at the Holocaust deniers. I don't know.

I picked this book up at an used bookstore. It is a different perspective on the Holocaust.

Yeah, I know t...more My doctor wants to know why this year I have taken to reading books about the Holocaust.

I don't know. It's not the time period I'm usually interested in. I much prefer the Tudors. Yet, when I taught Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl earlier this year, I did some more reading, and haven't stopped for whatever reason.

Maybe it is because I'm P*ssed off at the Holocaust deniers. I don't know.

I picked this book up at an used bookstore. It is a different perspective on the Holocaust.

Yeah, I know the sentence doesn't sound right, but I don't know how else to say it. Much of what gets published, or seems to get published, deals with people surviving in hiding or surviving the camps. When in hiding, the people are always locked away somewhere. Think Anne Frank or The Book Thief, for instance.

Mrs Beer hid, but she hid in plain sight. She was incredibly brave and, at times, incredibly naive.

Smart and lucky too.

Honest, when she writes, it seems.

What she does best is capture the area between good and evil. The book is not the romance that the back cover of my copy sells. This is good. I think I would have thrown up if it was. Beer's Nazi Officer doesn't turn her in, but it isn't a fairy tale happy ever after ending. It is unclear why exactly he helps her, perhaps because she would, out of necessity, be the perfect wife, perhaps he loved, and perhaps it is a combination of the three. The reasons for Beer's marrying him remind somewhat unspoken. At the point, there really wasn't much more she could do. She was running out of choices, and her previous boyfriend hadn't really helped her as much as he could (perhaps).

At times, it seems as if Beer is tooting her own horn a bit too much, for instance when she describes herself as the one who cheered everyone up at a work camp farm. Doesn't everyone, however, make themselves the hero and center of their own stories? Doesn't everyone edit their memories just a bit?

An interesting book, simply because it shows great detail of a society and of people. It shows humanity, at its best and worst.(less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Terri Tinkel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: abuse-difficulty-in-life, family, children, history, marriage, mother-daughter-family

This isn't the usual story of the Holocaust. The author, Edith Hahn, did suffer as many Jews did during the War. She was one exam away from getting her doctorate in Law. She wasn't allowed to take the final exam at the university because she was a Jew. She went willingly to a labor camp farm because she thought it would keep her family from being deported. She endured long hours with little food, rags for clothes and only a bit of shelter. She proved to be a good worker and was then sent to a fa...more This isn't the usual story of the Holocaust. The author, Edith Hahn, did suffer as many Jews did during the War. She was one exam away from getting her doctorate in Law. She wasn't allowed to take the final exam at the university because she was a Jew. She went willingly to a labor camp farm because she thought it would keep her family from being deported. She endured long hours with little food, rags for clothes and only a bit of shelter. She proved to be a good worker and was then sent to a factory where she was forced to produce cardboard boxes. Each time she made her quota; the quota was upgraded until she was expected to produce over 35,000 pieces each day. She was not allowed to see her mother right before her mother was being deported. She finally was released and when she had the opportunity to leave the town; she refused. She wanted to stay with her boyfriend who didn't have the courage to leave. Finally because of some friends and some assistance; she was given the identity papers of another woman and she went to Munich. After a time, she met and fell in love with a man who insisted on marriage. He was working for the Hitler organization and had hopes of becoming a Nazi Officer. She finally confessed that she was a Jew but he wanted to marry her anyway. She lived her life in fear everyday that someone would find out who she really was. She pushed down all her memories, her thoughts and her hopes of ever being reunited with her Jewish family. She married him and made sure that she never refused his demands. She did everything for him, cooked and cleaned and sewed. They had a daughter. In 1944 he was inducted into the Nazi Officers group in spite of being blind in one eye. After the war and after he was released from a Russian labor camp, they reunited....and divorced some months later.
Edith never wanted to talk about her previous life. In 1977, her first boyfriend sent her all her letters and photos from the labor camp farm and factory that he had saved. She still had her original documents from the university and her birth certificate. She told her grown daughter about her life. Her daughter encouraged her to work on remembering all the memories and writing her story.
The documents are now a permanent part of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.(less)

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Sep 06, 2012 Carolyn Shank rated it 4 of 5 stars

THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE By Edith Hahn Beer is an excellent book with a riveting true story about identity, strength, and guilt as experienced by a survivor of the Holocaust. It is one of those books, one grudgingly puts down only after the clock is well past midnight.
Edith Hahn, an Austrian Jew, is about to receive her doctorate in law to become a judge, when the German Army invades her country. Two of her sisters flee the country, but Edith remains behind with her mother. She is in love with...more THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE By Edith Hahn Beer is an excellent book with a riveting true story about identity, strength, and guilt as experienced by a survivor of the Holocaust. It is one of those books, one grudgingly puts down only after the clock is well past midnight.
Edith Hahn, an Austrian Jew, is about to receive her doctorate in law to become a judge, when the German Army invades her country. Two of her sisters flee the country, but Edith remains behind with her mother. She is in love with Pepi, also a lawyer. Pepi, born of an overbearing Christian mother, Anna, and a Jewish father, arranges to have himself baptised Christian in order to avoid persecution. However, he is so fearful that his paternal identity will be discovered, Pepi eventually becomes a virtual prisoner in his own home. Meanwhile, as the Jewish persecution plays out, Edith, is refused her doctorate, and sent to labor camp, where she is forced to be a farm worker. She first believes this will be only temporary.
Then, just when she believes her work stint has been fulfilled, she is ordered to work as a slave in a paper factory. Learning her mother has been deported to Poland, Edith returns to Vienna, but she arrives too late to accompany her mother. Edith removes the yellow star, and does not report for the next assignment. Instead, she is given a false identity using the identity of a Christian friend, Grete Denner, who provides Edith with her own documentation.
Edith, then 27, but emaciated, ill, and impoverished by her attempts to remain underground, is further assisted by a Nazi doctor's wife. Now, as Grete Denner, Edith travels to Munich, where she obtains work at the Red Cross. In order, to protect her secret, she endeavors not to attract attention: she suppresses her true personality, and becomes a silent, introverted woman. Still in love with Pepi, she hopes for marriage, but Pepi, dominated by his hysterical mother, will not commit himself to marrying Edith, whom his mother regards as a dangerous fugitive.
In Munich, she works as a practical nurse, and assumes an air of simple mindedness, fearing every minute that she will be discovered. Then, Grete is swept off her feet by an unusual Nazi, Werner Vetter, an artist, who is working as a supervisor in an airplane factory. Even after she confesses to him she is a Jew in hiding, Werner is still in love with her. Though he is protective of her, and he loves to lie to the authorities, Werner still maintains certain cultural prejudices about Grete's Jewishness. He also has absorbed the general attitude of Nazi Germans that a woman's place is to breed and to be a house frau. He revels in the fact that Grete cooks, and cleans perfectly, and that she makes her life entirely around keeping him happy at home. This is possible for the assumed woman Grete Denner, who in order to survive has repressed her entire identity: her culture; her intellectual achievements; her sophistication; her love for Pepi, and her aching desire for her family connections, especially her mother.
Grete longs for something that is hers, and she becomes pregant, has a daughter, and marries Vetter. In short order, Vetter is drafted, made an officer, captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. But the war's end, does not bring an end to her suffering. She is confronted with the problems of how to reconcile her double identities
as Edith Hahn and as Crete Vetter, with the guilt of having lived among her oppressors, and the problems of living under the Russians. This story about Hahn's amazing struggle to maintain and recapture her true identity in the face of such horrors is one of the best Holocaust memoirs I've read.
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Nov 25, 2012 Lorri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: personally-own, holocaust, jewish-non-fiction, jewish-history, non-fiction

In forthright and concise writing, Beer manages to depict slave camp life on the asparagus farm extremely vividly. The harsh temperatures, the demeaning and difficult work conditions, the extremely long work hours (six and one half days per week), and the verbal abuse received would be enough to quell any hope in most individuals. Beer exercised her strength and courage, and kept a positive outlook. It proved invaluable to her survival.

After working at the asparagus farm, she is transferred to a...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Mike Clinton rated it 4 of 5 stars

This story offered a unique perspective among memoirs of Holocaust survivors. It's told in first-person narrative but also engages the reader with a literary style provided by the co-author, a professional writer. Edith/Grete Hahn/Denner/Vetter/Beer (the sequence of her names, Denner being the one she borrowed from a friend while a "U-Boat" hiding from the Nazi regime in plain sight) makes some important observations about individuals' choices and characters amid the long period stretching from...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub-reads

Not the sort of book I would choose for myself, this was my bookclub read for November.

Edith Hahn was a rather naive Jewish law student from Austria in her twenties when the Nazis took over the country. This biography tells the story of her survival and like all holocaust memoirs leaves you feeling uncomfortable, full of unanswered questions and despair at the hatred the human race is capable of.

Edith's story differs from others I have read in that she chose to survive by literally sleeping wit...more Not the sort of book I would choose for myself, this was my bookclub read for November.

Edith Hahn was a rather naive Jewish law student from Austria in her twenties when the Nazis took over the country. This biography tells the story of her survival and like all holocaust memoirs leaves you feeling uncomfortable, full of unanswered questions and despair at the hatred the human race is capable of.

Edith's story differs from others I have read in that she chose to survive by literally sleeping with the enemy. After enduring a year of hard physical labour and near starvation as a Jewish slave on an asparagus plantation and a box factory Edith is allowed back to Vienna to prepare for 'relocation' in the east. She decides instead to stay in Vienna and try to avoid being outed as a Jew, but discovers the only way she can do this is by assuming the identity of a non-Jewish friend.

Without any hesitation and at great personal risk to herself, her good friend Christl agrees to the lies and deception that enable her to be issued with a second lot of identity papers which she is able to give to Edith. Edith moves to Munich and begins to live her life as Christl, although she uses one of Christl's middle names, Grete. She also suppresses her natural personality and intelligence and tries to be as mousy and unnoticeable as possible.

While there she begins a relationship with a German Nazi, Werner and when Werner wants to marry her she tells him that she is Jewish. Unbelieveably he does not dob her in, but instead seems to enjoy the lie and they eventually marry. Edith's life as a German hausfrau provides her with the best possible security against the Nazi regime and the ironies of her deception reach a peak when she becomes pregnant and is afforded all the prestige given to good German mothers breeding new little Nazi babies. Edith finds it harder and harder to hold onto the core of who she really is.

When the war ends life appears to get better for Edith. She is able to reveal her true identity and work in her chosen field of law. However she experiences hatred from Jews who have spent the war in a concentration camp when they discover that she was living a comfortable life with a Nazi, and when Werner returns from a Russian prisoner of war camp he does not like the intelligent, confident, working Edith who has replaced the mousy stay at home Grete. Unsurprisingly the relationship ends.

This book makes you ask all the usual questions that holocaust books elicit. How can humans treat other humans with such hatred? How could the Jews allow themselves to be treated that way? Would I have had the courage to stand up to the hate? Why is this sort of ethnic hatred still happening in countries around the world today? There are enormous parallels between the way the Nazis stopped Jews from running businesses, attending school and moving around freely and the way the Taleban put those same restrictions on Afghan women. Have we learned anything from the Jewish holocaust?

This book though, blurs the lines between 'good' and 'bad' and Edith makes us see that in many cases there is no clear distinction. The people who saved Edith's life were all non-Jews and Werner was a strong supporter of Hitler. How could Edith have a relationship with a member of the Nazi party? While aspects of Werner's personality seem to bother Edith, the fact that he is a Nazi doesn't seem to be important. Was she immoral to do so or just desperate? And what of the small but important acts of kindness shown to Edith by other Nazis - do they ameliorate the harm they did?

This book is thought provoking and raises all sorts of ethical questions. An interesting read.

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Mar 15, 2010 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book drew me in very strongly, and very quickly. It's a different kind of WWII/Holocaust book than others I've read, because it's about a woman living in Germany pretending to not be Jewish. She does "quite well" in comparison to being in a death camp (obviously) but had innumerable obstacles of her own and lived in fear almost constantly. Her courage and creativity are memorable.

"Truth" is a strong theme in the book; it goes beyond her personal realization of the Nazi propaganda and focus...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Kyra Mack rated it 5 of 5 stars

August 23: pg 1-77
Taking place during WWII this novel is a historical reference on a more personal side than I actually learned in my history classes. One idea i thought was conflicting to what I had been taught was that people knew what was happening, at least the Germans were, and throughout my history classes I was taught they knew nothing of such horrible lives (if one can even call them as such) being lead. Edith, the main character states, "So you see, when they tell you they did not real...more August 23: pg 1-77
Taking place during WWII this novel is a historical reference on a more personal side than I actually learned in my history classes. One idea i thought was conflicting to what I had been taught was that people knew what was happening, at least the Germans were, and throughout my history classes I was taught they knew nothing of such horrible lives (if one can even call them as such) being lead. Edith, the main character states, "So you see, when they tell you they did not realize how the Jews were being despoiled, you must not believe them. They all knew", this being said after she was caught jaywalking and a police officer asked her to pay a hefty fine she claimed to be Jewish ( which she is) and he let her go because he knew should could not pay(mind you this was the beginning of he war). One comment made, due to an intellectual conversation over law between Pepi and Edith, brings up the comparison of Adolf Hitler to "great thinkers" which was a struggle Edith and the rest of the Jewish people were facing. Pepi questions, ""What about Adolf Hitler?". "Oh, him. He's not a thinker, he's a ranter and a raver"". To which Pepi replies, "There may come a time, when people cannot tell the difference". This being said over 70 some years ago I find it unnerving that the same thing the faced which led to WWII we still face today.

August 24:81-157
On page 82 I learned a "morgen", which is about two-thirds of an acre in Germany, was a measurement invented by medieval farmers, who estimated that this was how much land you could plow in a Morgen, a morning. I believe that that is an interesting cultural fact. At this point in the book as a member of Jewish society (spoiler alert stop reading), Edith has been taken to an asparagus plantation at Osterburg where only "6 weeks" turns into much longer. She faces hunger, grief, and responsibilities of maintain the upkeep of morale for the others girls sake. On page 87 the writes, "You see, shame was still a useful psychological tool for me. I still had pride". After all she was put through and going through to still have that mentality was incredible, to still wake up in the morning and put a smile on, is a sign of a strong women. Another conflict Edith faced was just the pure cruelty of people in general. However, she writes, " You see, even the inhuman ones were not always inhuman. This was a lesson that I would learn again and again- how completely unpredictable individuals could be when it came to personal morality". in a separate chapter Edith also says, "No one forced them to behave in an unkind manner. The opportunity to act decently toward us was always available to them. Only the tiniest number of them used it". Both of these statements are powerful in showing how this theory the Reich drilled into the minds of citizens pushed past their own morals and personal beliefs that the once held and I think it is astonishing that one idea by man can overpower entire countries with such hatred, but I suppose if the lie is outrageous to begin with the applications with be as well.

August 25:161-233
One culturally interesting point, at least era wise maybe culturally as well, how differently men treated women back then. One big point through the here on out the rest of the novel being Men work,eat, are taken care of, and are dominating creatures, women shouldn't bring home more money than the man but if the do have a job the must still keep the house spotless, cook three meals a day, barter for food, raise the children, and be ready to "please" her husband at a moments notice. During this part of the novel the title finally comes into play at the fact that Edith meets a Man in Munich who eventually becomes a Nazi Officer...even though he is legally blind in on eye. Shows how wonderful the Germans were doing eh? Half way through the book, Edith meets Werner, a couple a pages later he decides he must have her as his wife and even after she admits to being Jewish he declares the are even because he is going through a divorce and the niece he mentioned is actually his daughter. Werner is an interesting character to say the least I find it funny that he could be completely into love with this Jewish women enough to have sex with her but bringing up the idea of having a baby brings up an argument because he heard Jewish blood is "dominant" and even though his daughter is baptized at around 3 years old when Werner comes back from Russian prisoner of war camp he detests his own daughter because her mother, his wife has Jewish blood. If my husband ever did that i do not believe I could ever be in his presence again, however, I see her contradiction of love because he helped in a time were she could have died or been murdered, he was her savior.

August 26: 237-299
Multiple time this idea of women having the highest duty to the Reich by being breeders for the Aryan race is mentioned. Although by the end Edith writes, "Having a baby in Germany had become, next to dying at the front, the highest form of service to the state. I think that by then the Nazis no longer wanted babies because they felt it was their racial destiny to repopulate a "new Europe." I think they wanted babies to repopulate Germany itself because the country had lost so many people in the war". Compared to America at the time who gave childcare so women could support their men and their country and not being idolized as solely sexual beings is a big difference in culture. Towards the end everything happens so fast, all of a sudden Werner is captured, Brandenburg is taken over, buildings are on fire, Edith is in search of a place to stay with her baby, then Edith gets the courage to come out as Jew, gets a job, and so many other events that are hard to keep up with everything. Her torture compared to others at the time was not cruel really at all, in fact she herself was a miracle in hiding. However being persecuted, and living with this fear of being caught at any moment drives some people to madness. I was so happy when she got to be in charge, be herself, and in the novel you can see the distinct character change when she receives her new identification card.

Review:
A strong woman who was persecuted against leads you in a struggling journey from a young age to her 30's. From the death of her father, to a forced laborer, a ghost in the shadows, wife of a Nazi, mother of a child, Nazi officers wife, and a judge. and everything in between this woman's courage and strength is a story a hold close to my heart, and wish to remember. Lest we forget. No event in Edith Hahn Beer’s life as far as her survival in Holocaust Nazi Europe was as significant as the forging of her fake identity, her U-boat identity, in 1942. U-boat, an abbreviation of the German word for submarine, was the term used for Jews who assumed fake identities to escape the Holocaust.
As a part of her U-Boat identity, Grete Denner, Beer needed to look and act like a simple-minded Aryan girl instead of the college-educated Jewish woman that she was. In order to properly convey the lie she was perpetrating, Beer utilized various aspects of her femininity, her youthful appearance, as well as contrived aspects, shyness and submissiveness. The latter two characteristics were not questioned, although they were often badly faked by Beer, because they embodied the expectation for obedient Aryan women. Beer wrote of smiling “my silly little fool’s smile” in her memoirs when she wished to appear simple minded when working as a nurse’s aide in Brandenburg, Austria. This falsehood worked for Beer only because she exploited her status as a woman to portray characteristics that would make her seem meek. It is hard to compare us Americans, home of the brave, land of the free, to a country who killed 6 million people. However we are closer to them than we would like to think. For example the Japanese internment camps were not the greatest idea of our wonderful government we say we are a republic but not everyone is involved in that. Also we see the propaganda against the Jewish people, we see the horrendous events that happened to them, the terrible and unnerving lies that were told to the citizens in Europe. What about the Cold war, the communists? Are we so different? I do not wish to say we are one in the same, however i think it is easy to fool yourself and American's are not cautious of this. The author's purposes for writing this story was to one, preserve historical truth, there with come a time when all the people who witnessed the events of WWII are gone forever, by writing this done we have a conservation of history so it is not forgotten and it does not happen again. Furthermore this story was written to preserve the life a woman who defied and entire country, went through a war, and survived the holocaust while raising a child. Personally I believe the evidence to that is on the title itself connecting to what we know of the holocaust and why it is important to make sure an event like that never happens again. The theme of the text is dominantly in times of suffering look ahead. Multiple times throughout the text Edith keeps on living through the thoughts of reuniting with people and i truly believe that is how she survived with her mentality in tact. I definitely recommend this book whether you are a history buff or not, the story is beautifully written and I love when the Edith pauses her story to actually talk to you personally, it makes the story connect to the reality of the situation. True history is what this book is about.(less)

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Apr 02, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another memoir that I was disappointed in.

If you've read any of my other reviews, you know that I'm obsessed with World War II. You'll also know that I'm extremely put off by people who advertise one thing and then produce something different- it's LYING and it really annoys me. This book has both.

Edith Hahn was incredibly brave. She refused to do what many Austrian Jews did and go into hiding or flee to safer places (like her sisters did to Palestine). Instead, she insisted on carrying out her...more Another memoir that I was disappointed in.

If you've read any of my other reviews, you know that I'm obsessed with World War II. You'll also know that I'm extremely put off by people who advertise one thing and then produce something different- it's LYING and it really annoys me. This book has both.

Edith Hahn was incredibly brave. She refused to do what many Austrian Jews did and go into hiding or flee to safer places (like her sisters did to Palestine). Instead, she insisted on carrying out her life as it was, deluded by the idea that the Americans were coming to save the day, and to just wait it out. This worked for awhile. Then it didn't.

Then, about 2/3 through the book, she actually fulfilled the book's title and became the Nazi Officer's Wife. Even more incredibly, she changed her identity completely, taking on a new persona and defying everything she had stood against to save herself (a smart move, methinks). What was even more interesting was that this Nazi Officer (who wasn't an officer until very near the end of the book) knew she was Jewish. Rather than hiding her to save her (like many books I've read in the past), he married her out of love. She hid from the rest of the world she was Jewish, and upon their marriage, was actually presented a certificate verifying her Aryan blood (after a man looked her dead in the eye and declared that, "by look alone, it is obvious you could be nothing other than fully German"). Crazy. The search for her true identify plagued Edith for the rest of her life, as she struggled to find the balance between the Jewish Lawyer (just about) she was pre-war and the obedient housewife and mother that she became during the war. I did find it interesting that she said that she found no difference between Nazis and the people who did not stand against them, yet she also did not stand against them. She didn't wear her Nazi supported badge (or whatever it was) on her nursing uniform, but she never denounced them out of her desire to keep her life. She hated the people who she called Nazi (by proxy) (the people who weren't Nazis but didn't speak out against them), but she herself was one during war years.

I did enjoy this book, but not immensely and to be honest, it's probably one that I will forget that I read sooner rather than later. Nice while it's there, but not memorable. (less)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/682761.The_Nazi_Officer_s_Wife?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348737923l/682761.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/682761.The_Nazi_Officer_s_Wife?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn Beer[/url]

The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

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