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Nazi Wives

The Women at the Top of Hitler's Germany

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Nazi Wives

By: James Wyllie
Narrated by: Dalya Raphael
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Nazi Wives explores these women in detail for the first time, skilfully interweaving their stories through years of struggle, power, decline and destruction into the post-war twilight of denial and delusion.

Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Bormann, Hess – names synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margaret, Lina, Gerda and Ilse … 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 quarrelled with their husbands, all the while jostling for position with the mighty Führer himself. And yet they have been treated as minor characters, their significance ignored, as if they were unaware of their husband’s murderous acts, despite the evidence that was all around them: the stolen art on their walls, the slave labour in their homes, and the produce grown in concentration camps on their tables.

“Wyllie tells the stories of the wives of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and others...a distinctive prism through which to view the period." -THE GUARDIAN Europe Germany Military Women World Marriage War
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All stars
Most relevant
The narration was the highlight of this book and I will definitely look for more narrated by Dalya Raphel. The story however, was all over the place with the author skipping forward and backwards through the years. It was much more about the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler in particular. I thought the main topic book lacking and so was filled by merely rehashing what we already know but with some inclusion of the women.
Sadly I gave up at the halfway mark.

Disappointing

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This is an easy very interesting read. The backdrop is the Nazi Party from its beginnings, WWII, and the Nuremberg trials. The focus is on the women - the wives and mistresses and, to a lesser extent, the children of top Nazis. Some notables are missing, for example Frau Speer and Frau Mengele, but the women who are included are well covered. There is a lot of old information (which is hard to avoid given the number of books on the Nazi era and WWII) but enough that's seldom reported to maintain interest.

Dalya Raphael's narration overall is very good but her mispronunciation of some German names detracts considerably. For example, Bayreuth ranges from correctly pronounced to 'Byroot' or Beirut, and Heydrich is 'Hay drich' (should be 'High drich) every time and, as Heydrich features prominently, it's hard to take. Overall, though, I highly recommend this book.

Very interesting

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As someone who has had a life long interest in how people come to power and do dreadful things

And as someone who listened to all 60 + hours of the magnificent if exceptionally dry The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany American journalist William L. Shirer Nazi Wives provides a voyeuristic history of what was happening in the lives of the senior Nazi’s from Hitler down

Very well constructed and exceptionally well read

“No one is innocent”

WARNING

You need to have an intimate understanding of the history / events of the Nazi’s rise to power and their decline to embrace this audiobook


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