Nazi Wives by James Wyllie

 

 

 

For our July meeting we met outdoors at Paul Miller Park to discuss Nazi Wives, by James Wyllie. The weather was lovely and it was so wonderful to gather together again! Welcome to a few new faces, and thank you to everyone who made it out! Up next for August is The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, by Heidi Durrow~ we'll get the copies we have available distributed as quickly as possible, but it's always encouraged to snag a copy elsewhere if you can, just to help get everyone supplied as efficiently as possible.

A big thank you to everyone who came to lend a hand (and a dollar!) for the library's book sale last month! It was a great success, and it feels o-so-good to have liquidated so much of the goods!

 

To the book!

 

Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Hess, Bormann--names synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margaret, 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.

With the exception of just a few, this book wasn't well received. What's interesting though, is that it mostly wasn't cared for because the people being written about were heavily abhorred. It was hard to like the book, because it was hard to like the many protagonists being depicted and the subject material~ it was said we couldn't sympathize with any one of them. We were baffled by what it could possibly have been about Hilter that drew so many to him and kept them so fiercely loyal to the bitter end. It was also mentioned that this particular author jumped around a lot between the major players and it got confusing to keep them, and the settings, all straight. Title aside, we all agreed by the end of the book we didn't come away from it feeling like we had a good handle on who these women truly were and what made them do/think/feel the things they did/thought/felt. 

On the other hand, it was also said that despite the book being uncomfortable to read due to it's nature, it was also a necessary story to tell... and to keep telling, so that we, and generations to come, may never forget or take for granted the freedoms that we have. We agreed as a group that while we could imagine the level of knowledge/involvement varied among the wives, we found none to be wholly innocent of the atrocities being discussed, planned, and committed, within the walls of their very homes, needless to say their neighborhoods and communities.

In closing, I'll leave you with something to consider: With all of his power, wealth, and charisma, what good could Hitler have done for Germany if only he hadn't been so filled with hate for the Jewish people? What could that have looked like? What could that have meant for Germany today? Let us know in the comments below!

Did you enjoy Nazi Wives? Fans of this book also enjoyed: The Last Stone, by Mark Bowden, and The Nazi Officer's Wife, by Edith Hahn-Beer. Both books are available in Viking~ reserve them today!

At the end of every book club discussion we ask three questions and track the average answers:
Would we recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"YES"
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? 
"NO"
Rate the book 1-5 stars with 1 being the lowest rating: 
 2.5 stars