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Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith's protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret.
In wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear. She tells how German officials casually questioned the lineage of her parents; how during childbirth she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal something of her past; and how, after her husband was captured by the Soviets, she was bombed out of her house and had to hide while drunken Russian soldiers raped women on the street.
Despite the risk it posed to her life, Edith created a remarkable record of survival. She saved every document, as well as photographs she took inside labor camps. Now part of the permanent collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents, several of which are included in this volume, form the fabric of a gripping new chapter in the history of the Holocaust—complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

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

Biographies & Memoirs

Beer, Edith Hahn

Dworkin, Susan

Community & Culture

William Morrow Paperbacks

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

“A beautiful story of survival, an inspiring tale of overcoming fear.” —Washington Jewish Week
The Gestapo forced Edith Hahn into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home to Vienna months later, she’d become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith’s protests and her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret.
In wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant fear. She tells how German officials questioned the lineage of her parents; how during childbirth she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal something of her past; and how, after her husband was captured by the Soviets, she was bombed out of her house and was forced to hide while Russian soldiers raped women in the street.
Despite the risks to her life, Edith created a remarkable record of survival. She saved every document and the photographs she took inside labor camps. Now part of the permanent collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents form the fabric of a new chapter in the history of the Holocaust—complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.
“A remarkable story.” —Jerusalem Post

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a labor camp, then ordered her to "resettle" in the east. Instead, she tore off her yellow star and went underground. Thanks to a brave friend, she reemerged in Munich as Grete Danner, a Christian working for the Red Cross. It was there that she met her future husband, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her and swore to keep her true identity a secret.In this remarkable memoir, Edith Hahn Beer describes the life of a Jew in hiding in plain sight in Nazi Germany. She writes in wrenching detail of the constant, almost paralyzing fear that she lived with every day, and of the intense psychic trauma involved in such a deception. Illustrated with hundreds of documents, papers, and letters -- which are part of the permanent collection at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C. -- that eloquently articulate her story, The Nazi Officer's Wife is an extraordinary record of survival: complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

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

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