Eva Braun: Life with Hitler

by Heike B. Görtemaker, Damion Searls (Translator)

In this groundbreaking biography of Eva Braun, German historian Heike B. Görtemaker delves into the startlingly neglected historical truth about Adolf Hitler’s mistress. More than just the vapid blonde of popular cliché, Eva Braun was a capricious but uncompromising, fiercely loyal companion to Hitler; theirs was a relationship that flew in the face of the Führer’s proclamations that Germany was his only bride. Görtemaker paints a portrait of Hitler and Braun’s life together with unnerving quotidian detail—Braun chose the movies screened at their mountaintop retreat (propaganda, of course); he dreamed of retiring with her to Linz one day after relinquishing his leadership to a younger man—while weaving their personal relationship throughout the fabric of one of history’s most devastating regimes. Though Braun gradually gained an unrivaled power within Hitler’s inner circle, her identity was kept a secret during the Third Reich, until the final days of the war. Faithful to the end, Braun committed suicide with Hitler in 1945, two days after their marriage.
 
Through exhaustive research, newly discovered documentation, and anecdotal accounts, Görtemaker has meticulously built a surprising portrait of Hitler’s bourgeois existence outside of the public eye. Though Eva Braun had no role in Hitler’s policies, she was never as banal as she was previously painted; she was privy to his thoughts, ruled life within his entourage, and held his trust. As horrifying as it is astonishing, Eva Braun will undoubtedly be referenced in all future accounts of this period.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, World War II, Germany, War, Biography Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 2010

About the author

Heike B. Görtemaker is a German historian known mostly for her biographies of Margret Boveri, German journalist and writer of the post-World War II period, and Eva Braun, the partner and wife of Adolf Hitler.

Reviews

[Hanneke · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers of this biography have remarked as well, this life history is not about Eva Braun but about the close circle of Hitler’s companions. It provides rather extensive reports on the members of his close circle with regard to their activities and friendship with Hitler. This cannot be said about reports on Eva Braun as there is hardly any mention of her throughout. One finds a paragraph here and there on Eva Braun and, regretfully, hardly ever a personal comment on her actions or opinions from anyone in this immediate circle. My intention to learn more about Eva Braun was exactly why I wanted to read this biography as in other biographies of individuals of Hitler’s intimate circle nobody ever had anything substantial to say about her. Traudl Junge, Hitler’s young secretary, mentions her occasionally, but never in any detail. That makes one curious as Eva Braun was Hitler’s companion from the early 1930’s until the end. You want to know what drove this woman and how she succeeded in joining that exclusive circle. Therefore, I have no idea why Heike Görtemaker gave the impression that the biography’ subject was Eva Braun. A better title would have been: ‘Hitler’s Royal Court’ or ‘Hitler’s closest circle at the Berghof’.

This does not mean that this biography did not provide a lot of interesting information on the members of Hitler’s closest circle. For example, I did not know that big nazi leaders such as Goering and Himmler were only rare visitors of the Berghof, thus were not members of the Fuhrer’s inner circle. Further new startling information was for me that Hitler was obviously often not available by telephone or in writing for weeks on end, even not for Ministers and other high officials who needed his approval on serious matters. He obviously just did not want to be bothered. This even went so far that when serious decisions had to be made, for example while his armies were on their way to Soviet territory and slaying hundreds of thousands of people on their route, he was totally incommunicado. Isn’t that the sign of a madman that he closed himself off from what his actions had originally set in motion? It made the man even more unhinged than I ever realized.

Hitler never had a formal education nor ever had a regular job. After participating in WW-I, he tried to get into art school but was not accepted. For a long time, he slept in homeless shelters or even on the street. It remains a mystery how it was possible that this man rose to his position as Fuhrer of the Reich and had a great majority of the German population admire him hysterically. I give up trying to understand it.

Eva Braun was apolitical and that might have been a smoothing factor for Hitler. Her background was lower-middle class and her interests were gymnastics, swimming, skiing and nice clothes. She was obedient and loyal. Hitler thought it was opportune to present himself as a single man, showing that he was only committed to serving the Reich and its people, thus Eva had to be invisible. And she obliged. It is not until the very end that she started to have a clear presence in the intimate circle. It is reported in the final weeks that Eva demanded loyalty until death of the closest companions and seemed not to understand why one after another was vanishing and trying to save his or her own life. According to Speer’s later testimony during his interrogations by investigators of the Allied Forces, he said that Hitler had always emphazied that the only one person who would stay true to him in the decisive moment and to the end would be Eva Braun. Although the biography does not proclaim it in definite terms, one must conclude that Hitler was devoted to Eva and perhaps to nobody else. Ever.

All in all, Heike Görtemaker‘s biography was interesting as it provided details on a great number of well-known nazi’s from a different point of view. It is a fact that in the last days in the bunker, Hitler ordered that all his personal documents and letters had to be destroyed. He even sent an official to the Berghof by airplane to destroy all his documents as well as those of Eva as well. It was strange not to get more detailed information on Eva Braun, but I must assume that there was not much to say about her.

[Joe Krakovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title 'Eva Braun: Life with Hitler' sounds a little misleading to me as I would guesstimate that only about half of the book is about Eva Braun and the rest is about other Nazi figures. Yet the author ties them into the story in such a way that she documents her portrait of the kind of person Eva Braun was. Unlike Napoleon, who left us correspondence of not only military matters but love letters to his woman as well, Hitler and Eva had all their personal papers burned at the end of the war. What this brilliant woman, author Heike B. Gortemaker, did was dig through volumes of surviving diaries, interviews, and interrogations to piece together what really happened concerning Eva and Hitler.

Eva was a teenager working in Heinrich Hoffmann's photography studio when she first met bad boy Adolf. Like others her age, she knew what she wanted and nobody could tell her different. Of course in her case, Hoffmann, as well as her parents, saw this attraction could be to their advantage. Hoffmann became Hitler's and the Nazi party's favorite and official photographer and he made millions off of this.

At the end of the war, the Germans went through a denazification process which worked hand in hand with those prosecuting Nazi war criminals. As a result, most if not all the sycophants who surrounded Hitler and were part of his inner circle, played dumb or tried to belittle their part in the Nazi era. To quote Sgt. Schultz from the old US TV sitcom 'Hogan's Heroes', "I see nothing. I hear nothing. I know nothing." In reality, men like Speer, the weasel, should have been hung. Instead, he rewrote history with 'Inside The Third Reich.' So in order to find out what really happened, and to get a glimpse of what Eva was really like, Heike had to slowly and methodically put the puzzle together, discarding pieces that didn't fit and finding others that were missing.

What was Eva like? What we do know was that she was loyal to Adolf to the very end. Being his mistress, which was hidden from the masses, she lived a secret life in the background, much like a woman having an affair with a married man whom she could only be with at odd times and places. Her love for him must have been deep to put up with that and the looks people who knew gave her. In time, she did come out of the closet, but it was in one of Hitler's fortresses/residences such as the Obersalzberg where only the inner circle, like Speer, were allowed. Eventually, with age, her power grew. At the end she finally became his wife before biting into that cyanide capsule.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the period.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva Braun: Life with Hitler by Heike B. Görtemaker, Damion Searls is a strange and informative read. These authors are good, the subject has issues! The authors really do just tell you the facts and you decide different things. I don't want to give spoilers but she is not mentally stable, maybe anxiety or depression, or maybe to get attention but I doubt that. I liked the book a great deal and there are pictures I have never seen before and info I have never heard before. Great book if you're interested in historical events and famous people.

[Steven Godin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The title for a start is all wrong. Hitler’s cronies: Life with the Führer would have been more appropriate. I thought this would be a book where the sole focus was Eva Braun, but it isn't. I'd read really interesting memoirs by both Hitler's Valet - who was there in the bunker alongside Braun right until the end - and his personal photographer, and you simply can't beat the actual voices of those who knew him. Had she lived, and written a memoir herself, then that really would have been the icing on the cake and so much more fascinating to read. There were things here I've come across before in other books about the Third Reich, so I ended up skimming through parts of it. The chapter about the Braun family was interesting, but this lasted all of 10 pages. Only a borrowed book, so glad I didn't pay for it. Well written and well detailed, but it's a bit of a con as it's not really a Braun bio.

[Ronnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book is incredibly misleading. What it should be called instead is, "People who Hung out with Hitler at his Mountain House and May or May Not Have Liked Eva Braun or Known Anything About Her and Hitler." Most of the book is more about the "circle" of people that were constantly around Hitler when he was staying at the Berghof. Most of them wrote memoirs after the war and all of them were interegated by allied troops and that is what most of the imformation is based on. The problem with that is that all of their stories contradict each other because they were all just nazi-scum trying to save their own asses instead of being honest about anything so we are left still having no idea what happened. I know about as much about Eva Braun now as I did before reading this. Not that it wasn't an intereating read, it just isn't exacly what it claims to be.

And as a petty complaint there are way too many sentences that use absurd words in quotes instead of just paraphrasing a quote and citing it.

Here's a made up example:
"Martha 'went' to the party and 'sat with' Fred. She 'didn't' like eating 'crabs'."

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Komoly hagyománya alakult ki annak, hogy Hitlert valamiféle bronzból öntött bálványnak képzeljük el, minden emberi érzéstől megfosztva. Gyanítom, ennek egyik oka, hogy így könnyebbnek látszik kezelni mindazt, amit elkövetett: ha egy ember áll neki elpusztítani embertársait, akkor abból kénytelenek vagyunk következtetéseket levonni saját ember voltunkra vonatkozóan – viszont ha ezt egy bálvány teszi, egy démon, akkor máris valahogy emészthetőbbnek tűnik. Rejtélyesebbnek, misztikusabbnak – de emészthetőnek, mert egy olyan tartományba száműztük, ami távol áll tőlünk.

Másfelől Hitlerből nem csak az utókor csinált bálványt, hanem a náci propaganda is. Úgy mutatták be a Führert, mint aki valahol Germánia felett lebeg, áldásosztó és büntető keze folyvást a magasba emelve. Jellemző, amit a házasodását firtató kérdésekre válaszolt: ő nem vehet maga mellé feleséget, mert az ő menyasszonya Németország*. De akárhogy is nézzük, van valami, ami ebbe a képbe nem fér bele. Naná, hogy Eva Braun.



Ki volt ez a nő? Szimpla szerető, apolitikus lélek, egyszerű teremtés, akit Adolf pórázon vonszolt ide-oda, vagy épp bezárt a Berghofba, hogy mindig kéznél legyen? Mekkora befolyása volt Hitlerre, ha volt egyáltalán? Mennyit érzékelt a náci ideológiából?

Görtemaker nehéz történészi feladatra vállalkozik, amikor ezt a kérdést akarja szétszálazni. Van ugyanis egy komoly probléma: az Eva Braunról szóló források megbízhatatlansága. Ugyanis az a helyzet, hogy amíg Braun nem Hitler parnere volt, nem igazán érdekelt senkit, ezért alig maradtak róla fenn feljegyzések. Amikor meg Hitler partnere lett, propagandisztikus okokból elzárták a külvilág elől, nehogy valakiben felmerüljenek bizonyos kényelmetlen kérdések**. A legtöbb információ, amit róla tudunk, olyan forrásokból származik, amelyek tényértéke megkérdőjelezhető. Igaz ugyan, hogy mondjuk egy Speer visszaemlékezéseiben számos információt elpötyögtetett róla, de hát megbízható tanú ő? Nem csak azért igyekezett egyfajta Eva Braun-képet előállítani, mert ezzel is mentegetni akarta saját magát? Mert ugye ő is abban volt érdekelt, ha elhinti, hogy Hitler személyes köre, azok, akik a Berghofon süttették a hasukat a diktátorral, apolitikus közeg volt, amit Hitler csak rekreációs célokra tartott. Ebben a buborékban nem beszéltek népirtásról, zsidókról, háborúról, csak az időjárásról meg a vegán konyháról. És ennek a buboréknak volt a része Eva Braun éppúgy, mint Speer. Legalábbis Speer állítása szerint.

De valóban volt buborék? Görtemaker azt igyekszik bizonyítani, hogy nem. Hitler személyes környezete, a vele bizalmas viszonyban lévők (komornyikok, orvosok, szárnysegédek, no és persze elsősorban: a szerető) igenis hatással voltak rá, és helyenként befolyásolták őt. Persze ez a befolyásolás nehezen fordítható egzakt bizonyítékokra, de egyértelműen létezett. Alsó hangon azzal, hogy fenntartották azt a problémátlan, baráti közeget, amiben a Führer az utolsó pillanatig megmártózhatott, és energikusan emelkedhetett fel belőle. Másfelől ennek a szolgáltatásnak így vagy úgy, de meg is kérték az árát: többségük mocskosul meggazdagodott, és egyéb módokon is lefölözték a diktátorral ápolt jó viszonyt. És ez a jó viszony egyáltalán nem volt, nem is lehetett politikamentes: igenis lényegi eleme volt az, hogy az ember ideológiailag is azonosuljon a Führerrel.

Persze ettől még lyukak maradnak a történetben. Mert nem igazán tudhatjuk meg, ki is volt Eva Braun. Nem pusztán számító potyautas – hisz végtére is a végén együtt akart meghalni Hitlerrel. (Ami szerintem nem romantikus – szerintem inkább ijesztő.) Görtemaker kerüli a bulvárosodást***, a pszichologizálást, így viszont szükségszerűen lecsökkenti azt, amit Eva Braunról ki merhet jelenteni. Valószínűleg ezért éreztem azt, hogy a kötet elveszíti időnként a fókuszt, mert az ebből fakadó lyukakat Görtemaker azzal igyekszik semlegesíteni, hogy általános kérdésekről beszél. Műve nem Eva Braun-monográfia lesz, hanem szélesebb spektrumú, de kissé mozaikos szakirodalom, amiben van egy kis nőtörténet, egy kis politikatörténet, és egy kis mélázás a diktátorok személyes kapcsolathálójáról, illetve azt ezt vizsgáló történészi munka sajátosságairól. De ebben a minőségében is nagyon érdekesnek találtam.

* Nem nehéz a kijelentés mögött meglátni a szándékot, hogy Hitler a saját képét összemossa Jézus képével. Csak amíg Jézus az emberiséggel szándékozta eljegyezni magát, addig Hitler csupán egyetlen nemzettel.
** Például: vajon ha Hitler szerint a német anya egyfajta keltetőgép, akinek legfőbb feladata buzgó árjákat előállítani lehetőleg tízes csomagolásban, akkor Eva Braun ugyan miért nem méltóztatott szülni egyetlen megveszekedett, csoffadt porontyot sem?
*** Nem tudjuk meg többek között azt, hogy Hitler tényleg ruhában szeretkezett-e. Ami mondjuk nem baj, mert ne akarjuk tudni, Hitler hogyan szeretkezett. Vannak dolgok, amiket jobb, ha nem próbálunk meg elképzelni, mert beleégnek a retinánkba.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Who was this woman, actually, and what perspective does she open up onto this “criminal of the century”?’

Eva Anna Paula Braun was born on the 6th of February 1912, married Adolf Hitler on the night of April 28th 1945, and died on the 30th of April 1945. Eva Braun was the second of three daughters of Fritz Braun, a Munich school teacher and Franziska, a former seamstress, and met Hitler in the autumn of 1929. Hitler was apparently so taken with her that he immediately had her investigated to make sure that she had no Jewish ancestry.

But what was her role in his life? What influence did she have over him? How much did she know about the Holocaust? She never joined the Nazi Party, but we probably can’t draw too many conclusions from that as apparently Hitler wouldn’t allow his sister to join the party either.
Ms Görtemaker’s book suggests that Braun was more important than has previously been considered. She was largely kept hidden from the German public in order to maintain the illusion that the Führer was married to his people. Twice, apparently, her relationship with Hitler drove her to attempt suicide. There are occasional glimpses of a woman who loved dogs, expensive clothes, photography and skiing. And at the end, instead of staying in Munich, she chose to return to Berlin where, 36 hours after marrying, she and Hitler committed suicide.

‘I want to be a beautiful corpse. I will take poison.’

The problem with writing a biography about a person like Eva Braun is that very little information can be verified, few sources exist and fewer can be relied on. We have some photographs, but little context although Eva Braun sought to have her private letters saved for posterity. On 23 April 1945 she wrote an urgent letter to her younger sister, Gretl, urging her to take ‘all the letters from the Führer’ and the ‘copies of her replies’ and put them in a ‘water-resistant packet’. Gretl was to bury them if necessary, but absolutely not to destroy them. Eva also insisted that ‘on no account must Heise’s bills be found,’ referring to the fashionable Berlin dress designer Annemarie Heise. She didn’t get her wish. We know about Eva’s profligacy at the dressmaker but her correspondence with Hitler has never been found.

I found this biography both interesting and dissatisfying. Interesting because I’ve never really thought much about the woman who married Hitler just before they both died, dissatisfying because I have no real sense of any substance to the woman herself. Instead, there’s a sense of frivolity which, while it might seem appropriate for many young women of her age seems inappropriate for a woman so closely associated to Hitler. What did Eva Braun stand for? She smoked, drank wine, listened to jazz, was obsessed with sport and movies, read Oscar Wilde and spent a lot of money on clothes. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book is the light that it sheds on those who were part of Hitler’s most intimate circle and his curious lifestyle.

Was Eva Braun one of Hitler’s victims? If she was, it seems that she was a willing one.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Mauoijenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eva Braun was a...
feminist
classy lady
humanitarian
Crazy bat shit woman who fell for an older man monster who murdered over 5 million people. That's about all I can say.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

German historian Heike B. Görtemaker faced a difficult task writing Eva Braun: Life with Hitler . There is little available by which to evaluate Braun. Any correspondence she had with Hitler has been destroyed or disappeared. The only extant diary consists of 10 entries in the first half of 1935. There are few contemporary descriptions of her. As a result, Görtemaker tries to piece together a picture of Braun through others.

Although Görtemaker relies on and cites a wealth of sources, some of her "primary" ones come from acquaintances such as Albert Speer or Herman Göring's wife, Emmy. Their comments come from statements given Allied forces after the war or post-war memoirs. In many cases, though, she discounts these sources as being influenced by efforts to distance the individuals from Hitler and his regime. This leads Görtemaker to explore the story of Hitler and to look at the lives of a variety of people near or around him during the same periods Braun was.

While that is an ingenious approach, it doesn't really produce the intended result. The reader spends as much or more time reading about others and what they thought than about Braun. Ultimately, whatever conclusions the reader or Görtemaker might draw as to Braun's views, ideas and the like can't rise above the level of speculation. Although it may be predicated on decent analysis, it is still speculation. In the end, we don't really learn much about Braun and her life with Hitler.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

[Mariagcri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarebbe stato un libro su Eva Braun se l'autrice avesse saputo qualcosa di Eva Braun,ma siccome ha nient'altro che notizie di poco conto su di lei è stata un'altra biografia su Hitler.

[Carl Rollyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most historians view Eva Braun as an apolitical appendage of Adolf Hitler's paltry private life. And yet, after having shared much of his time with her at the Berghof, his mountain retreat, he chose to marry her on the last day of his life, and she chose to die with him in his Berlin bunker.

Biographers have tried to infer from her proximity to Hitler a fuller picture of her personality. Why did she appeal to this dictator, regarded by the Nazi faithful as their savior, a man who publicly declared that he could not marry or enjoy the common pleasures of mortals because of his devotion to Germany?

In 1968, Nerin F. Gun was the first biographer to present a full portrait of Braun, but as Heike B. Görtemaker suggests, he relied too heavily on the testimony of the Braun family and of former Nazis who accorded Eva Braun the status of a naive, adoring mistress. In 2007, Angela Lambert provided a fitfully convincing portrait of Braun's milieu, showing how Braun -- a mere girl of 17 when she first met Hitler -- grew into the Führer's devoted mate. But Görtemaker strikes down Lambert's often fanciful reconstructions of history, including her reliance on a fragment of Braun's diary that Görtemaker suggests may be fraudulent.

Görtemaker herself sometimes stretches matters when she writes in the language of conjecture that suddenly becomes fact: "Despite the fact that he must have heard," for example. But she is also the first biographer to challenge the notion that Braun was a passive and guileless component of Hitler's entourage. On the contrary, Braun worked hard to keep herself at the center of power, even, Görtemaker suggests, staging at least one suicide attempt (there may have been another) to demonstrate that she could not live without Hitler's love.

Above all, Braun played the politics of personal loyalty, never objecting to any of Hitler's decisions. And she inspired others, like Albert Speer, Hitler's architect, who observed Braun's behavior and emulated it -- although Speer would later try to obscure his fawning. Most startling of all, a careful reading of Görtemaker's riveting account of the characters surrounding Hitler reveals that he spent more time with Eva Braun -- especially after 1935 -- than he did with even the highest ranking Nazis, such as Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler.

Braun may not have influenced Nazi policies, but thanks to Görtemaker's groundbreaking work, it is now clear how Braun catered to Hitler, fostering his reliance on cronies and lackeys and reinforcing his tendency to shut himself off from the awful reality of what was happening to Germany and to the world.

[Gregory Klages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Görtemaker takes on an aspect of the Nazi regime that has rarely been investigated: given Hitler's (and the majority of the Nazi hierarchy's) stance on the proper comportment and role of women in the regime, how was it that Hitler (and his entourage) maintained his relationship with a single young woman who never bore children, who smoked and drank, and who seems in many respects, the exact opposite of the ideal Aryan woman?

Görtemaker is treading on territory where she has few peers. There have been only three biographies written about Braun. This one is exceptional. The author's investigations are vexed by the glaring holes in archival resources. Many letters and other documents produced by Braun and Hitler have disappeared or been intentionally destroyed. Nonetheless, she is careful to assess shortcomings in the existing evidence (primarily testimony provided by members of Hitler's entourage and Braun's family members), which usually leaves her pointing out that more questions than answers exist about Braun and Hitler's life together. These questions, however, are not the fault of the author.

[Pixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly comprehensive bio of Eva Braun which refreshingly also critiques some of the presumed viewpoints written by previous biographers, especially pointing out that she was not 'just a shopgirl' but actually also a trainee assistant at Hoffmann's photography studio where she first met Adolph Hitler. The author gives a lot of context, not only of the chaotic times in Germany post WW1 but also gives some glimpses into Eva's family life & her relationships to her sisters, as her relationship with Adolph Hitler develops. Clearly there has been extensive research about Braun & her social milieu and this book provides lashings of detail in that regard; however I thought it fell short in giving a few more details about Eva's interests, e.g. reference is made to her being sporty but this is only backed up with one photo of her ice skating & very little else is mentioned in reference to her early school years (perhaps this information is irretrievable) or the fact that she liked to dance & was into gymnastics, nor what her reading interests were (if any). The book focusses on many of the bigger issues of the time, the really personal stuff about her dyeing her hair or having periods is not referred too, despite the photos showing otherwise (& reference to her periods was made in another book by Hitler's secretary Gertrude Traudl as there has been speculation as to their physical intimacy). Evidently, biographers have had a difficult time pinning down any opinions she might have had, but one can surmise that Eva like many Germans at the time, was unaware of the real horrors of the War, & especially of the camps, despite being in sympathy with nazi political ideals & being of the times. She clearly had very passionate feelings for Adolf & led a fairly privileged if slightly sheltered life as his 'hidden' mistress. I thought this book gave a very fair portrayal of this woman, difficult though it is to separate her from the monster of a man that she loved.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book doesn't give you anything really new about Eva, but it does give a little bit more of a rounded background and picture of her. The author does bring in alot of characters some we know already (like Hitler and his inner circle) and some you might know so well (like her family members and co-workers). I feel that the author by bringing in others in Eva and Hitler's life, the reader gets a feel for how she reacted, also how some of them reacted and felt about her. I found this especially true when reading about how the wives of the inner circle characters. But, like all the biographies written about her, she is revealed as a person that Hitler kept in the shadows, but you learn he did this with all the "secretaries" that worked for him, when important visitors come to call at the Berghof. In case you didn't know she listed as one of many "secretaries" Hitler had around him . However, you will learn she had an interest in other things that revolved around her, such as her pets, shopping and fashion, picture taking (the films we now have of Hitler are home movies she made) and her family, but she was also dutiful and loyal to Hitler to the end. An was she so foolish.. she paid the supreme sacrifice for the man she loved and went down in history as the wife of Hitler, foolish? perhaps. All in all its an excellent read and will definitely hold the attention of any "Hitlerphile" or WWII addict. Yes you will read alot about Hitler and his little quirks and habits from the time she met Hitler and their death.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy a story about Hitler and his entourage and of these people is Eva Braun.
There is enough information about Eva in this book to satisfy my curiosity as not much was written about her during her life. I liked it.

[Kristi]

For all of you history geeks out there. The author attempts to sort through the many questions and myths associated with Hitler's longtime girlfriend, Eva Braun, while also exploring the bigger picture of women's roles within the top brass of the Third Reich. How much did these women, the secretaries, spouses, and relatives, who supposedly had no part in making policy, know exactly? Were they influential? And why was Braun kept hidden from the public eye for nearly seventeen years? A fascinating look at the private lives of Hitler's inner circle.

[❤️My Dog is my Best Friend❤️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"According to Schirach, Braun had answered: 'Do you think I would let him die alone? I will stay with him up until the last moment, I've thought it out exactly. No one can stop me.'"

Okay this started off really slow and not as focused on Eva Braun as I would have liked. But the second half was so good and I began to appreciate the historical context that the author put into the first half since it helped with understanding Eva Braun's journey. What I think is particularly crazy about Eva is that she is the girlfriend--and briefly the wife--of easily one of the most evil people in world history. The absolutely single minded devotion she had for him pretty much from when they met is, on a psychological level, fascinating.

"Speer, in contrast, obviously admired her for this attitude: during his interrogation in Kransberg a few months later, he said that 'Hitler had always emphasized, with resignation, that he had only one person who would stay true to him in the decisive moment, true to the end: Eva Braun. We refused to believe him, but his feelings did not betray him here.'"

It is a twisted "love" story between Eva and Hitler. The author takes the time to look at the psychological state of both of them and what might have drawn them to their eventual end together. Eva had a pretty solid position in Hitler's inner circle and was arguably the closest and most familiar with the dictator. It was pretty weird to think about one of the most evil people to walk the earth having a "girlfriend," which felt like too common of a term. But I like that this brought Hitler down to a human level (don't misunderstand, not a human "I get it level" but in a "he's not some all powerful dictator who is more than human, he's just a really horrible human being with a god complex.").

"As a result of the effectiveness of German propaganda, the Nazi leader, apparently successful at everything, enjoying the widespread reputation in Germany of being a savvy politician on the international stage, outwitting Western powers who acted moralistic but ultimately did nothing."

"The conversations over nightly tea in Hitler's living room now turned on only one topic: the best way to die. 'I want to be a beautiful corpse, I will take poison,' Eva Braun supposedly said on one such occasion."

"Death will replace for us what the work in the service of my People has robbed from us...I and my wife choose death, to avoid the shame of flight or surrender."

Eva Braun is infamous for her close proximity and devotion to Hitler. I wish there was more known about her involvement and her thoughts throughout their time together. There are letters between her and Hitler that I don't believe have been found and being able to get a closer look into their relationship dynamic would be fascinating. That being said this book did a really good job of setting the stage for their relationship as well as giving historical context that might lead us to guess what was going through her mind as her relationship developed. In a way they were perfect for each other. To quote Vincenzo my favorite show of all time:
"Loyal subordinates' biggest fear is losing the trust of their boss. And bosses fear betrayal the most. "
Especially towards the end of 1944 and into 1945, Hitler was starting to lose it mentally to the point of becoming suspicious of everybody and Eva's determination to remain by his side no matter what really made them the "perfect pair." So while the quote above is referencing a different kind of relationship than the one being discussed here, the principle remains the same.

Highly recommend this book and I will definitely be reading more books about Hitler's inner circle in the coming years.

"Due to her life and death with Hitler, Eva Braun is forever tied to the National Socialist regime that, driven by radical anti-Semitism and marked by utter contempt for humanity, brought about, in Ian Kershaw's words, 'the steepest descent in civilized values known in modern times.'"

Content: Discussions of graphic violence, discussions of sex but nothing graphic, death of a dog (as if things couldn't get any more messed up), suicide, war

[Courtney Hierlihy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a rough book to get through, but I think it’s because of the expectation that I would be reading more about Eva throughout. Most of the book is based on circumstantial sources (which the author is upfront about), but this means the book turns into reading a lot about the people around Hitler and if they ever encountered Eva. I think it’s difficult for anyone to truly know Eva’s life story so I wish the author would have been more upfront about this and titled / framed the book differently.

[Anu Korpinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ollakseen kirja Eva Braunista, tässä teoksessa kerrottiin kyseisestä naisesta turhan vähän. Syy saattaa olla tietysti siinä, että täysin varmoja tietoja ei ole edes säilynyt. Mutta olihan tässä paljon juttua Hitlerin sisäpiiriin kuuluvista ihmisistä noin yleensä.

[John Jansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

De dubieuze plek van Eva Braun aan de zijde van een van de grootste misdadigers uit de geschiedenis. Boeiende biografie.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heike B. Gortemaker prefaces her book by stating that there is little surviving authenticated evidence about Eva Braun, who she was, or her true relationship with Adolf Hitler.

Knowing this, why Gortemaker chose to name the book after a character who is mentioned less than a quarter of the total length of text is surprising. The book is very well researched and there is no denying the historian is familiar with everyone surrounding her stated subject. Sadly, in the area of Braun, the book is lacking.

For me, the disappointment of the book lies not only in the misleading title, but in Gortemaker's almost juvenile glee in proving every previous biographer (and indeed, every person who KNEW Eva Braun) wrong about what they THOUGHT they knew about Evan Braun. At times I almost believed that Gortemaker could state that Hitler was really a black man from Chile, and I would almost be convinced to believe her since everyone before her has, in her estimation and backed by over one hundred pages of references, been a walking record of lies.

There was a wonderful outline to the book and the flow and language with which it was translated was very good. I would have awarded the book with more stars if I had really learned more about Eva Braun than wikipedia could probably tell me.

[Nicolas Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that could have been interesting in many aspects, but that seems to have troubles hiding its definitive lack of information about its topic. While it would have been perfectly reasonable to change the title to something like "Hitler, his Inner Circle, and Eva Braun", the reader feels here as if cheated on the content.
Most of what the writer has to say about the topic is that "nobody definitely knows what happened at such and such point of Eva's life" or that "The account of that person seems plausible but we can't confirm it"...
The book therefore ends up giving much more space than needed to the other characters of Hitler's private circle, which fails to capture our attention as most of what is sad here has already been said (or quite often even directly comes from) Kershaw's masterpiece and Speer's own insider view of the Third Reich.
It wouldn't be completely honest to completely dismiss this book, as it still manages to bring at the front some facts otherwise neglected in other publications, but it seems to me as too much of a history of the Third Reich as seen by the wives of the important Nazis than anything else...

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein für ein Sachbuch recht anregend formuliertes Buch über Eva Braun. Görtemaker wirft in jedem Unterkapitel ein paar grundlegende Fragen auf, zeigt dann verschiedene Informationsquellen (die alle gewissenhaft angehängt sind) auf und äußert eine Vermutung, was wohl am ehesten der Wahrheit entspricht. Die wenigen Bilder passen nur selten zum eigentlichen Text. Im letzten Kapitel ("Schlussbemerkung") fasst Görtemaker auf dreieinhalb Seiten sehr kompakt noch einmal die Wesenszüge Eva Brauns zusammen und schreibt hier in einem eher persönlicheren Stil.

Insgesamt ein wirklich gut geschriebenes und informatives Buch, bei dem man auf keinen Fall gezwungen ist, die Meinung der Autorin aufzunehmen. Für Interessierte an der persönlicheren Umgebung Hitlers ist dieses Buch auf jeden Fall zu empfehlen.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book about Eva Braun, there was remarkably little said about Eva Braun. I realize that female historical figures are almost always harder to illuminate due to their nearly invisible presence in the public sphere, but the author did a poor job of qualifying her subject matter in that way before luring you into her book and then turning around and droning endlessly on about all the men surrounding Hitler. I also did not agree with the author's categorical dismissal of some historical evidence. When she did get around to talking about Braun, however, it was fascinating, especially as the time drew closer for the couple's double suicide.

[zeynep · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one because the introduction argued - convincingly, but maybe I am not someone who needed convincing in the first place - that existing Hitler historiography is perhaps mistaken in treating him as a "nonperson" with no private life, because this – although well-intentioned - accords with the propaganda image of him as an ascetic married & devoted solely to Germany; and furthermore that Eva Braun shouldn't be taken just as the marginal figure of the tragic girlfriend, but rather examined as a political actor herself.

All of this seems sound to me; the problem lies in the fact that Braun didn’t leave much behind in the way of primary materials and was kept well out of the public eye. Hitler had that propaganda image to maintain, after all. A hilarious secondhand quote from Albert Speer btw:

Hitler said: “Lots of women are attracted to me because I am unmarried. […] It’s the same as with a movie actor; when he marries he loses a certain something for the women who adore him.”

Prior to their double suicide, Hitler had all his papers burned. Braun, for her part, apparently told her sister to not destroy her letters to Hitler, but to save them. But they have not been found. There is a fragment of her diary in 1935, the legitimacy of which is controversial. In short, in order to speculate on who Eva Braun was, this book must extrapolate based on the people around her – her sisters, parents, the wives of other high-ranking Nazis, those in Hitler’s social circle in this Obersalzberg mountain retreat etc. In this, it also faces the perennial problem of self-serving postwar testimony. In any case, over the course of examining these other figures, EB herself can get a little lost. As far as biographies go, this is not a gripping psychological portrait (like Eichmann Before Jerusalem was UGH I can’t stop thinking about that one ugggh). So, it’s like, 3 stars? But I want to be nice and say it’s 3.5/5.

(Btw, if I had to summarize what I learned of her life from this book? At 17, while working for a photographer – who had connections to the NSDAP propaganda machine btw – she met Hitler. Various sources, the photographer included, claim that their relationship didn’t become, uh, physical, until later; but this could be more of that self-serving testimony. In any case, Hitler liked having someone he could visit on the weekends but wouldn’t bother him rest of the time, the author says he liked his bohemian lifestyle even after becoming Chancellor. So he kept her at a distance. At some point, indeed, perhaps twice, EB attempted suicide to bring him closer. It seems to have worked. She began to attend NSDAP events and traveled abroad with him, though never by his side, but rather as a secretary. She also became an important part of his Obersalzberg retinue; when previously Hitler’s half-sister Angela had been the housekeeper there, in 1936 she left, perhaps because Angela and EB did not get along. There are various court intrigue details like this, that suggest that EB was highly favored by Hitler, and that others in that social circle resented her for having that power. In the end, she approached her suicide calmly, willingly, perhaps happily. It sounds a bit like, if in the end, EB had told Hitler to get the f**k out of Berlin and fly to safety, he could have done it, but her calm attitude maintained his delusions. Well, at least that’s how the survivors of the Fuhrerbunker describe it.)

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My middle daughter has been reading a lot of WWII nonfiction lately, and I snagged this off of her pile to return to the library. I have pretty much zero interest in battle strategy, etc., for any war, but the personalities involved fascinate me. Particularly someone like Hitler — what makes a person turn out as he did? Or Eva Braun — there are bad boyfriends, and then there’s Hitler. What was the attraction there? That was my question in picking up the book.

Eva Braun was the middle of three daughters. She met Hitler in a photography shop where she was working. The owner of the shop went on to become Hitler’s official photographer. When they met, Eva was 17 and Hitler was 40. From there until the end of their lives in 1945, the two were a couple, although they famously only married hours before both committed suicide. Early in their relationship (prior to her reaching age 25), Eva attempted suicide twice, from which we can infer that she wasn’t totally happy with her life.

Life with Hitler was not at all a typical relationship, as you might expect. “No day-to-day life and no legitimate relationship” was the way Hitler wanted to live his life — in a bohemian, antibourgeois way. He didn’t have the best opinion of women overall (he “considered it pointless to attempt to keep women from gossiping”), although he did in his own way seem to be devoted to Eva, and especially appreciated her intense loyalty to him. Hitler’s long-term plan, once he had “installed his successor,” was to marry Eva and move to Linz, Austria, which his architects were planning as his ideal city.

Eva was devoted indeed, refusing in the end to travel away from Hitler in Berlin to Munich, as he instructed her. She told a friend, “Do you think I would let him die alone? I will stay with him up until the last moment, I’ve thought it out exactly. No one can stop me.” She also shared, “The secretaries and I are practicing with the pistol every day,” and that she was “very happy to be near him, especially now.”

I had hoped for more insights into Eva than I got here, but since Hitler instructed a lackey to destroy all of his and Eva’s letters/diaries/correspondence after their deaths, there is not a lot to go on. It’s interesting that Eva apparently asked her sister to save her writings, but this message got through too late for the sister to do that.

The author did do extensive research of the sources that are available, and there are many notes at the back of the book. The book tells a lot about major players in the Third Reich; just not a whole lot about Eva Braun.

[HALLE · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently finished this book and have since been stuck on how to give it a fair rating and review.

I think the best summary is that I was left wanting for more. Although this book is presented as a biography on Eva Braun, as well as her influence within the Third Reich there is a far more substantial thesis to be found.

First and foremost the reader must understand that this is not a true biography. It's very clear early on that there is very little substantial information written on Braun. This is not the author's fault. In an effort to fill in the blanks the author instead delves into the wives of some of Hitlers inner circle who were often with Braun. In this regard I believe the author missed what could have truly been an excellent book. She proposes that the women around Hitler her almost as, if not just as complicate as the men. What I believe would have made a far better read is if that had been the focus of the book, instead of Eva Braun exclusively. It feels like a missed opportunity since there isn't a lot of focus on how the Nazi regime was supported by the women. Still, I found the book very interesting.

The author did not shy away from presenting Hitler as he was nor did they allow too much bias to leak through their writing. Hopefully the topics of this book will be revisited so there may be more understanding of the roles of the wives within Hitlers inner circle.

[Ana Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Não espere uma biografia clara e objetiva sobre Eva Braun. Nesse livro tem-se a sensação de que há tão pouco registro ou evidência de que para se ter noção de quem ela era e qual seu papel na historia é preciso listar antes o que ela definitivamente não era, é preciso analisar as demais relações do círculo íntimo de Hitler e assim, bordeando, definir o mínimo de contorno de sua personalidade e relevância para o desenrolar dos acontecimentos. Não deixa de ser um pouco frustrante, mas definitivamente um grande trabalho da autora.

[Katie Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is mostly speculation. And doesn't really know anything that we did not already know about Eva. It was a fast read. But not full of information.

[Erin Wanek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too speculative for me.. filled with many a “Can we derive”, “it therefore seems reasonable to assume,” “it is hard to imagine,” “she may well have felt”, “it is possible”, “this seems highly unlikely”, “it is reasonable to assume”, etc etc.