Children of the Third Reich: Three Pasts, Three Futures

by Catrine Clay

The Third Reich cast a long shadow, not least over those born in Germany at that time. Whether the children of Nazi perpetrators or Holocaust survivors, they all had to come to terms with their dark past, based on an inhuman racial ideology.

Renate was born in 1941, the daughter of an unknown SS General and Nazi war criminal who fathered her as part of his racial duty to produce 'A Child for Hitler.' Joe was born in 1946 in a Displaced Persons camp for Holocaust survivors. Dan was born in Haifa in 1938 to German Jewish immigrant parents. Then it was Palestine, later Israel, and Dan was a proud Israeli, until he wasn't so sure any more. All three grew up surrounded by silence and secrets, because their parents wanted to protect them from the horrors of the dark Nazi past which had devastated their lives.

Decades later the three met, each trying to come to terms with their legacies of silence, secrets and pain. In Children of the Third Reich, acclaimed historian Catrine Clay traces their stories from Germany to the United States and Israel, confronting their dark pasts in order to find ways to a better future.

Genres: History

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 9, 2026

About the author

Catrine Clay has worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries. She won the International Documentary Award and the Golden Spire for Best History Documentary, and was nominated for a BAFTA. She is the author of King, Kaiser, Tsar and Trautmann’s Journey, which won a British Sports Book Award for Biography of the Year and was runner-up for the William Hill Sports Book Award. She is married with three children and lives in London.

Reviews

[iCod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't as I expected it. I would've preferred for less general Nazi/German history which can be found anywhere and more concentration on the lives of the people that we eventually get to at the end.
Some of those histories though for example the guy who lived in New York City was dragged out and lots of descriptions about American popular culture in the 1950s which we just didn't need