Nazi Lady: The Diaries Of Elisabeth Von Stahlenberg, 1933-1948

by Gillian Freeman, Elisabeth Stahlenberg

Diary of a Nazi Lady

Genres: History, World War II

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Born in London, daughter of Dr. Jack Freeman and his wife, she graduated in English Language and Literature from the University of Reading in 1951. She married Edward Thorpe, novelist and ballet critic of the Evening Standard, in 1955. They have two daughters. One of her best known books was the 1961 novel The Leather Boys (published under the pseudonym Eliot George, a reference to the writer George Eliot), a story of a gay relationship between two young working-class men, later turned into a film for which she wrote the screenplay, this time under her own name. The novel was commissioned by the publisher Anthony Blond, who wanted a story about a "Romeo and Romeo in the South London suburbs". Her non-fiction book The Undergrowth of Literature (1967), was a pioneering study of pornography. In 1979, on another commission from Blond, she wrote a fictional diary, Nazi Lady: The Diaries of Elisabeth von Stahlenberg, 1938–48; Freeman's authorship was not at first revealed and many readers took it to be genuine. Her most recent book is But Nobody Lives in Bloomsbury (2006), a fictional study of the Bloomsbury Group.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Began by reading absorbing selections from this diary in
my ongoing Anthology of War Diarists: The Secret Annexe.

But then, some years later
I found a second-hand copy in Hardback
...No Selections this time,
but the Total Absorbing Tale :

Loyal and devoted wife but by no means a saint,
an opportunist and eager to hobnob with the Elite Nazis,
Elisabeth creates a Hitler Youth Monster Son
while married to an Honourable Man.
A Delicious Recipe of a life that can only end in Severe Indigestion.
One can only Admire this Gutsy Lady.
It was a Great Shame to learn that it was written by Gillian Freeman.
But I soon reflected that it was INDEED a Great Read
and was Thankful for a Sharp Talent,
a Studious Researcher,
a Superb Creator of a Many-Faceted Character
who gave us an Intriguing First Lady.
To grizzle is ungracious.
To make the Journey is to Broarden one's Tolerance
and Admire a Survivor.

Thanks, Gillian.

[Fran Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book, the journal of a young woman married to an important Nazi. At first they have a charmed life but her husband becomes sick about the things he sees and is forced to film and they have to deal with reality. The book is so well written that one wonders if the diary wasn't real. A look at the Second World War through a different lens.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

c1979. Gillian Freeman - 5 December 1929[1] – 23 February 2019. Probably the best known of her works although she had several books published. Maybe I should change that to probably the best known by the general public as I am sure that the literati will have everything covered.