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

I thought it would be a case of Stockholm Syndrome, but was pleasantly surprised. The author grew up in Vienna in the 1930s and while many of her family members saw the writing on the wall and managed to flee before the Nazi area closed itself, Edith and her mother remained for various reasons. The title is slightly misleading as the author does not really meet her husband until halfway through the book. Nevertheless, it's a very interesting memoir of how a Jewish girl managed to survive in Nazi Germany by acting her way through the regime's duration.

The writing is adequate and the despair she felt at some points came through the words. The tone is very conversational as if the author is narrating to you rather than writing a book, which might put people off. But having read a lot of memoirs, I think this is written much better than most.

The book takes us through her father's death (natural) at the very beginning of the Nazi rule and then takes us through her years as a slave labourer in an asparagus farm, her work in a paper factory, her relationship with Pepi and its demise, her going on the run to avoid going to Poland, meeting her Nazi husband and finally, freedom! Her husband was a complex man who not only married her and helped her but helped her friends as well and took delight in lying to the regime, but at the same time also believed in some of their propaganda against the Jews.

My favourite part of the book was when the author goes back to the registration centre to get her real name back and meets the same guy who checked her 'Aryan' antecedents and she told him she was Jewish. Oh, how his face must have looked. Brilliant!