Hitler and Women : The Love Life of Adolf Hitler

by Douglas Botting and Ian Sayer

Book Overview

Amidst the libraries of scholarship on the public deeds of Adolf Hitler, much of the private life of this thoroughly evil figure remains enigmatic. The Women Who Knew Hitler reveals a new dimension... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841199184
• ISBN13: 9781841199184
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Robinson Publishing
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Adolph Hitler: A Monster . . . A Man

Adolph Hitler was a monster. Anyone in the last near-century knows this. How he came to be a monster is the stuff of countless books, articles, and essays. That such a make-up of tissue, bones, and organs could become a part of humanity, nonetheless history, is often beyond comprehension. Because a persona became known into eternity not for good, but for horrors delivered upon untold numbers, it's considered that such a person could not have had a single iota of heart-felt humanity. So how is it that such a man as Hitler was loved, literally, by woman after woman? That no less than three committed suicide because they couldn't spend their life with him? And one of them, Eva Braun, committed suicide for him? How is it that he could smile upon children and be kind to them, then turn around and send thousands to death? That he could be loved, literally, by women, and men, who worked for him, cared for by him through money and emotional support? I can't answer these questions. I can't even comprehend how it's possible. Yet to read what these authors succinctly put together, I believe it all. I believe Adolph Hitler garnered trust, empathy, positive emotion . . . even love . . . from those who lived with him day in and day out, knew him as a living, breathing body mass. I somehow believe it after reading this book. It doesn't make him less of a monster to acknowledge this. In my eyes, somehow, it makes him sadder. It was fact that Adolph Hitler was a monster, he wasted an enigma of personality, of some brilliance that surpassed book smarts, and he seemed literally incapable of understanding that all he did with his adult life was wrong. This book that needs to be read for its humanity, and the quagmire of what this means . . . humanity is real. It may not be pretty but it's real, and to even attempt to understand this as fact, one must be willing to look into the other side and try to "get" it.

worth reading

the writer tells the story of a man to me was afriad of women all his life.the women who give a twisted evil man power over their lives.

Surprisingly Good

I had limited expectations of this book given the subject matter. Perhaps in part due to the title or the rather bad cover art, I thought it might be a throw-away text written with a bent towards the salacious. I was surprised to discover that it was a relatively moderate, well-written exploration of Hitler's relationship with women and an excellent summary of his last days. Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting flesh out an interesting portrait of Hitler with an elevated treatment of the subject matter. Refreshingly, the authors refrain from rampant speculation and amateur psychoanalysis and present instead a rather temperate treatment of the subject. They explore Hitler's known relationships with women and attempt to provide some insight into this aspect of the man - all the while doing so against the background of the image Hitler maintained as the public man. Despite the title, only about half of the book explores Hitler's relationships with women. The last half deals more with Hitler's final weeks and days in the bunker as Berlin falls about him. Nevertheless, the change in focus is welcome as the second half of the book is perhaps even more engaging than the first.

Absolute prowess at story telling

The facts are all there told dozens of times by lesser authors. (The only book I have read that is close is "The Bunker") I could not put this book down. The back cover says "Historians and psychologists struggle to understand the menatlity..." The very accurate, extensive discriptions of Hitler, Eva, henchmen, and secretaries flow from the pages. I highly recommend this book. I am ordering every one of their books I can get my hands on. A real joy to read such talent.

A Different Take

Sayer has attempted what I personally consider to be a very difficult task...writing a book focusing on Hilter and the women around him. Difficult because Hilter himself was a very private person and he guarded his relationships closely. Perhaps this was the reason that I was originally drawn to this book. This is not a expose' nor is it a typical biography. It looks at Hitler through the filtered lens of his relationships with the women...how his relationships worked, what women were attracted to him, what women he was attracted to and how his charismatic personality enabled him to overcome what many women felt was a somewhat unattractive physical appearance. There seems to have been something about him that certain women found alluring and interesting. It is through this lens of relationships that Sayer paints a unique portrait of the man. The reader is at times almost sympathetic with Hitler. One also is afforded a closer look into the person that was Eva Braun. I came away from this book with a more rounded picture of Adolf Hitler. Although his egomania and ruthlessness is ever present, Sayer allows a glimpse behind that and into the "person" himself. A glimpse allowed by people who actually knew Hitler or his love interests and shared their thoughts and impressions through conversations or letters. I would recommend this book to those readers interested in seeing a different side of Hitler than those typically found in the many existing biographies of him.