The Nazi Officer’s Wife Book Club Discussion Questions

Inside: The Nazi Officer’s Wife book club discussion questions

The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer with Susan Dworkin is the official book club selection for April in the Happy Simple Mom Book Club.

This book is a historical memoir that gives a unique perspective on one woman’s survival of the Holocaust.

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Happy Simple Mom Book Club April 2024 Pick

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Don’t miss out on any other reads from 2024. You can find those in the 2024 Happy Simple Mom Book Club picks.

April 2024 Pick: The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer with Susan Dworkin

Genre: Historical Memoir

Length: 352 pages

Audio Length: 8 hours and 15 minutes

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Publisher’s Description:

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith’s protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret.

In wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear. She tells how German officials casually questioned the lineage of her parents; how during childbirth she refused all painkillers, afraid that in an altered state of mind she might reveal something of her past; and how, after her husband was captured by the Soviets, she was bombed out of her house and had to hide while drunken Russian soldiers raped women on the street.

Despite the risk it posed to her life, Edith created a remarkable record of survival. She saved every document, as well as photographs she took inside labor camps. Now part of the permanent collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., these hundreds of documents, several of which are included in this volume, form the fabric of a gripping new chapter in the history of the Holocaust—complex, troubling, and ultimately triumphant.

SPOILER ALERT!!! The following discussion questions WILL give away things from the book. Read at your own risk.

The Nazi Officer’s Wife Book Club Discussion Questions

Question 1:

What were your thoughts on this book overall? Was it what you expected? Why or why not?

Question 2:

Did you learn something new about the Holocaust in this book? What was it?

Question 3

Could you have gone into the heart of Nazi Germany and pretended to be a typical housewife?  

Question 4

What do you think was Edith’s most courageous moment in the book?

Question 5

The book discusses the two men Edith loved in her life. They both played very different roles in her survival and yet they both failed her in some way. How would you compare the two?

Question 6

Edith often spoke of how one small action of kindness was the difference between giving up and survival. What small actions mentioned stood out to you the most? What’s a small action you have received that completely turned your perspective when needed most?

Question 7

Do you think Werner ever loved Edith? Why or why not?

Question 8

Foreign radio stations were illegal to listen to during the war for those living in Germany. How do you think this contributed to the horrible acts that were allowed?

Question 9

Edith had an interaction with Jewish survivors who were appalled by her decision to marry a German soldier. It made Edith question her own story: “For the first time it occurred to me that maybe my life as a U-boat did not weigh heavily on the scales of suffering, that the hideous experiences which had transformed the men in the
transit camp might make it impossible for them ever to accept me as one of their own”.

How do you think Edith’s story was accepted by others in her Jewish community? Do you think she suffered from survivor’s guilt because her story looked different?

Question 10

Were you surprised by Edith’s unwillingness to be a judge against the Nazis? Do you think you would have made the same decision?

Question 11

In discussing this book with someone who didn’t read it, the person was initially appalled that Edith would have emerged herself in Nazi Germany and then would refuse to persecute the Nazis after they lost the war. How would you explain to someone Edith’s fight for survival?

What were your thoughts on the April book club pick, The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer with Susan Dworkin? Let me know in the comments below.