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Hitler's Children

Sons and Daughters of Third Reich Leaders

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Hitler's Children

By: Gerald Posner
Narrated by: Julian Elfer
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About this listen

Göring. Hess. Mengele. Dönitz. Names that conjure up dark memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They were the architects of the Third Reich. And they were fathers. Gerald Posner convinced 11 sons and daughters of Hitler's inner circle to break their silence.

This second generation of perpetrators in Hitler's Children struggle with their Third Reich inheritance. In grappling with memories of good and loving fathers who were later charged with war crimes, these heirs to the Nazi legacy add a fresh and important perspective to understanding the complexity of what historian, Hannah Arendt, dubbed "the banality of evil".

Hitler's Children is much more, however, than a series of startling family interviews. It is also a spellbinding insider's look at some of the men whose names have become synonymous with terror. This is a classic book about the second generation of Nazi perpetrators (the only one ever to have family interviews with Hess, Mengele, Donitz, and Göring.) No other book author or documentarian ever got those children to talk again. And Norman Frank, the eldest son of war criminal Hans Frank, also never spoke to anyone but Posner.

©2017 Gerald Posner (P)2017 Tantor Military Holocaust War Imperialism
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Interesting but not really much depth to the work. Had hoped it would provide more insight after watching a few documentaries but nothing really other than the denial of the Hess and Goring children

Interesting

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An insightful book about the children of the nazis , some innocent and trying to redress what happened, some not so . How they must struggle to bear the wrongs of their parents

Thought provoking

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This was a new perspective f the war for me. Rolf Heiss worryingly hasn’t taken the loss of the war well. I think he represents a lot of Germans. He talks of a future with a powerful Germany! Thankfully Europe has grown up and people like him will soon be extinct

It’s in the blood

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an interesting approach to understanding the legacy of these monstrous men from the perspective of these children. it is disturbing how great many of the nazis were as fathers. it is understandable why the children have struggled with their identities but there are such differing outcomes for this struggle. highly recommended

very good

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I thought this was an excellent and fascinating read which sensitively explored the mixed emotions of children born to Nazi parents. I would absolutely recommend it to everyone interested in the social history of the period.

My only gripe is today do with the introduction which was revised in the mid 2010s and was naive at the time and, quite frankly is to me ludicrous post the events of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent and blatant antisemitism manifesting across the West since then.

Antisemitism is on the rise across Western Europe with antisemitic attacks going through the roof in the UK, France and Scandinavia in the last few years yet there is no mention as to why this might be or what demographics might be responsible.

The naive observer may be deluded enough to think it is from some revitalised neo Nazi movement but it isn’t. The author says hate filled anti semitic letters to the Israeli embassy in Berlin are from a cross section of German society. Are they? Are they really? They may be from doctors, lawyers, teachers, students and workers but that represents a cross section by class. One suspects they might have other demographic features in common which the author is uncomfortable about drawing attention to.

Truth is modern Western European antisemitism is a product of the left and certain left-aligned religious and ethnic groups.

I’m getting slightly tired of reading modern histories of the Third Reich by left wing academics who worry that Trump or Farage may be Hitler reincarnated when clearly the current environment of antisemitism, authoritarianism, state indoctrination of the young, suppression of speech and jailing of political opponents is all coming from the left and the establishment.

Fascinating Read

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