Narrated by Susan Sarandon, The Nazi Officer's Wife is an amazing tale that would not be credible if it were a fictional tale. Liz Garbus has woven the interviews of Austrian subject Edith Hahn with archival footage, old still photos, interviews of Hahn contemporaries, and old letters into a timeless tale of love, war, and human deception. Hahn was born in 1914 and became a Viennese law student, always intellectually curious and studious. Growing up in a rather secular Jewish household, Hahn's family only spoke German, which may later have helped to save her life. She was quite assimilated to the macroculture of her time.
Love was blossoming for the young Hahn with her soulmate Pepi Rosenfeld, and the two even considered leaving the country as the Nazis began gaining power. But of course, there was no way for these two very young people to possibly understand the magnitude of what was about to take place; by the time a glimpse into the future was apparent to them, it was too late.
Liz Garbus' Film Reveals The Desperation of The Jewish People
Edith Hahn had already know significant loss when her father died of a heart attack in 1936, and Edith was forced to help support the family. At 22, she was tutoring neighbor children to help her mother keep the family afloat. Edith remembered that sinking feeling after her father's death, that his presence would no longer be there to keep the family safe during tumultuous times. So Edith had to rely on her own wits and find a way to survive. At one point, she was sent to a work camp, separated from her beloved Pepi and her family. She persevered by writing lengthy letters about her daily life, some of which later became a record of her ordeal. Upon returning, Edith found everything changed: her mother gone, a different situation with Pepi, her future. The Nazis were changing the landscape of Edith's life.
Survival Forces Desperate People to Make Desperate Choices
At one point, Edith had to decide whether to become subjugated to the Nazis or to go underground. She then made a series of decisions that allowed her to survive the war, but extracted a horrible price in alienation and deception. She became a nurse's aide at one point and met a handsome young German officer, Werner Vetter, who later became her husband. But Vetter never married Edith Hahn, but rather the person she was portraying to avoid capture. The story of Edith's survival and how it impacted her future and that of her family, as well as Vetter and Rosenfeld, is the stuff of high drama. Here, however, in the hands of Garbus, it is a poignant and telling story of a very young woman, alone in a hostile world, who had to use her considerable intelligence to survive one of the worst genocides in recent history. An amazing story.
- 2003
- 100 minutes
- NR
- Movie Trailer
Barbara DeGrande - Barbara DeGrande is a writer, film critic, and blogger, with years of experience as a program developer. She has a Bachelor of Arts in ...
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