David Cesarani
Frau Führer
Eva Braun: Life with Hitler
By Heike B Görtemaker (Translated by Damion Searls)
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 321pp £25 order from our bookshop
In Oliver Hirschbiegel’s film Downfall Juliane Köhler plays Eva Braun as an irrepressibly vivacious blonde, grabbing a cigarette between bombardments in mischievous defiance of Hitler, but standing by her Führer until she courageously shares his end. Like the other women in the bunker, apart from the evil Magda Goebbels, she is portrayed as essentially innocent. But was Eva a victim of circumstances? Was her fate determined by Nazi ideas about gender or was she a willing collaborator?
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