S18·E20 Edith Hahn Beer: The Nazi Officer's Wife

The most melodramatic Hollywood screenwriter could not concoct a tale as full of dramatic reversals, conflicted characters, and astounding coincidences as the story of Edith Hahn, an Austrian Jew who eluded Nazi oppression by going underground as an Aryan woman in the heart of Germany. When a Nazi factory manager named Vetter proposes to her after they've only known each other a few weeks, she confesses her true identity--and he marries her anyway. Her "U-boat" existence becomes an even more complicated masquerade when Vetter is drafted into the Nazi army and becomes an officer. The Nazi Officer's Wife lays out the story with clarity and compassion, with all its contradictions and glimpses of human goodness, in the face of monstrous evil, intact. The details of Hahn's life are simply amazing. Interviews with Hahn, her daughter, and other survivors give full dimension to the events.