The Nazi Officer's Wife

This is a must-read for the frightening comparisons that can be made between 1930s Germany/Austria and our current political environment. Edith tells the story of how she could not believe that someone like Hitler, who said such outrageous lies about Jews, would really be believed and followed. She thought surely reasonable people would come to their senses. She underestimated how much otherwise good, kind, friendly people who had been neighbors for years would turn against her family when it meant they could basically take all of her family's belongings for free/low cost. Then, to justify their stealing from others, they bought into the arguments that the Jews had first stolen from them, that other nationalities were inferior to their own and should be slaves, etc. Scary stuff. This is the amazing story of one woman, her survival, and the people who courageously helped along the way as well as those who used the opportunity to take advantage of others to enrich themselves ... at least temporarily.