The Nazi Officer's Wife

In her memoir The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust, Edith Hahn Beer describes how she survived WWII – and became the wife of a Nazi soldier who did everything he could to protect her. Published in 1999 by William Morrow Paperbacks, The Nazi Officer’s Wife received the 2004 Audie Award for Biography/Memoir. It was also made into a film which received widespread acclaim for its powerful, honest depiction of Jewish life during WWII. It was Beer’s debut work.

The Nazi Officer’s Wife is an autobiographical account of Beer’s life as a “U-boat.” Essentially, U-boats were Jews living in Nazi Germany, who disguised themselves, calling themselves Germans. The book, however, begins before the war and looks at Beer’s life leading up to the outbreak.

Beer lives in Austria when the book opens. She describes tensions even then between the Jewish community and the Germans and Austrians. While in Austria, she attends high school, which is uncommon for a girl. Even more interestingly, she travels to Anschluss to study law but must leave because she is Jewish. Her education will later become important – and potentially an obstacle to keeping her identity secret.



In 1939, she and her mother are sent to a ghetto in Vienna. But in 1941, they are separated when Beer is sent to an asparagus plantation in Osterburg, Germany and then to the Bestehorn box factory in Aschersleben. Before Beer finally returns to Vienna in 1942, her mother is deported to Poland. With no ties keeping her in Vienna, Beer acquires false papers from her friend, Christa Beren, and sets off to Munich.

In Munich, Beer meets Werner Vetter, a distinguished member of the Nazi party. He falls in love with her and quickly desires her hand in marriage. Beer plucks up her courage and admits to her real identity, initially refusing his advances. However, Vetter vows to keep her identity secret and still wants to marry her.

While they are engaged, she volunteers as a German Red Cross nurse, one of the safest places for someone to hide her identity. They live in Brandenburg before finally marrying in 1944, in anticipation of their daughter, Angelika’s, birth. Sadly, Vetter becomes a prisoner of war. In early 1945, he is sent to a Siberian labor camp.



When the war ends, Beer decides to reclaim her long-hidden Jewish identity. She puts her education to good use and becomes a judge in Brandenburg for the Allies. After pleading with the Soviet authorities on Vetter’s behalf, Beer secures his release in 1947, but their marriage ends. He dies in 2002.

Beer finally finds herself in London, where her sisters settle after taking shelter in Palestine during WWII. Beer finds employment as a corset designer and housemaid. She marries a Jewish jewelry merchant and moves to Israel upon his death in the 1980s. She died in 2009.

Beer recounts many tragic events from her past, which reveal true courage and perseverance. For example, she describes undergoing repeated questions about her parents’ lineage from German soldiers and officials, and how she was so afraid of revealing her truth that she refused all painkillers during her daughter’s birth. She even talks about how she was bombed out of her house when the Soviet army attacked, and how she had to hide and listen to women being raped in the street.



Beer does not only talk about her own experiences. For example, she discusses the simple but selfless act of a nurse smuggling an onion into a hospital for an enemy soldier. She recounts the small but significant acts of bravery demonstrated by men and women she encounters, and the harrowing hardships of a life spent hiding her identity.

In one example, her vocabulary almost gives her heritage away, and she describes how her education almost became a burden to her. She also describes how exchanging letters with friends and family, including her first lover, Pepi, while working in the plantations helps her and her work friends stay abreast of changes in the wider world.

Interestingly, she also describes what it was like enduring criticism from other Jews after WWII when they discover she married a German. She understands their viewpoint, but in the end, she did what she needed to do to survive. Moreover, she describes how important it was to keep secrets and put trust in as few as possible. Allies were critically important to any Jew living through Nazi occupation, but with allies came the risk of betrayals and trouble.



Beer succeeds in hiding and staying alive only through the courage and risks she and others around her take, and the defiance so many showed in the face of death. She and everyone she knew demonstrated perseverance and strength, which we can only ever partially understand.