What a fantastic book! I highly recommend this if you’re into women’s history or WWII history.

This book is well researched and well written. Rather than openly condemning (or supporting) them, Wyllie strives to present their lives in a neutral perspective. These couples are brought to life in a way that a both humanizes them and makes their evil acts more atrocious.

I really enjoyed the fresh and unique perspective of WWII. There is a lot of material about what each husband is doing, but I think that was expected and necessary. To really understand half of a couple, you need to know what the other half is doing. But there is still plenty of information about each woman. Even though I’ve read quite a few books about WWII, before this book I couldn’t have named any top Nazi leader’s wife. So I learned quite a bit in this book. The book even follows each woman until their death, so we really do get a complete look into their adult lives.

One drawback in this type of book is that we are constantly bouncing between the women, which can get confusing. But Wyllie does a good job of trying to group the women together (after all, they weren’t all hanging out together every weekend) and mentioning their husbands enough so that we remember who is part of each couple. It would have been helpful if their last names were used a bit more often though.


Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and James Wyllie for sending me an ebook version of this book in exchange for an honest review!

for a title reminiscent of reality show (a la mafia wives, basketball wives etc) this book is surprisingly thorough in following the women of Hitler’s elite inner circle. it’s so interesting to see their own beliefs and fanaticism completely apart from their famous husbands (Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, etc), their involvement in the Nazi movement, and how they occupied distinct roles. we have the propaganda Nazi Mother / feminine face of the movement; hitler’s lovers w less of a psychological commitment to the final solution than an extreme personal devotion to him; ideological supporters not personally close to Hitler but who push their husbands up the ranks; and one who helped her Jewish friends evade harm when she could, claimed deniability, but benefited outrageously from the spoils and the luxury of being a top Nazi wife. the primary sources of diaries and correspondences make the read v rich in detail. No spoilers, but of course what becomes of them all is also so interesting ..!

because their stories are interwoven, it’s a bit difficult to keep up at times, as they and their husbands tend to run together — I wish I had taken notes when starting out to remember exactly /who/ reminded her spouse of his mother and who was the psuedo incel and who was the daughter of a famous nazi, etc etc. probably wouldn’t do audiobook on this but would recommend a hard copy!

You don't always know what you're going to get when you pick up a historical non-fiction book. Will it be dry and read like a textbook? What kind of slant will it have? Will I actually learn something?

Nazi Wives was an interesting read that focused not only on the women behind the top men in the party but gave a different perspective to the story of the rise and fall of Hitler's movement. Some of the information I was already aware of but I still learned quite a bit. Also, some of those women were much more devoted to Hitler and his ideals than their husbands.

I read a good chunk of the book with my eyes but switched over to the audiobook and definitely recommend it. Either way, if you're interested in WWII history, you might want to put this one on your TBR list.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ebook!

Up until now, the women of the German commanders have often been ignored. While their husbands dominated the battlefields, and their legacy has horrified those who have read about the war, the wives were never given much thought.

This was an interesting read, looking into the women who stood beside their husbands, looking for favor within the growing Nazi party, and gives them a voice in history, other than a footnote beside their husbands.

I enjoyed the book and getting to know a few more shadow figures from history.

Nazi Wives // by James Wyllie

I've always found it important to learn about your country's history, especially the dark parts, rather than living in denial about it, so I try to read books about Germany, and especially the 2nd World War, regularly. Nazi Wives stood out to me when I first saw it because it looked at the events from a different angle that I hadn't previously learned from. It was interesting to read about, though rather dry in some places. This seemed to be a well-researched book (an extensive list of sources is available at the back of the book) and I liked that we were able to see what happened to the women after the end of the war as well. The pictures and many quotes from diaries as well as the descriptions of how women like Hitler and Himmler interacted with the leading Nazis' children was in stark contrast to the depictions we usually see of them. It made them more human and real than you sometimes think of historical figures, which made me very uncomfortable at times.

I was impressed with how nonjudgmental Wyllie was able to talk about the women and their actions, though - as another reviewer pointed out - he gives us plenty of reasons for us to be judgmental ourselves. I was blown away at how convinced of their righteousness several of these women still were post war! But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised after reading that one of them still believed they were on the side of Good and that Jews were Absolute Evil when she literally just said she was "stricken" after seeing the book Mein Kampf bound in human skin. I read this book much more slowly than I usually would one of its size because of its heavy subject. As a regular reader of books about this time period, you tend to think that you've read about the most disturbing parts of that war already but every book continues to surprise me (negatively) with the disgusting acts that were done to people.

I do have to say that I kept this book at 3 stars because it did not feel like its true focus was on the women. There was a lot of focus on the men, which of course is hard to avoid, but I feel that this book would have been better off named and marketed differently. Something alluding to the leading Nazi marriages or families would have been more fitting in my opinion.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5-4 stars.

I received this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

One of my favourite genres to read are books about WWII, so when I stumbled across this book I was instantly intrigued. This book focuses on the wives of the top Nazi/Hitler supporters. Which is an angle I haven't read before.

It was very interesting to see how much influence they inevitably had over their husbands and more so Hitler. The general disregard to the entire holocaust that they showed is downright scary. Only a few of the wives actually spoke up or perhaps thought that Hmm, this isn't right. But the majority didn't. And why would they? They were getting money. They were living luxurious lives while the rest of the country were in shambles. Only when the war was getting out of Hitlers control, did they finally question (publicly).

I also, cannot believe how many people committed suicide/or attempted it. It seemed like every person at least thought about it, even carrying out infanticide as well. That shocked me.

I thought that the punishment for the wives were not severe enough. There were some women who were Hitler's right side woman, and they got off a little to easy, also always trying to redeem their husbands names. Claiming that they were only following out of love and obedience. And I guess that is part of the scariness of it; this book was very well researched and had some great details about certain dinner parties- which makes these men and wives- very very human.

This book also sparked an interest for me as well; I wonder how many of the children of these prominent figures denounced Nazism , or if they are still part of the Neo-Nazi movements.

James Wyllie did a great and very thorough job at researching the wives behind the men. If you are looking for a different viewpoint, definitely check out this book.