Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Historically inaccurate, errors abound!, August 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Hitler and Geli (Hardcover)
Don't bother with this idiotically poorly researched book. I counted 71 errors in all. The author has no basic understanding of Hitler, Geli, Munich politics of the 1920's or anything else connected to Nazism. Hitler was obviously evil and abnormal in most areas of his life. He was not abnormal sexually, even if most authors want to claim this in order to sell their books. The author ignores research and interviews with many women on the 1920's who had relationships with Hitler that claim he was normal. He obviously doesn't know about the extensive interviews conducted with Stefan Lorant, who *saw* Hitler picking up women in Munich and later interviewed them. Their verdict? Hitler was a dud in the sack, but he was never a pervert. The author also claims (erronesouly) that Hitler was "impotent." Really? He relies upont he bogus Langer work for this absurd contention and ignores, conveniently, the first-person proof from Eva Braun that Hitler was not impotent. He continually relies on discredited sources, who were motivated by political pique to claim Hitler was abnormal sexually. People like Rauschning, Gregor Strasser, Renate Mueller, etc. These may seem like trivial points, but for historical accuracy, they are important. This is pablum trash, written by a man who did virtually no research into the complexities of Hitler.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hitler's First Victim...a powerful, tragic story, July 30, 2011
This review is from: Hitler and Geli (Hardcover)
This is the story of the misfortune of a fun-loving, vivacious young girl who caught the eye of a madman. I consider Geli Raubal to be Hitler's first victim. Hitler and his followers would probably considered it a love story. Were it not so tragic and criminal, it might be considered a soap opera because it has all the elements: jealousy, incest, drama and suicide. Whatever the case, Hitler was never the same after Geli's death, which was initially reported as a suicide. With the author's careful research, I am convinced it was Hitler who shot her in a rage of jealousy and possessiveness.
Geli was Hitler's niece, the child of his half-sister Angela. Enchanted by her youth and vivacious personality, Hitler fell in love with the girl when he hired her mother Angela to be his housekeeper. Because she came from a poor background, Geli was won over by "Uncle Alf's" gifts and luxurious lifestyle he could provide for her and her family. But there was a huge sacrifice: her life in exchange for luxury. As Hitler rose to power, she became a virtual prisoner in his apartment. When she wasn't with him, he had her locked up and guarded by his henchmen. When Geli had affairs with a couple of men, including Hitler's driver, Hitler sabotaged the relationships. Although there was no eyewitnesses, there's strong evidence that she became Hitler's mistress, forced to do disgusting things to sexually arouse her uncle. The gilded cage had become a perverted prison for this young girl, who, like most people her age, just wanted to have fun and experience life. To add to her misery, Hitler flouted his relationship with Eva Braun as a way to invoke jealousy and keep Geli in line.
If Geli did kill herself, she would have good reason. However, she was planning on going to Vienna to be with a boyfriend, but Hitler put a stop to all that by putting a gun to her head.
I highly recommend this book. It is well-written and carefully researched on a subject that not too many people knew about.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, fun, girls just wanna have fun!, June 12, 2000
This review is from: Hitler and Geli (Hardcover)
Folks may take umbrage with historical laxities and the author's pyschoanalytical velleities, yet I doubt any person who takes a serious interest in the creeping grips of totalitarian regimes would give much credence even to the TRUE facts of a dictator's love life, purported or otherwise.Dictators are mainly nasty folks interested in controlling others' actions and speech, and guiding nations into the depression and doom of wretched restrictions. That they may or may not go for relationships, perverse or gay or kinky or violent, is irrelevant. Hitler had a niece named Geli (from "Angelika") and took over her upbringing from a semi-impoverished Austrian town. He had a certain "Mitleid" (sympathy) with her at age 15, reminding him of his own hard days as a youth with little money or vision of how to attain a normal middle-class male dream - home, family and well-paid trade, as most of his classmates may have dreamed of. He falls in love, and here again we can only speculate: was it her vivacity, her youthful enthusiasms, and her great appreciation of all the thrills that he could bring her? A ride in a wonderful car, a new wrap, a dress, shoes, good meals with a housekeeper to handle the cleaning up, and access to opera, theater, and all kinds of evening entertainment with the upper class of Munich. This, for a small-town girl, was certainly a high-rolling ponycart ride! From my Irish village (Swinford, Co. Mayo) point of view, I can understand 100% what motivated Geli to have fun in Munich far away from her homegrown "kleine Leute" (little people) origins.Fun, fun, fun, girls wanna have fun! Even if it's through your dictator uncle, Hitler! In one way, understandable; on the other hand, how could she have been so naive, blind, deaf and dumb? Didn't others ever speak to her about the morals and habits, racial obsessions and megalomania of this lonely uncle? Was she really so sympathetic or was she simply angling, day after day, to keep the goodies flowing, just as Hitler himself was going for the power, glory and goodies of industrialists' renumerations, kickbacks, bribes and invitations to hear renowned singers, etc. Many a lover has done so in the past, and often when they're not so young and innocent as Geli!One might question indeed how a character, Geli, in her late teens, gains admissions to a medical faculty and considers seriously a biology career, associating with Munich's educated young people, studying and doing labwork full time while Uncle Adolf was out succoring industrialists and "die kleine Leute" = money and votes = "Millionen stehen hinter mir!". Somehow she never hears anything against her agitator landlord/lover/dictor/beer hall haranguer? I do wonder that Geli's intelligence and common sense is underrated in this novel. That she would in the end commit suicide is pushing it.IF the lack of freedom and happiness with Uncle Adolf started to grate, as it does for most young people, then the arguments that start to grow back at the fancy apartment are nothing surprising. So Adolf starts threatening the obvious: that she must get out, go back to Vienna, to the misery of earning a living on low working-class wages as a shopgirl. Was it this that led Geli to suicide?You decide. It's all fiction anyway, or speculatized history! Who will ever know? The author as a male might have not quite seen the clear mind of a normal girl and entangled her into his ill-gotten goodies, political spoils. Yes, yes, and yes, but still, ask yourself: would YOU have commited suicide as a result? Speaking for myself, probably not! Disappointed, bitter and angry, yes, but at that age, probably I'd just bite the bullet and get going, find a job, a new friend or two, and lots more fun for years to come.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
|
