Customer Reviews

Hitler's Niece: A Novel

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4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This novel gets off to a somewhat heavyhanded start with too-obvious scenes of Hitler's youth, and the first half of the book seems a little slow, a little padded (Hansen says in the Author's Note that he originally thought of his material as a short story.) And Geli Raubal is a somewhat vague, her only really memorable characteristic being a slyly mocking sense of humor. But then Hansen begins to draw you into the depraved world of the upper Nazi echelon. And his Hitler is one of the most convincing fictional portraits of the fuhrer I have encountered. Hitler comes across as a horrifying case of arrested development, a dirty-minded little boy who never grew up, but with an adult's power to inflict terrible harm. By the time you get to the horrifying conclusion, Hansen has you hooked on his dark vision of historical evil (and of good, too; there are subtle but strong Catholic themes that run through the book.) This is very much worth your time, espescially if you are into history and historical novels.

By virtue of his already classic "Mariette in Ecstasy" and "Atticus", his two novels with Catholic themes, Ron Hansen must already be viewed as one of the great Catholic novelists writing in English. He's also one of the few, judging by a recent interview in Sojourners, who doesn't cringe at the description, bless him. Given my lifelong fascination with the history of the Nazi era, therefore, it was with a great deal of eagerness that I picked up his 1999 "Hitler's Niece : A Novel".

And I wasn't disappointed-shocked, horrified, fascinated, disgusted, yes, often all at the same time, but hardly disappointed.

Since not all the facts surrounding the short life and violent death of Hitler's niece, Angelica ("Geli") Raubel can be known with certainty, the book must be categorized, strictly speaking, as a novel. "Creative non-fiction" might be a little closer to the truth, however, since much is known, and more information has come to light recently pointing to the probable accuracy of Hansen's conclusion, which he shares with a growing number of historians: i.e., that Geli Raubel was not only sexually abused by her famous uncle, but ultimately murdered by him as well.

Unfortunately, the event occurred in 1930, three years before Hitler's rise to the Chancellorship of Germany, but well after this evil genius and perfectly sick individual had already gained enough power to get such potentially damaging incidents tidied up by a whole army of slavish underlings. Alas, there was no brilliant (or at least sufficiently courageous) detective on this case to risk the wrath of the SA and SS, and catch his man. Had there been, the world might have been spared an expensive object lesson in the price ultimately paid when an entire country hands the Devil a blank check.

And I don't use the D-word lightly. One of the surprising elements in this book was the light Hansen shines on the goofy occult, neo-pagan and anti-Christian (as well as anti-Semitic) beliefs and practices of Hitler and his inner circle--something too often blown off by secular historians as of little importance. And yet it was in many ways the heart and soul of National Socialism, and certainly of Hitler's otherwise inexplicable hold on so many, even well-educated individuals. As Jung once wrote, a religion can only be replaced by another religion, and in the case of the Nazis, they were not only providing Germany with a flashy new religion to replace a stale Christianity, but a new Aryan god to replace a too-Jewish Christ.

Caveat lector: This is at times a very difficult book to read. Hitler's well-known sexual pathology raises the Ick-factor to an unusually high level in this book, but it is not in the least gratuitous. If Hansen feels it necessary to sketch in some of the darker shades in Der Fuehrer's personal psychology, it is in the service of giving us a valuable and disturbingly three-dimensional portrait of a possessed and possessing individual.

Highly recommended.

Hitler's Niece by Ron Hansen is an enthralling, convincing look at the feeble man who became the great monster. Although Mr. Hansen also paints a splendid portrait of the thoughtless, mesmerized minions who made up his cult, the primary eyes through which this portrayal is painted are those of Geli Raubal, the daughter of Adolf Hitler's half-sister, Angela. Hitler shows little interest in his niece as a child, but when she reaches her late teens, the charming, witty, attractive, young woman - an easy character for readers to love - becomes an object of obsession to him. As he and the Nazi Party gains significant momentum and his megalomania blooms, Hitler becomes Geli's financer, caretaker, companion, surrogate father and, if he has his way, sexual partner. Hitler takes meticulous, roundabout, disgusting measures to confuse and dominate the young girl. Geli, thankful to "Uncle Alf" for bringing her out of the Raubal's poverty, lives in fear and dread of her uncle and the power he holds over her, over everything he touches, while she wears a jovial public smile. The engaging, lushly told narration slowly and gracefully moves toward the type of nail-biting conclusion whose inevitability only causes it to be more absorbing and affecting. The tale, based on actual occurrences and obviously well researched, is a believable, fascinating speculation on the emotional emptiness that backgrounded Hitler's appalling evil.

Ron Hansen keeps challenging himself and keeps succeeding in ahuge way. The historical novel sheds light on the madman, clearlyexplains and defines the Nazi rise to power, and tells the tragic story of the person who perhaps knew Hitler best, his neice. Moreover, he tells us what fate met nearly all the major Nazi players and his afterword is as enthralling as the novel, itself. Bravo, Mr. Hansen.

This book really worked for me on at least a couple of levels. First, the story, while told from Geli's point-of-view, is really about Hitlers rise to power. This point of view takes the vision of Hitler as a madman to a much deeper image of Hitler as a profoundly evil and dark creature. On the other hand, who cannot identify with the need to feel loved, or the desire to feel important in someone else's eyes. The author's use of point of view intensified for me how Hitler stifled his own humanity.

I've also wondered how someone like Hitler could have risen to power in the first place. In the process of developing the two primary characters, the author also gives a great description of the social fabric in Germany during the 20's and 30's which gave rise to Hitler. As a non-history buff I found this to be fascinating.

I really liked this book a lot. I have never seen Hitler portrayed so dependent on someone else. Though he maintained his ruthless status to the world, inside he did have a weakness, not only from his past, but for Geli. Geli in this novel was 19 years younger than Hitler. She was smart and not like most women. She was strong inside and probably the only person who wasn't afraid of her "Uncle Alf". Her mother was his half sister and also one of the most important women in Hitler's life. In fact, Hitler only really had women in his life growing up and that is why he had so much respect for them.
But even when I thought she wasn't afraid of him, I found that she did have to watch herself at times because he could be so unpredictable with his moods and affections. Often times in the novel I found it hard to decide if Geli was interested in her uncle or not. She would get jealous at times like when Henny spoke of Hitler's attention to her. But then her interests in other men such as Emil led me to believe it might of been her love of his love for her. Maybe she was intrigued by all his fame, power, and access to nice things. Whatever the case, I do not wish to give away the whole story and ending, but this was definately a page turner. At times the two would come so close and you could just feel the tension and the feelings inside you fought between the wish that they were together and the realization that it was rather inapropriate. He was sort of like a father to her, protecting her, yet he only loved her. His ways of getting her nearer without revealing his sole motive was heart warming. He admired everything about her and it would make one think that Hitler did have a big heart and he was truly a brilliant man, with the wrong dream.
This book seemed to have a lot of historical facts in it, and I want to believe that this is how Hitler truly was. It spoke of how he affected people. He could sway decisions of non-supporters by insisting his views upon them in such emotional force that they fell under his spell. Women fell in love with him as he spoke. Sometimes his speeches lasted almost 2-3 hours. A good quote from the book that I highlighted describing him throughout his life in short: "And I realized, 'What a fantastic imagination! Others' wildest dreams are reality to him!"- Kubizek, pg. 9.

--Helene Vollbracht

This is a very interesting book. The reader gets a look at Hitler that is different from the usual. A more personal side to Hitler is exposed in this historical-fiction tale. However, early in the novel, it is hard to tell whether this is a fictious book or historical. For the first half the chapters are clearly divided between Hitler's actions and Geli's actions in their own lives. They do not really intermingle till the second half of the novel. The second half, in my opinion, is the most important part of this book. The first half is little more than a recap of Hitler's early military and political travails.

As someone familiar with many within the Fuhrer's immediate circle, I found this novel a terrific tale of what may have happened between him and his young niece, Geli Raubel. All the familiar characters, Goering,Goebbels, the chauffer (who, in this book, actually competes with Hitler over Geli's affections), and many others, seem all too real. The manipulative and mesmorizing future dictator slowly becomes truly sickening, but he actually is not without some human feelings as well. The descriptions of 1920's-early 1930's Munich and Germany are perfect, and the everyday life of the Hitler and his entourage are just as good. Note the claustophobic feel of his large flat, and the slowly developing, urgent paranoia of Geli that becomes all too real. In fact, though she does feel strangely drawn to Hitler, she is among the few not drawn completely in his web. The ending may not be true , but still a great read, and fine job by Mr. Hansen!

Readers already aware that Ron Hansen is one of the most elegant writers alive will seize Hitler's Niece eagerly -- and find a surprise. This time, Hansen is not evoking beauty and mystery in his usual remarkable fashion, as in in Marriette in Ecstasy or Atticus, because that wouldn't be appropriate here: There's simply nothing beautiful about Adolf Hitler. But Hansen has challenged himself to try something new and important, for which he has employed sometimes jarring but always precise language and rhythm to match his alarming, brutal subject. Read this one through and you'll come away alert to new things about the machinations of evil. This is a brave and successful book, one that makes us shudder because, knowing what followed, we sense its awful truth.

This is the story of how Hitler came to power told through the eyes of his niece, Geli Raubal. Although a work of fiction, Hitler's Niece is based on factual events. It retells the conditions in Germany after World War I and the disorder, which created the climate for Hitler's rise to power. In addition, it greatly details the lives of the other major players of the Third Reich. It talks about how such characters as Goebbels, Goring and Hitler were all relative failures, and for that reason had to blame somebody, mainly the Jews and Communists, for their lack of financial and career success. One account speaks of how the Brownshirts assault an old man at a rally just because he happened to "look like" Vladimir Lenin. The book points out the unmistakable reasons why such thugs came together, and how blowing personal failures to a level of racist fury can become a powder keg leading to a collective feeding frenzy. To be sure, the book also tells of how Hitler's family reflected inwardly on how insane the "Fuhrer" and his entourage was, and how complacency always allows the evil in society to flourish. In this work, Hitler's followers catapult him to the level of a deity and describe themselves in so many words as willing slaves to the whims of the Fuhrer. It also probes into the plasticity and facade that was the Reich. Hitler's Niece is an honest and necessary tale of caution. A must-read for all those concerned with how one level of mere unhappiness among a group of individuals can mount into a full-blown campaign of extermination. The fact this book retells true historical accounts through the fictional eyes of Geli Raubal does not detract in any way from its effectiveness.