Customer Reviews

The Lost Life of Eva Braun

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Angela Lambert admits in the preface that she knew nothing about Eva Braun, Hitler or World War II before commencing on this book. Sadly, the limitations show. Her main sources are books published in the past 30 years, all common titles and almost none written in the German language. It's beyond comprehension that she didn't hire a German translator to assist in the project. It's impossible to write a competent book about either Hitler or Eva without being able to read German. The author did absolutely no research on primary sources, didn't visit the archives in Munich or Koblenz and sometimes shows an almost amazing lack of knowledge about her subject's life and times.

The most irritating aspect of the book is a questionable literary device, where Lambert interjects her mother into every chapter. I hate to break it to the author, but no one cares to slog through pointless stories about her mother when the book is supposed to be about Hitler's mistress. The lack of an editor is glaringly apparent in this area. This is by far the book's more crippling downfall.

However, there are some strong points to the book. Lambert's depiction of the early courtship between Hitler and Eva is excellent. In fact, her characterization of Eva is flawless throughout. It's too bad she didn't rely on interviews of Herta Schneider, Eva's best friend and confidante; these would have strengthened the book immeasurably.

Lambert also sensibly dismisses the ridiculous rumors that Hitler was gay, impotent, sado-maschochistic or perverted in bed. He was none of those things and she wisely proves this with abundant anecdotal evidence. Hitler's relationship with Eva was perfectly normal, though hardly of Latin intensity.

Nerin E. Gun's out of print biography of Eva remains the "must read" regarding Hitler's mistress. Lambert gives it the old college try, but lack of research ultimately compromises this biography. It's a fairly good book but the definitive look at Eva Braun has yet to be written.

1/2 of this book is footnotes. Brava to the author for her extensive research...but, she did not need to footnote every piece of paper she read to write this book.

I agree with another poster. No one gives a fig about the author's mother's childhood in Germany. That made the reader become lost in the story of Eva Braun. The two women were not girlhood friends. There was no point to including her mother's life.

I was looking forward to this book and was very disappointed.

I was excited when I purchased this book and continued to be iterested until about the third chapter when the author kept inserting her mother's life in with Eva's life. She seemed to try to find any little thing in common between the two and was trying to force an association that just wasn't there. It got extremely old very quickly. If she wanted to write a book about her mother, then write it. If she wanted to write about Eva Braun, leave the personal info out. This brings me to my next issue. I wanted to read a book about WWII, not about the author's personal political views on what is happening in the current time. I was flabergasted when I saw a comment about Lindy England (sp?) in the text. Many of these opinions appeared in the lengthy footnotes that appeared on every single page. Yet again, stick to the subject! She could have written three books out the ideas she crammed into this one book. The subject has great potential, but didn't deliver in the end. It has become long winded and is no longer keeping my interest. I would advise potential readers to just look up info on the internet and save your money for a better book.

This is not a book I would have picked out for myself because the Nazi era is not a part of history that I like to think a lot about. However, the book was lent to me and I had the flu so since I was already feeling bad I decided it was a good time to read it. Now that I read it I'm glad I did - it was very thought provoking. What it attempts to answer are two very difficult questions - was there anything in particular about German culture in the first half of the 20th century that made them more susceptible than others to becoming enthralled by a destructive madman, and why would a seemingly pretty decent - or at least she was given the tools to be if she so chose - young woman give her youth and her life to such a person? The answers I got out of this book are to the first question, no not really, the people were not that different, it's just that the madman was particularly charismatic, and to the second, there is never a shortage of women available who are willing to behave this way. Neither are the answers I would have liked, and I don't know if they're right, and I don't know if they are what the author intended to convey. Very disturbing book. For the sake of knowing the truth you sometimes have to look evil right in the eye even if it makes you feel afraid. It's scary to think that a cruel madman does not necessarily appear to be cruel or mad to everyone at all times. It's the same reason that "In Cold Blood" was a particularly disturbing read. If they did, it would be easier to stop them before it's too late.

The book is written by a journalist, not a historian, and the sources cited are sometimes secondary sources, like newspapers or other books and those can always be wrong or even sheer fantasy, so that makes me wonder about the overall quality of scholarship. However, enough primary sources are cited to make me think there is at least some truth in the book. The fact that the author steers away from sensationalism about Hitler's sex life or health when given the opportunity makes me give her the benefit of the doubt more than I otherwise would. When you're reading about a period in history that you know a lot about it's discouraging when people try to feed you the Bigfoot/UFO/Loch Ness Monster type version when you know the real story is just as interesting and you don't need the fantasy. When I have to trust the discernment of the author more because my knowledge is not as deep, it reassures me when they don't go the sensational route. That said, things that degrade many other journalist's work and make their whole profession look suspect are present here - besides questionable scholarship, there is some making everything about her personal political beliefs (which might make someone less discerning about sources when it's something that supports your political views) and injecting herself into the story.

The author has given Eva Braun life through this book. Many readers may wonder Who was Eva Braun? How did she meet A. Hitler? What took place during their years together? and mainly Why did she remain with and die with Hitler? The reader will discover the answers to these questions while the book develops Eva's story and changes her from just a character to the real person she was.

I'm sure that Eva Braun was a somewhat interesting person but you would never know it by reading Angela Lambert's book. First of all the half pages of footnotes were incredible distracting and did not add value to the book at all. Second, I wanted to read about Eva Braun not Angela Lambert's mother. Also, i didn't think there needed to be a whole chapter on the horror of German fairy tales. My mother lived in Germany when she was young and the fairy tales did not encourage her to become the lifetime partner of a Nazi dictator. I couldn't finish the book because it was too boring and it did not give the account of Eva Braun's life I was looking for.

Lambert provides unique insight into what Eva's life may have been like. I respect that she refers to her own family member in order to set the scene. Of course, without actually knowing Eva it is difficult to know for certain, but Lambert provides a solid notion of Eva's personality, her adoration for and ignorance about the powerful and monstrous man she loved, pursued, and caught. It isn't hard to fathom a young girl being persuaded by charisma, money, and power. We see this happen every day in our lives. What is difficult to fathom, even being placed in a bubble, is that she was completely blind to the horrors that were happening in her own backyard (so to speak). I find it interesting that the women were not held responsible for supporting their men. Especially those who knew full well what was happening and throwing the 'hiles' just as high as their husbands. This book is very well written and I like that the author really submerged herself into her research. This is a worthwhile read!

I completely agree with the reviewer who identified this book as a missed opportunity. Although Lambert gives it a go, she is in way over her head. This book both misses the epic historical sweep of this story set across the grand stages of Europe at war, and also the finely-observed details of two people involved in a relationship.

There are also severe editing, typos, and grammatical errors. Some portions appear more than once -- the dismissive language about the prior book on Eva appears twice, identically, once as text, again as a footnote. Errors like this make it tough reading, and leaves you hoping an actual historian tackles this topic next.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer. This was a missed opportunity. The book is weighted down with information about the authors mother that just makes the book irritating. But mostly it is wrought with errors. The author states that Hitler attending the wedding of Eva's sister wearing civilian clothes -- all photos taken of this event show Hitler wearing his uniform -- he never again wore civilian clothes after 1939. This event was highly covered by photos and films and this is just a blantant mistake.

Another blantant error -- Johanna Wolf was Hitler's Chief secretary yet the author continued to cite another secretary as being the chief secretary throughout the book. This is just unacceptable to researchers to make such a blantant mistake -- the author did not do her homework.

Even though she states that Eva and her sister were very close in appearance and were misidentified in many photos the author makes the same mistakes with the photographs she has provided and even wrote about.

Very sloppy ! Hopefully a better biography is forthcoming by an author that knows his/her subject matter better.

I agree with those who say that this book was a wasted opportunity to contribute something of excellence to the thin shelf on Eva Braun. I found the references to the author's family virtually useless. At one point Ms. Lambert writes that she isn't going to rec-count World War II, because this is Eva's book. Well, she could have used this logic on her decision to write about her mother. No one cares, really, about her.

This book is well-footnoted, but at least on three occasions the same footnote appears about the war on the Eastern Front. Whoever edited this book, if indeed it had an editor, simply failed to do a half-decent job.

The weakest and most inexcusable section is, unfortunately, the final scenes of Eva's life. Ms. Lambert could have checked the extensive sources on the days in the Bunker, but from what I can see she only looked at two or three. She seems to write with authority about those days, only to put into place a contradictory chronology that should have been resolved or at least treated with the ambiguity that the record shows. She doesn't do this, and only on one point -- the date of Eva's arrival at the Bunker -- does she indicate that there is a question. This is simply sloppy writing. Added to this is the speculation over Eva and Hitler's final words to each other; here, after living with the subject of this book for the time it has taken the reader to read it, one wants to scream. Why here, of all places, does speculation enter the scene? This does a disservice to history.

For all of that, the book makes a good case for Eva's innocence of anything to do with the crimes of the Third Reich. It does not however answer the central question: what on earth did Eva see in Hitler?
The documentary evidence that could have answered this question is very thin; and Ms. Lambert does a good job of marshalling what she can. But, at the end, we are left with the question. Ms. Lambert seems to have begun a speculative answer when she alludes to battered women who stay with an abusive spouse. While the analogy does not hold completely, perhaps a deeper psychological profile could have been attempted that would lead us to the threshold of an answer.

Ms. Lambert tries to reach too far in explaining away any possible guilt that may have been borne by German women; again, my own sense is that she is too occupied with her own family history here. It would have served the book better to have focused on Eva Braun. To the extent that she does focus on Eva, she does a good job of arguing for the essential goodness and innocence of her subject. It would have been all too easy, and all too dishonest, to condemn Eva at the bar of history. This the author does not do. Nor does the evidence exist to warrant such a thing.