Hitler’s Niece

I was wondering yesterday how it had been since I wrote last. To my horror and embarrassment it has been five weeks about. Well, fuck.

Whether you admit it, or not, there is something that makes you curious about Hitler. We all know what he did, we all know how truly awful a human being he was, but for some people such as myself, we want to understand how someone so fucking vile starts out in life, like how do you go from A to B. Well, this book kind of gets you there.

Hitler’s Niece is supposed to be about Geli [Gay-lee], his niece, who is brought into the close fold of Hitler’s inner circle as he begins his rise to Chancellor. Really, being his personality, it is made into being about Hitler, because it is her witnessing all of the cacophony.

I will be forward about this and say that this is one of those times where the it is not the author’s fault for my dislike of this book, but the subject matter for obvious reasons. Hansen does wonderful with his writing by putting you in this world and making you feel so disgusted and mind-blown by how ridiculous everyone that comes into contact with Hitler is, except Geli. Seriously, she seems to be the only one who is being realistic in the character list. I understand some people, keeping in mind it is a 1940s mindset so that reflects their treatment of women and not doing anything about self-awareness, or questioning things that do not sit right with them. That leaves us with bad behavior being brushed under the rug, harassment, emotional manipulation, propaganda, etc. Anywhosies, Hansen does very well with the subject matter, writing in a way where it is almost like hot and cold, one moment you are almost bought into the plight of the reich, then by the next paragraph you are ready to throw a bowling ball through the TV.

I do not know if you can tell, but I am trying really hard not to delve into a spiraling rant that would spoil the whole book. Fun fact, when I was in either 7th, or 8th grade we had to write a paper about any topic on WWII for my advanced English class. I chose Hitler’s upbringing because I wanted to do something different. So coming full circle in all this, reading Hitler’s Niece answered questions that I do not remember being answered and left me with sociological questions that probably will not be answered.

All in all, I am actually going to leave this one completely up in the air for you the reader. I personally will not be reading this again, unless again we want a bowling ball potentially going through a TV. It will be difficult to stomach at times, but I think it is one of those difficult books to read so that one can understand and possibly be reminded of just how much of a brilliant [obviously not a good brilliant] psycho Hitler was. If you are interested in reading Hitler’s Niece, you will find it here.

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