Children of Nazis Book Review

Published: 2018

Publisher: Arcade Publishing

Pages: 264

Author: Tania Crasnianski

Molly Grogan: Translator

The Book

Children of Nazi's tells us about the children of some of the highest ranking and most dangerous men in the Nazi Party. Children ranging from from ages 4 to about 10 yrs old were totally innocent at the time and had no idea of what was going on around them. But they would grow up to learn who their Fathers really were and the roles they played in the Nazi Party.

The book covers 8 of the most senior people in the Nazi Party. They are:

• Heinrich Himmler
• Rudolf Hess
• Hermann Goring
• Hans Frank
• Martin Bormann
• Rudolf Hoss
• Albert Speer
• Josef Mengele

Author Tania Crasnianski goes into great detail about the families of these men and what family life was like for these children. Each chapter tells us what each of these men in the Third Reich did and were responsible during WW2 and their role in the Concentration Camps. Some of these men had quite a lot of children. For instance, Rudolf Hoss had 5 children, so the book will focus on 1 of the children, in this instance, Wolf Hoss. It tells you how life was like for him, and the rest of the siblings during the war and how they grew up knowing what their father was responsible for. Up to the publication of the book, it also tells you what became of the children into adulthood with their lives and how they coped knowing what their Father did.

The book not just covers the children, but the wives of these men too. Maybe they didn't know the extent to what their husbands did in the Third Reich, or chose not to know. But either way, they chose to stand by their husbands. There are times when we learn that some of them even go into the concentration camps to buy jewels and other belongings that were stolen from the Jews.

As the little children grew up and subsequently learned the full reality of their fathers roles in the Nazi Party, they either accepted this fact and cut all ties with their father, or they defended them and even try to clear their names. Of course, after the war there was the Nuremberg Trials, so we learn how the children and wives dealt with all this going on.

I found this book to be an insightful and sobering book to read. What I think the author has succeeded in doing in telling us about the personal lives of some of these children without passing any personal judgement herself. She leaves it down to us, the reader, to decide for ourselves how we feel. What I found particularly fascinating about the book was how some of these children grew up, some of them defending their fathers and some wanting nothing more to do with them.

The men focused in this book are now written in the history books as some of the most evil men to walk Gods green earth. But personally, I never really gave it much thought to their families or offspring. This is an enlightening look at how the families of these men suffered in one way or another, and how they dealt with this. Families were torn apart with some of the wives of these men were arrested and questioned. I found it sad that some of these children were even denied school places simply because of who their fathers were.

Although a sobering and thoughtful book to read, it must have been even more sobering to write. The author researched this book well and tells us not just what life was life for the children during the war, but what became of them as adults. I found it intriguing how these men at home seemed to be loving, caring husbands and fathers. But when they crossed that line at work, they became these ruthless killers. Some of these children had trouble coming to terms with the roles their parents played in the Third Reich, others chose to embrace it and carry on their fathers legacy in one way or another.