The Hangman and His Wife
The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Toren
About this listen
An astonishing journey into the heart of Nazi evil: a portrait of one of the darkest figures of Hitler’s Nazi elite—Reinhard Heydrich, the designer and executor of the Holocaust, chief of the Reich Main Security, including the Gestapo—interwoven with commentary by his wife, Lina, from the author's in-depth interviews.
He was called the Hangman of the Gestapo, the "butcher of Prague", with a reputation as a ruthlessly efficient killer. He was the head of the SS, and the Gestapo, second-in-command to Heinrich Himmler. His orders set in motion the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 and, as the lead planner of Hitler's Final Solution, he chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which details of the murder of millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe were toasted with cognac.
In The Hangman and His Wife, Nancy Dougherty and, following her death, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt masterfully explore who Heydrich was and how he came to be, and how he came to do what he did. We see Heydrich from his rarefied musical family origins and his ugly-duckling childhood and adolescence, to his sudden flameout as a promising Naval officer (he was forced to resign his Naval commission after dishonoring the office corps by having sex with the unmarried daughter of a shipyard director and refusing to marry her).
Dougherty writes of his seemingly hopeless job prospects as an untrained civilian during Germany’s hyperinflation and unemployment, and his joining the Nazi party through the attraction to Nazism of his fiancée, Lina von Osten, and her father, along with the rumor shadowing him of a strain of Jewishness inherited from his father’s side. And we follow Heydrich’s meteoric rise through the Nazi high command—from SS major, to colonel to brigadier general, before he was thirty, deputy to Heinrich Himmler, expanding the SS, the Gestapo, and developing the Reich's plans for "the Jewish solution".
And throughout, we hear the voice of Lina Heydrich, who was by his side until his death at the age of 38, living inside the Nazi inner circles as she waltzed with Rudolf Hess, feuded with Hermann Göring, and drank vintage wine with Albert Speer.
©2022 Nancy Dougherty and Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
“The hollowed-out soul of one of Nazi Germany’s worst criminals is explored through his wife’s recollections in this searching biography . . . Dougherty vividly dissects the murderous intrigues roiling Nazi bureaucracies . . . A chilling, revelatory case study of the moral corruption of the Third Reich.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
“An exhaustive and dark expedition into the diabolical mind of a truly evil villain and unsettling insight on the deliberate delusion that blinded some Germans to the horrific atrocities committed by the Third Reich.” —Booklist
“Magnificent . . . One of the great achievements of biography . . . What makes the individual important, why differences in personality matter, are on display everywhere in this searching book . . . We get the living presence of Nazism and understand how it was that such evil was perpetuated with a perverted sense of doing good.” —Carl Rollyson, New York Sun
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The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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A Great Book About a Great Tyrant
- By Moon Man on 05-01-05
By: Edvard Radzinsky
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Lenin
- The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror
- By: Victor Sebestyen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyen's unique biography - the first in English in nearly two decades - is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century but a portrait of Lenin the man. Unexpectedly, Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, and fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women.
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Lenin totally took an extra piece of that cake.
- By John Gathly on 05-14-19
By: Victor Sebestyen
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Trotsky
- Downfall of a Revolutionary
- By: Bertrand M. Patenaude
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, Stanford University lecturer Bertrand M. Patenaude tells the dramatic story of Leon Trotsky's final years in exile in Mexico. Shedding new light on Trotsky's tumultuous friendship with painter Diego Rivera, his affair with Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo, and his torment as his family and comrades become victims of the Great Terror, Trotsky: Downfall ofa Revolutionary brilliantly illuminates the fateful and dramatic life of one of history's most famous yet elusive figures.
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Good Trotsky Book, BAD conclusions at end
- By Darius on 02-09-15
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Prague Winter
- A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
- By: Madeleine Albright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Albright
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history.
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History from a Personal Perspective
- By Jeanette Finan on 02-22-13
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True Believer
- Stalin's Last American Spy
- By: Kati Marton
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
True Believer reveals the life of Noel Field, an American who betrayed his country and crushed his family. Field, once a well-meaning and privileged American, spied for Stalin during the 1930s and '40s. Then, a pawn in Stalin's sinister master strategy, Field was kidnapped and tortured by the KGB and forced to testify against his own Communist comrades.
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Misplaced Loyalty
- By Joanne on 04-08-18
By: Kati Marton
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Hitler's Children
- Sons and Daughters of Third Reich Leaders
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Göring. Hess. Mengele. Dönitz. Names that conjure up dark memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They were the architects of the Third Reich. And they were fathers. Gerald Posner convinced 11 sons and daughters of Hitler's inner circle to break their silence. This second generation of perpetrators in Hitler's Children struggle with their Third Reich inheritance. In grappling with memories of good and loving fathers who were later charged with war crimes, these heirs to the Nazi legacy add a fresh and important perspective.
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Couldn’t put it down!
- By Art Guzman on 02-11-18
By: Gerald Posner
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Target Tokyo
- The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring
- By: Gordon Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 20 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Richard Sorge was dispatched to Tokyo in 1933 to serve the spymasters of Moscow. For eight years, he masqueraded as a Nazi journalist and burrowed deep into the German embassy, digging for the secrets of Hitler's invasion of Russia and the Japanese plans for the East. In a nation obsessed with rooting out moles, he kept a high profile - boozing, womanizing, and operating entirely under his own name.
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Riveting
- By Jean on 10-02-14
By: Gordon Prange, and others
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Stalin
- New Biography of a Dictator
- By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Nora Seligman Favorov - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin, the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.
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Loved it, but wouldn't want to live it
- By Neil on 01-12-20
By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, and others
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After Fidel
- The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader
- By: Brian Latell
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this compelling, behind-the-scenes account, former top CIA officer and Cuba expert Brian Latell examines the extraordinary Castro brothers and the impending dynastic succession of Fidel's younger brother, Raul. Exploring the brothers' remarkable relationship, he reveals how Fidel and Raul have collaborated, divided responsibilities, and resolved disagreements for more than 46 years, a challenge to the notion that the little-known Raul has been an insignificant player.
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Very Informative Read
- By BH FL on 04-09-08
By: Brian Latell
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Defying Hitler
- The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule
- By: Gordon Thomas, Greg Lewis
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An enthralling story that vividly resurrects the web of everyday Germans who resisted Nazi rule.
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The Righteous Few
- By Linda on 05-19-19
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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Lioness
- Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
- By: Francine Klagsbrun
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 32 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Golda Meir was a world figure unlike any other. Born in tsarist Russia in 1898, she immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee, where from her earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel's founding generation. Moving to mandatory Palestine in 1921 with her husband, the passionate socialist joined a kibbutz but soon left and was hired at a public works office by the man who would become the great love of her life.
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The persistent mispronunciations of Hebrew and Yiddish words ruined this performance
- By YH-O on 12-30-18
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Hitler
- Ascent 1889-1939
- By: Volker Ullrich
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 34 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.
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Worthwhile if you haven't read a Hitler biography
- By Joshua on 11-03-16
By: Volker Ullrich
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The Nazi Hunters
- By: Andrew Nagorski
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
More than seven decades after the end of the Second World War, the era of the Nazi hunters is drawing to a close as they and the hunted die off. Their saga can now be told almost in its entirety. After the Nuremberg trials and the start of the Cold War, most of the victors in World War II lost interest in prosecuting Nazi war criminals. Many of the lower-ranking perpetrators quickly blended in with the millions who were seeking to rebuild their lives in a new Europe, while those who felt most at risk fled the continent.
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Best on subject
- By night owl on 03-09-17
By: Andrew Nagorski
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Nazi Women
- The Attraction of Evil
- By: Paul Roland
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Glaister
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
After the failure of the Weimar Republic, the Nazis believed their mission was to "masculinize" life in Germany. Hermann Goering told women, "Take a pot, a dustpan and a broom, and marry a man", but many still became active participants in murder and mayhem. From the Reich Bride Schools through the Bund Deutscher Mädel and the bizarre Lebensborn Aryan breeding programme to the brothels of the Sicherheitsdienst, this book covers the lives of women in the Third Reich, concentrating on those who sought personal power and influence amid the chaos.
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People are human
- By Stephen H on 07-04-18
By: Paul Roland
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A Spy Among Friends
- Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.
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The narrator is incorrectly identified.
- By Greenlake DD on 07-30-14
By: Ben Macintyre
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David Lynch
- The Man from Another Place (Icons)
- By: Dennis Lim
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At once a pop culture icon, cult figure, and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch's work is primed to act on our own subconscious, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable. No less than his art, Lynch's life also evades simple categorization, encompassing pursuits as a musician, painter, photographer, carpenter, entrepreneur, and vocal proponent of Transcendental Meditation.
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Essential listening for Lunch fans
- By Michael P. Mesaros on 08-14-18
By: Dennis Lim
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On January 20, 1942, fifteen men arrived for a meeting in a luxurious villa on the shores of the Wannsee in the far-western outskirts of Berlin. They came at the invitation of Reinhard Heydrich and were almost all high-ranking Nazi Party, government, and SS officials. But the beauty of the situation stood in stark contrast to the purpose of the meeting to which the fifteen had come in January 1942: the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
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This book is the culmination of more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi Germany by one of the period’s most distinguished historians. The volume brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian Kershaw’s research on the Holocaust for the first time. The writings are arranged in three sections - Hitler and the Final Solution, popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in historiography - and Kershaw provides an introduction and a closing section on the uniqueness of Nazism.
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The Nuremberg Interviews reveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former Nazi officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial. The architects of one of history’s greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the Nazi Party, and their views on the Holocaust. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a US Army psychiatrist. Dr. Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defense and prosecution witnesses.
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The Long Night is Ernst Israel Bornstein's first-hand account of what he witnessed in seven concentration camps. Written with remarkable insight and raw emotion, The Long Night paints a portrait of human psychology in the darkest of times. Bornstein tells the stories of those who did all they could do to withstand physical and psychological torture, starvation, and sickness, and openly describes those who were forced to inflict suffering on others.
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Feelings, having listened to The Long Night
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Children of Nazis
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In 1940, the German sons and daughters of infamous Nazi dignitaries Himmler, Göring, Hess, Frank, Bormann, Speer, and Mengele were children of privilege at four, five, or ten years old, surrounded by affectionate, all-powerful parents. Although innocent and unaware of what was happening at the time, they eventually discovered the extent of their father's occupations:
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This Is Berlin
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This collection of William L. Shirer’s radio broadcasts tells the vivid story of WWII and brings the suspense of the times to life for today’s audience. As the first journalist hired by CBS to cover the war in Europe, Shirer compiled two and a half years’ worth of wartime broadcasts including Hitler’s invasion of Austria, the armistice between France and Nazi forces in June of 1940, daily roundups of news from Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London and Rome, documenting the conditions of these countries under invasion.
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Another banger from Willy and Grover
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Hitler and His Inner Circle
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Glossary of the Nazi clique
- By MFHRaptor on 03-15-24
By: Paul Roland
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Army of Evil
- A History of the SS
- By: Adrian Weale
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In Nazi Germany, they were called the Schutzstaffel. The world would know them as the dreaded SS - the most loyal and ruthless enforcers of the Third Reich...It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany - ranging from local village "gendarmes" all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo.
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Got lost in the details.
- By Alan on 11-28-12
By: Adrian Weale
What listeners say about The Hangman and His Wife
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- Paul.
- 02-09-24
Misunderstood Nazi
Lena lived until 1985.
The stories went on a bit , but there is much detail that is very interesting
I got the impression that the wife thought her husband was just misunderstood.
I’ve picked up a bit of German, as it is frequently mentioned.
Fascinating tale of assassins.
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- Cabazone
- 06-09-22
Brilliant look behind the curtain of the Nazi state.
The author of this book does history a great service. She peels back the curtain on the Nazi state and reveals the inner workings of the Nazis terror state. Through the eyes of Frau Heydrich and other eyewitnesses, we the readers observe the moral corruption of the Nazi bigwigs. While I disagree with some of the conclusions in the epilogue concerning the fates of Heydrich’s children, this book does an excellent job breaking down how the most famous criminal in a government of criminals functioned.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Randy
- 07-29-24
Intriguing Biography Marred by the Afterword
This book offers a compelling and detailed account of one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious figures. The narrator’s voice initially felt off-putting, but with time, it became more tolerable and even fitting for the tone of the story. Despite the occasional challenge with narration, the book itself is meticulously researched and provides a thorough exploration of Heydrich’s life and role in the Nazi regime. However, the afterword detracts from the experience with an unnecessary and misleading political comment about President Trump, which felt entirely out of place in this historical context. It’s unfortunate that such a strong biography ends on this note, but overall, the book remains a significant contribution to understanding one of history’s darkest figures.
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- zeroth
- 07-26-24
Very Informative
Sheds alot of light on the Life of Heydrich. From his Navy days until his assassination.
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- Patricia K. Cox
- 11-18-24
Intimately Detailed Inside Story
This book unveils Heinrich and his wife, as well as their circle with intimate anecdotes and historical facts. It’s edge of your seat listening. The narrator, Suzanne Toren, does a masterful job with her voice. The best narrative talent I’ve heard thus far in any audible book.
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- Ed Pederson
- 11-29-22
Stuff I didn’t know
There is much to unpack in this story. A fascinating evil man who saw himself a bureaucrat and yet sent millions of people to their death. The role of the Czechoslovak in WWII was unknown to me so interesting parts of their history.
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- astasteel
- 10-31-23
Well worth the time
Well worth reading if you are a student of WW2, the Third Reich, or Holocaust history. What makes it stand out is that it is a biography of both Reinhard and Lina Heydrich, their marriage as well as their individual lives.
Frau Heydrich almost seems to have appreciated and enjoyed her visits with interviewer and author Nancy Dougherty. Her personality shines through and can be appreciated in spite of the backdrop of her story. The book is rich with history and intrigue as well as personal anecdotes that bring the infamous figures of history down to a human and almost understandable level.
I listened to the audiobook by Suzanne Toren, who did a masterful job of interpreting the text over 26 hours. It is a commitment, to be sure, but every moment held my attention.
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- C. P. O. Carroll
- 06-23-22
Evil explained....NOT!
If you are seeking a deep psychological insight into the mind of a monstrous psychopath you will not find it here. Heydrich's wife is vacuous and shallow and offers no clues to the mindset of the Butcher of Prague. The book only reinforces Arendt's observation on "the banality of evil"
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1 person found this helpful
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- joe
- 11-11-24
not much about RH more about his wife's perspective.
absolute waste of a credit. 2 hours in and I'm done.really have no interest in LH.The summary convinced me it was a bio of RH. Endless babble from LH. If you want to learn anything about RH don't waste your time with this one. Total bomb
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