Hitler's Women

A impotent pervert? A sadomasochist? A narcissistic tyrant? Homosexual, as some historians claim? What exactly is known about the emotional life of a man responsible for the death of millions of others? And what can it reveal to us about his destructive work? Thus, were his relationships with party comrade Jenny Haug and, later, with Friedelind Wagner, Unity Mitford, or Maria Reiter, merely for intimate relations? As for Winifred Wagner and Leni Riefenstahl, although they did not bring him romantic fulfillment, did they not contribute to Hitler's rise by satisfying his voracious need for admiration? From Hitler's tragic passion for his niece, Geli Raubal, driven to suicide at the age of 23, to his late marriage with Eva Braun, François Delpla dissects a love life that could have been very ordinary if it hadn't been so chaste. Questioning the myth of the "virile Führer," the core of Nazi propaganda, the author outlines the portrait of a man haunted by his ghosts, encouraged by the adherence of the women who surrendered to the risky game of temptation...