The full title of this book is The Hangman and His Wife: The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich. If you read my post on Jakob Schmidt, you probably remember me referring to this book months ago. Well, because I have multiple books going at once, I just finished it. It was lengthy but well worth the time for any student of the Second World War, the Third Reich, or the Holocaust.
It is heavy, literally and figuratively. I listened to the 26-hour long audiobook, and Amazon tells me that the print version has 628 pages. Rather than simply being a book about the life and career of a notorious Nazi, however, author Nancy Dougherty weaves the lives of Reinhard and Lina together, relying heavily on her interviews with Frau Heydrich.
That is what makes The Hangman and His Wife so unique. Because she was a woman, Ms. Dougherty was able to cultivate a relationship with Frau Heydrich that was closed off to the many male researchers and journalists who sought interviews with the wife of Reinhard Heydrich. The rapport between the two women shines through in the narrative, even when Ms. Dougherty asks pointed questions and Frau Heydrich gives evasive answers or fails to answer entirely (“you’ll have to excuse me, I left something on the stove”).
Regardless of the backdrop of her life, I found myself wishing I could have met Lina Heydrich. She had quite a personality, and it comes through vividly in the audiobook edition read by Suzanne Toren.
As I said, Frau Heydrich did occasionally avoid answering Ms. Dougherty’s questions. Some reviewers complained about that, stating that she was in denial or perhaps even senile, but I chose to put myself in her shoes: it would be quite difficult to not struggle with the past. Yes, she was an ardent Nazi herself, and was actually the one that encouraged her husband to get into the SS in the first place. But putting all that aside for a moment, she loved him. He was her provider and the father of her children. Time heals a lot of wounds, and we humans have a tendency to want to remember the good in people we love, and forget about the bad.
As far as her denial of the Holocaust, I never said I agreed with everything she said. Only that she had quite a personality and I would have liked to have known her. She was a feisty and determined woman who often clashed with Nazi standards, managed to get herself back to her home in Northwestern Germany from Czechoslovakia at the end of the war, and never hid from the public eye in the decades following the collapse of the Third Reich.
The historical content of the book is well-researched, and intrigue abounds among the various supporting actors in the couple’s story. I honestly kept thinking, who needs soap operas when you have real history? You don’t simply get a sense of the careers of high ranking Nazis and the evil for which they were responsible, you get a sense of them as whole people. No, they did not come from outer space. In many ways, they were just like us.
Reviewers also take issue with the fact that the stories of Reinhard Heydrich’s colleagues do not resolve at the end of the book. My answer to that is that the book is not about them. Ms. Dougherty had to include this information because it is relevant to the bigger picture of the Heydrichs’ lives. If I want to find out what happened to the others, I can research that another time.
In spite of the fact that I gave this book a SOLID 5 stars, I literally had to force myself to listen to it at times. I cried more than once. Being a sensitive Christian woman, there is no way I could listen to this 26-hour tragedy of a human life falling so far from God’s design into such evil and not cry.
I’m still processing it. My heart goes out to the surviving family members, descendants of Reinhard and Lina and the descendants of his siblings. Interestingly, they have not taken pains to hide their last name, though it has caused them trouble from time to time.
His youngest daughter is quoted at the end of the book, saying she is:
“…pained by her father’s reputation as the Third Reich’s evil young god of death and is still hoping that history would prove his judgement too harsh… I have never been fully convinced that this is what happened, that this is what he was like… Perhaps it’s too soon.”
Quote by Marte Heydrich from The Hangman and His Wife by Nancy Dougherty
Marte was born six weeks after her father’s death. Her elder sister Silke shared similar sentiments. I am not put off by these thoughts, in fact, I found myself wishing the same thing.
I guess that’s why I write redemptive-themed fiction.
Something in the narrative—something I wish I had bookmarked—led me to wonder just how much the Nazis pinned on Heydrich after his death. While I don’t doubt that he was involved in many of the crimes of the Third Reich, it isn’t hard for me to imagine them treating one of their own as both a martyr and a scapegoat at the same time.
~Final thoughts~
According to the book, on the morning of the assassination attempt that would eventually take his life, Reinhard Heydrich spent an extra hour and a half playing with his children on the front lawn of their home in Czechoslovakia before leaving for the office. In fact, he had been spending more time at home ever since they moved to their estate outside of Prague. Lina expresses that it was the happiest time in their lives.
I have thought about this anecdote over and over again. Why does it haunt me so?
My answer can only come from the perspective of, as I said before, a Christian woman. I invite my readers to take or leave it as you will, because this is not a forum for religious debate or preaching… but that is a part of my paradigm and therefore my thoughts will always be colored by my beliefs.
Also please bear in mind that I take seriously the great suffering of the victims of this man and the regime he served.
I could not help but think of Romans 9:22 and 23, which I’ve provided here in the New Living Translation:
“…even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.”
Romans 9:22-23 NLT
In other words, it reminded me of God’s merciful patience. In spite of their father’s sins, God provided Reinhard Heydrich’s children with those moments. In their anger and indignation, men want to hold the children accountable for their father’s sins–especially a father who took the lives of so many other innocent children. But God does not operate like that.
I will go a step further. The intention of the attackers was, of course, to kill him on the spot. Instead, he was wounded and spent weeks in a hospital bed.
To me that speaks of God’s continued patience and offer of forgiveness. A few more weeks to reflect and repent… and a few more weeks for him and Lina. What did he do with that time? No one knows. But it was offered to him.
This is why I can never neglect my faith when I write. Because truly, without the backdrop of eternity, all these things would be meaningless, and mankind would be without hope.
Aubrey Taylor Books 