The Nazi Officer's Wife (33 page)

Maria Niederall gave me this picture of herself. I kept it with me in Brandenburg.

Christl made this application for new papers to replace those she told the police she had accidentally dropped into the Danube.

The marriage certificate of Werner Vetter and “Margarethe Denner.” You can see the “proof” that we were both “German-blooded”
(“deutschblütig”)
, as well as additional notes about the birth of our daughter and the revision, in July 1945, when my real name was noted.

(Top Image)
Werner Vetter before the war …

(Bottom Image)
… and after he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in September 1944.

Werner designed and hand-painted this birth announcement after our daughter, Angela (“Angelika”), was born in April 1944. This one was sent to Pepi with a note on the back: “A star has fallen from the heavens….”

In the summer of 1944, Werner took this picture of me pushing Angela’s pram and walking with Bärbl, Werner’s four-year-old daughter from his first marriage.

Werner smuggled out this letter to me from a Siberian prison camp. It was packed into the lining of an eyeglasses case and delivered by a man who tossed it through my door and left instantly.

Angela was three years old in 1947 when this photo was taken by Werner, after his return.

(Top Image)
My identification when I was a judge in Brandenburg. “OPFER DES FASCHISMUS” means “A Victim of Facism.”

(Bottom Image)
I acquired this ID in 1948. It gave the false address I needed for my flight to England. Although I paid the rent for months, I stayed there only a few weeks before my departure.

(Top Image)
This picture of Christl Denner Beran and me was taken in 1985 at the Israeli Embassy in Vienna, where Christl received a medal for her heroism and permission to plant a tree in the Garden of the Righteous Gentiles at Yad v’Shem in Jerusalem.

(Bottom Image)
Edith Hahn Beer and her daughter, Angela Schlüter, in 1998.

About the Authors

EDITH HAHN BEER
divorced her husband in 1947 and lives in Netanya, Israel. Her daughter is believed to be the only Jew born in a Reich hospital in 1944.

SUSAN DWORKIN
is a prolific novelist, playwright, Peabody Award-winning television writer, and National Book Award nominee. Her writing has appeared in
Ms., Ladies’ Home Journal
, and other publications. She lives in New Jersey.

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Copyright

The photographs and documents reprinted in this work are part of the permanent collections at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and are reprinted courtesy of Pritchards Trustees Ltd and Angela Schlüter.

Photograph of Edith Hahn Beer and Angela Schlüter © 1998 by David Harrison. Reprinted courtesy of Harpers & Queen.

Don Carlos
by Friedrich von Schiller, translated by Charles E. Passage. Published by Frederick Ungar, copyright © 1967. Reprinted by kind permission of the Continuum Publishing Company.