Winner of the International Book Award contest Readers’ Favorite in the Historical Fiction category (2016)This is a story of Annalise Meissner, a young German Jew with long time ago falsified papers, living a carefree life in pre-war Berlin. A talented ballerina, she comes from a wealthy family and at first doesn’t want to concern herself with the changes her country starts undergoing under the … country starts undergoing under the new Nazi regime. However, when the oppressions against the Jewish population begin, she realizes that she can’t be a silent bystander and swears to help her people in any way possible.
She falls in love and gets married to her father’s longtime friend, Standartenführer Heinrich Friedmann, who even though he works for SD – the Reich Secret Service – seems to share her views, and soon Annalise learns why. Her new husband turns out to be a counterintelligence agent working for the US government, and together they start a dangerous game against the sinister Gestapo, trying to save as many lives as they can and not to compromise themselves.
But it’s not only the persecuted people Annalise wants to save; she meets the leader of the Austrian SS Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner who everyone seems to fear, but for some reason, Annalise isn’t intimidated by the Chief of the Austrian Gestapo and doesn’t believe the rumors about his brutality. Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner isn’t hiding the fact that he would love to get this beautiful girl as his mistress, but Annalise, despite the mutual attraction, stays faithful to her beloved husband. However, the risky game she’s playing will soon change everything…
“Ellie Midwood’s historical novel, The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer’s Wife, is a fast-paced and utterly enthralling novel that chronicles the years leading up to World War II through the eyes of a young ballerina, Annalise Meissner. This novel is meticulously researched, and Annalise’s story is so compelling that I became totally engrossed in her life and experiences. Midwood is a master at blending fact and fiction in such a way that I was often tempted to revisit my history books to see which characters were historical personages and which were not. Her writing is seamless and inspired, and I soon forgot that an author was actually the creative force behind Annalise’s words. I was quite pleased to discover that Midwood plans a sequel to this story, Gruppenfuhrer’s Mistress. The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer’s Wife is highly recommended.” – J.Magnus for Readers’ Favorite
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I was attracted to this book by the name – ‘The Girl from Berlin’ for two reasons.
First, the rule of Hitler was the worst period in history for the Jews who lived in Germany.
I have read about it in history books, and seen many movies about that period and I wanted to read more about it.
The other reason was that I visited Germany in recent times and have seen all the historic places where Hitler left his mark.
Berlin is a lovely place now filled with friendly people, but the dark shadow of the Nazi regime still haunts that country in its museums and tourist attractions.
The story of Annalise Meissner, a brave and fearless young German Jew with falsified papers is frightening.
She is blessed with a husband who shares her views.
Together they risk their lives and own happiness to help the Jews, who were being persecuted needlessly by the Nazi regime.
The author tells the story in a way that draws you in and it is hard to put the book down.
Some parts of this story, which are based on true historical events, brought tears to my eyes.
This is a book everyone should read, because history could repeat itself and we could be taken unawares if we are not vigilant
I must say, this sure was a stay-up-reading-until-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning kind of book!
It’s a fascinating portrayal of Annalise, a young girl caught up in the horror of Hitler’s full swing into power in Nazi Germany. Is she a typical young girl? In many ways, she is––in her quest to be a ballerina, her love of fun times, her close knit family, her dear, Jewish, best friend, Adam. But when her father explains how their clan is actually Jewish with forged papers, her life takes a different tact as things around her are quickly heating up. Soon, neighbors she’s known all her life and members of her ballet school are forced to ‘disappear’ because of the strict German anti-Semitic laws. And when she falls in love with and becomes engaged to a man who happens to be high up in Nazi Intelligence, things get even more complicated and tense.
She confesses her background to him and he doesn’t seem rattled by it, which at first I must admit, I found hard to believe. We find out later not only is he a secret agent working against the government, we also see firsthand how for Annalise marrying an elevated member of the Nazi party does have its pitfalls. She is forced to attend a mandatory interview with Himmler himself to make sure she is ‘an appropriate, Aryan bride’. Furthermore, at their wedding (attended by Goebbels) her husband’s and her charade was to me, horrifying, albeit spellbinding. And once she becomes active in her husband’s spy ring, the pages just couldn’t go fast enough! A definite 5*-er!
I’ve read several of this author’s books over the year and what strikes me about each of them is how she takes a subject and turns it on its head. Everyone knows so much about WWII but somehow she is able to find something fresh. Taking atypical characters that are often despised for their actions or connections, she humanizes them and makes the readers see that nothing is ever black and white. The author’s meticulous attention to detail, her ability to sink the reader into time and place, and her aptitude for always making me cry are just some of the reasons I keep drifting back to her series. The Girl from Berlin is no exception and another gem.
The first book of a trilogy. If you have read The Austrian then you might recognize a few of the characters, but it is fine if you haven’t.
I am very happy to have discovered Ellie Midwood, since I love reading historical novels and Ellie does an amazing job writing them.
What I loved about this book is the growth of Annalise. She starts out as a innocent spoilt little girl, but the war chances everything and forces her to grow up fast. I liked her spunk and stubbornness and how she maked up her own mind about people.
We also see the horrors of the war and the courage of the people fighting and trying to save as many people while risking their own lives. And the visit and describing of Auschwitz was chilling.
I truly enjoyed this book. This author takes historical people and winds them into her novel. Sometimes you find yourself wondering if it’s really a work of fiction or if it’s true. This series of books was so good that I downloaded all three. If you love history I definitely recommend these books. Great author.
I am becoming quite the history reader – and it’s blowing my mind a bit!
Ellie Midwood puts you right in the scenery that you’re reading about. The characters seem real and you find yourself rooting for their cause. And the side characters – you find yourself loving and hating them, and scared because you know you shouldn’t like the Nazi at all, but they’re real people, flaws and all. I cannot wait to get into book 2!
Gruppenführer’s Mistress is the continuation of the story of Annalise, a Jewish girl and a spy deep in the offices of the SS. Along with her husband, a highly placed SS officer, she is using her job to get information to the allies while doing everything in her power to redirect as many captive Jews and POWs away from the death camps. It is a precarious road she walks. Threat of discovery stalks her every move. Old enemies, and new ones, make it that much harder for her. She has found an unexpected and sometimes unwitting ally, her boss, chief of the RSHA. All he wants is to make her his.
To say this book is well written is an understatement. The characters are so complex and driven that they fit into the tapestry of the real life historical figures dotted throughout the story as their equals. I absolutely love how the author has made the Nazis human. Nazi Party war crimes are so heinous that it is so easy to sit back and judge it as a whole, making it easy to forget it was made up of individuals. Those who were just following orders and lived with it any way they could because they couldn’t see a way to protect what they loved by doing anything else. Those who found a way to work within the system to bring it to an end, yet still had to make hard decisions for the greater good that would scar their souls forever. Then there are the true monsters, who would have unleashed their evil on the world anyway and just lucked out to find a vehicle like the German war machine to amplify what they alone could have accomplished. It is a rich tapestry to set an unconventional love story against and Ellie Midwood has met the challenge admirably.
I thought the first book was good, This second installment in the series was a pulse pounding, page turning ride. This book reminds me why I have a rule against reading series books before I have all of the parts, because I get to the last page and…!
I am breathlessly awaiting the next book.
I liked the books written by this writer
As a lover of anything to do with romance during World War Two, particularly in Nazi Germany, it didn’t take me long to become interested in this book. Having not read a good romance during this time period in a while, I was a bit cautious when I start reading this. However, it didn’t take me long to be completely enthralled with the story and the characters. The story was very addicting and was hard to put down. When I finished it, I wanted more and ordered the next book without any hesitation. One of the things I loved about this book is the mixing of fictional characters and nonfictional characters. I believe it adds a lot to the story and makes it more realistic. I also applaud Ms. Midwood for making Ernst Kaltenbrunner one of the main supporting characters in the story since he is quite an interesting figure for the time period and is not used very often in novels about the era, despite the role he played in the Holocaust. The only thing I didn’t care for in the novel was the language used. It seemed very modern for the time period and didn’t seem to fit in with the setting. For example, “Yeah…I decided not to swim against the current, you know?” It just felt a bit odd. That being said, it did improve as the story went on and wasn’t so distracting that it took away from the story.