Sibylle Knauss

Sibylle Knauss has written a truly beautiful book in Eva's Cousin. How bland yet how fulfilling a title for a book based on the real life experiences of a woman whose identity became enmeshed in her relation to Germany's supreme ruler of that time, Adolf Hitler. Set in Berchtesgaden, in Hitler's own home, with the towering Alps for a backdrop, and the despairing end of World War II, Eva's Cousin is a collage of memories, and time set against the superimposition of evil. There is a personal side to evil here - through all the chaos that Hitler unleashed, seen through the eyes of Marlene, the poor cousin of Eva Braun, the mistress of Hitler, it becomes a intense focus of a 20-year old struggling to come to terms with existence. Who was Eva Braun? It is a question that has been asked time and again. Sibylle Knauss attempts an answer to that question. Who is Gertrude Weisker? This forgotten figure from history who broke almost 50 years of silence to speak to Sibylle? Yes, we know she was the woman who spent the best part of the last year of Braun's life with her in the Berghof, Hitler's mountain retreat in Obersalzberg. And, who is Hitler? Of that last question, we know not the answer. This is a work of fiction based on facts - but the fiction is just strange as the facts. Especially, when the novel stretches the fact into imagination. Towards the latter half of the novel we are introduced to a strange novelish element - young Mikhail, who Marlene hides in Hitler's Tea House. Incredible. But to Sibylle's credit, the book is not history or a memoir but it is just a novel. And a well-written, almost movie-style ending, is just the stuff of novels, even if it is Eva's Cousin.

In the end, I was hugely impressed by Eva's Cousin. It was poetry in prose, in its meanings lay the capacity of the mind's imagination - that deep understanding that only the most beautiful of books can bring forth.… (meer)

I found this to be a very interesting read. I had always thought Eva Braun was a strong smart woman.She was Hitler's lover afterall. After reading this book, I discovered her to be a weak woman that followed along and gained notoriety as well as a lot of expensive gifts,including a home. She enjoyed the attention. She used Marlene,basically for company and entertainment when Hitler was not around.Marlene was interesting and she did grow thew this experience.I did find the story a bit long winded at times. But over all a very good read. It was interesting to read how Nazi sympathizers went back to a so called "normal" life after the war. Quite interesting. I do recommend this book.Learned a little insight on Hitler as well.… (meer)

Although this is a novel, it is partially based on memories of Gertrude Weisker, cousin of Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress.

Marlene, the protagonist and narrator, spends the last year of the war at Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat. Eva is lonely and needs to be entertained while Hitler is away, so she invites her twenty-year-old cousin to join her at The Berghof.

Life at the retreat is luxurious, and the women are isolated from the war; however, reality does gradually intrude via trips to nearby Munich, BBC broadcasts, and Marlene's encounter with an escaped Ukrainian slave labourer.

The book is not an action-packed thriller; rather, it is a portrait of Eva Braun. Marlene worshipped her glamourous older cousin but comes to see her as a superficial, vain shopaholic. "All the serious thought of which [she was]capable, was devoted to having fun. There was nothing left over for anything else. [She] made sure of that." She had no concern with politics or Hitler's activities: "Eva was very good at not asking questions. It was part of her talent for elegance. She never asked unsuitable questions, just as she never wore unsuitable hats. It was perhaps the greatest talent she possessed, apart from dying." Should she hear something unpleasant, "[T]he only way in which she could face the horrors going on around her: She didn't look. She looked in the other direction." She was self-centred and obsessed with Hitler: "It was not like her to picture the consequences of her actions in much detail. Not when they were nothing to do with her and the man who was her sole concern."

The portrait of Eva is not totally negative, however. It is obvious that she is unhappy, left waiting for phone calls from Hitler who refuses to marry her. Her insecure social position only adds to her lack of self-confidence. She becomes a virtual prisoner, unable to go nowhere without guards. She also suffers from depression, having made several suicide attempts. Eva may be a bit of a victim but she is not blameless. By looking away, "That is the way in which people like Eva Braun . . . help to make evil possible."

The novel addresses the issues of guilt and complicity and concludes that many people in Germany were guilty and complicit: "History . . . It's so tactless. It makes us look like fools. It lays our great passions and small needs open to ridicule. It makes little of them, destroys them, leaving nothing but mockery behind."… (meer)

This is a fascinating look into the life of Eva Braun and it is hard to realize that you are reading fiction. The work is based on actual interviews with Eva Braun’s cousin. The descriptions of Hitler's Berghof (home) in the mountainous Nazi enclave, the Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden are vivid. The life style of Eva Braun and her cousin at the Obersalzberg will amaze you and give you true insight into the upper elements of the Nazis. So much is unknown about Eva Braun and her place in Hitler's life. This book sheds light on Eva Braun while enlightening very little about Hitler (who her cousin never met.)… (meer)