In 1959 German journalist, Norbert Lebert, interviewed in a number of children of the Nazi leaders. After his death, Mr. Lebert's son, Stephan, chose to attempt to bring those interviews up to date in 1999-2000. Where he could not (as with Gudrun Himmler and Edda Goring), the younger Mr. Lebert provides a thumbnail history of what is known about the intervening years.

To me, the most interesting parts of the book were 1959 interviews. Mr. Norbert Lebert did a sensitive job of considering the children of the leaders as people rather than as celebrities or subjects of a study. The information he developed was quite extensive, broad, and very interesting.

In each case, the father cast a long shadow onto his children. While very young, these children were usually aware that their fathers were powerful and admired. Some, like Edda Goring, even had celebrity status in their own right. The Allied attempts to prosecute the fathers disrupted the lives of the mothers and their children. Some fathers died by their own hand (like Himmler and Goring), some were hung, while others languished in prison where there could be little contact (like von Schirach and Hess). So to a large extent, these children were fatherless after 1945. After World War II, their fathers' pasts continued to influence their lives, by causing some to be curious, some to scorn them, and others to approve.

The private father was usually remembered with affection and nostalgia. The public father was often obscure, except for the older children (like Gudrun Himmler). The public activities were often caught up in having Hitler as a godfather, or other kinds of positive attention.

The heritage of the Nazi past was accepted by some of the children as positive. Two sons broke strongly with what their fathers had done. The most interesting case is that of Mr. Niklas Frank who wrote a series of strong articles describing in explicit language his father (Hans Frank, governor of Poland) and his feelings about his father in very negative terms. Many Germans condemned Mr. Frank for being unfaithful to his father.

Anyone who expects the children of a war criminal to be an ideal witness about that person's culpability is obviously mistaken. Some of the incidental stories though will shake you, such as the experience of being shown Himmler's collection of household items made from parts of human bodies. Hess's son and Himmler's daughter had great hopes of correcting what they believed to be major errors in the historical record about their fathers. Edda Goring claimed that her name was never a drawback to her, although several of the other children recount many times when their names caused problems such as not being accepted for schools or jobs.

The book in many other ways is disappointing. Unless you are very familiar with the Nazis, you will receive less than the minimum information you should know about the fathers. Perhaps in Germany everyone knows these facts. In the United States, I suspect that is not true.

Long sections are circular and others are rambling with speculations by other authors.

Other sources that could have shed light on these lives are missing. How did the lives of these people compare to that of their German contemporaries whose fathers were or were not prominent Nazis? What did public opinion polls in Germany say about their fathers at the various times when the interviews were undertaken? What did the school books say about their fathers that they read? How do the children of convicted and executed murderers usually react to the memory of their guilty parent? How was the reaction in Germany different from the reaction in Italy to the children of the Fascist leaders there? All of these questions could probably have been answered, but were not raised.

After you finish reading this book, think about how we can help the children of both those who cause and are victimized by violence. Unless we break that vicious cycle of adding the burden to the next generation in unsustainable ways, we run the risk of perpetuating hatred and violence long into the future.

Honor the goodness that should guide our lives!