In Hitler's Shadow: Post-War Germany & the Girls of the BDM

By: Tim Heath

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Synopsis: From the author of Hitler&’s Girls comes the revealing true story of the aftermath of WWII—told by the Third Reich&’s fallen &“Angels of Death&” themselves. In the wake of Germany&’s unconditional surrender in May 1945 and Japan&’s subsequent surrender later that July, the Allied press proclaimed across the world &“Victory! War is Over!&” The truth for many Germans, particularly the teenage girls of the former Bund Deutscher Mädel, was that a new war was just beginning. They were members of the League of German Girls—ten to eighteen-years old—who had been indoctrinated and trained as armed &“she-devils&” of the Third Reich. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, diary entries, and rare interviews with nearly forty members of the BDM, historian Tim Heath reveals the post-war hopes, horrors, and confusion through the eyes of the female wing of Hitler Youth. He recounts their struggle to rebuild their lives destroyed by years of war, and how a country, and these young women, came to terms with the terrible war crimes they were party to. Through these &“interesting and sometimes horrifying accounts of how these women fared in the dying days of the Reich and in post-war Germany,&” In Hitler&’s Shadow sheds light on on one of the darkest times of the twentieth century (Historical Novel Society).