Love and Terror in the Third Reich

What was it like to fall in love in Hitler's Germany? As the war tore them apart, how did young couples keep love vibrant, care for their children, and relate to the war? The earthy letters of Ernst and Lilo Sommer depict in unforgettable poignancy the collision of their personal dreams with the political and military realities of the Third Reich. Seventy years later their daughter, Heinke, reflects on this tragedy.

""Love and Terror in the Third Reich confronts us with a world at once utterly familiar: the 'golden' little toddler, clapping her hands yet at the same time, brutally alien: the Jews rounded up and shot. We read it and we fall in love with a young couple, living out their courtship, their marriage, the birth of children and their separation against the unfolding horror of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. As an Australian minister whose own work is lived out on stolen land while refugee children are locked up in camps for years, I know only too well how easy it is to let the great banality of evil sooth me into submission. This book is a timely reminder to pay attention to the powers that be.""
--Alexandra Sangster, St. Andrews Uniting Church

""This is a quite remarkable book. Intimate letters demonstrate how an idealistic young couple fell under the spell of Hitler's vision for Germany. Letters never intended for the public eye, lovingly presented by the couple's daughter, and set in context by their historian son-in-law, narrate the terrible reality of the Nazi era. The German tragedy comes unbearably into focus.""
--John Miller, Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in 2001-2002



Peter Matheson is Emeritus Professor at Knox Theological College, Dunedin, New Zealand. A recent book is Argula von Grumbach 1492-1554/7 (Cascade, 2013).

Heinke Sommer-Matheson has taught in Germany, Scotland, and New Zealand.