Overview

Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were talented, courageous, and strikingly attractive women who fought convention to make their names in the male-dominated field of flight in 1930s Germany. With the war, both became pioneering test pilots and were awarded the Iron Cross for service to the Third Reich. But they could not have been more different and neither woman had a good word to say for the other. Hanna was middle-class, vivacious, and distinctly Aryan, while the darker, more self-effacing Melitta came from an aristocratic Prussian family. Both were driven by deeply held convictions about honor and patriotism; but ultimately, while Hanna tried to save Hitler's life, begging him to let her fly him to safety in April 1945, Melitta covertly supported the most famous attempt to assassinate the Führer. Their interwoven lives provide vivid insight into Nazi Germany and its attitudes toward women, class, and race. Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley gets under the skin of these two distinctive and unconventional women, giving a full--and as yet largely unknown--account of their contrasting yet strangely parallel lives, against a changing backdrop of the 1936 Olympics, the Eastern Front, the Berlin Air Club, and Hitler's bunker.

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9781665255738

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Reviews

This compelling work has the drama and suspense of the best movie scripts. It is the perfect choice for lovers of narrative non-fiction, especially those interested in strong females.-- Library Journal Starred Review Biographer Mulley comes through in a major way with this deep dive into the lives of WW2-era German aviatrixes...Absolutely gripping, Mulley's double portrait is a reminder that there are many more stories to tell from this oft-examined time. -- Booklist (starred review) Narrator Christa Lewis delves into the story of Germany's pioneering women test pilots...Lewis immerses the listener in her honest and dynamic portrayal of these women's lives and their brave and amazing accomplishments in the male-dominated field of aeronautics. In a serious tone she delivers the shocking and heart-wrenching details of wartime Germany. Through Lewis, Mulley's heroines will stay with listeners long after the last sentence is spoken. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile This compelling work has the drama and suspense of the best movie scripts. It is the perfect choice for lovers of narrative nonfiction, especially those interested in strong females. -- Library Journal (starred review)

Author Information

Christa Lewis, winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards, is a classically trained actress and a graduate of Boston University's four-year conservatory training program. She has worked full time at the microphone since getting her start as a newsreader for an international news broadcaster and now narrates audiobooks full time. Clare Mulley is the author of The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, which won the Daily Mail Biographers' Club Prize. She is a contributor to The Arvon Book of Life Writing and is a seasoned public speaker. She has written for History Today, the Express, and the Church Times.

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