New York Post, Sunday, October 25, 2020
nypost.com
POSTSCRIPT Books
The Rise: Black Cooks and
the Soul of American Food
Marcus Samuelsson, Osayi
Endolyn, Yewande Komolafe
(cookbook, Voracious)
A joyful celebration and thor-
ough history of black cooking,
as well as a reclaiming of black
culinary tradition, this lovingly
prepared book includes 150 mouth-watering
recipes.Group: How One Therapist
and a Circle of Strangers
Saved My Life
Christie Tate
(memoir, Avid Reader Press)
“You don’t need a cure, you need
a witness.” That’s what Dr. Ro-
sen told Christie Tate when he
invited her to attend group
therapy, promising a personal transformation.
Despite initial skepticism, Tate becomes in-
volved in the group — and ends up relishing the
connection.I’ll Be Seeing You
Elizabeth Berg
(memoir, Random House)
Elizabeth Berg’s parents had a
70-year love story, a marriage
that demonstrated love and ten-
derness. When her father devel-
oped Alzheimer’s and her parents
had to move into a care facility, it
was time for Berg and her siblings to parent their
parents. A love story about caregiving.Finding Lancelot
Tamara Palmer (fiction, Independent)
Worn down from a less-than-
optimal life and relationships,
Amanda finds a flyer advertising
past life regressions on a bulletin
board. She decides to give it a
shot — and finds herself on jour-
neys to 15th century Western En-
gland, and more.The Queens Nobody Knows:
An Urban Walking Guide
William B. Helmreich
(Princeton University Press)
Bill Helmreich had a great enthu-
siasm for nearly every block in
this great metropolis; in this vol-
ume, he turns his attention to
Queens, from St. Albans to
Woodhaven. Tragically, Helmreich died this year
of the coronavirus at the age of 74.The Invisible Life
of Addie LaRue
V.E. Schwab (Fiction, Tor Books)
In 1714 France, a young woman
makes a bargain: She will live
forever, but be forgotten by ev-
eryone she meets. Across the
centuries and continents, she has
amazing experiences — until one
day in a bookshop, when a young man remem-
bers her name.REQUIRED
READING
by Mackenzie
Dawsonprepared book includes 150 mouth-wateringtherapy, promising a personal transformation.was time for Berg and her siblings to parent theirWoodhaven. Tragically, Helmreich died this yearday in a bookshop, when a young man remem-by REED TUCKER
I
n October 1943, Adolf Hit-
ler’s private secretary Martin
Bormann fell head over heels
with a woman he flirted with
at a ball.
The woman, Manja Behrens,
was a dental assistant turned ac-
tress, who’d appeared in a cou-
ple movies. Although Bormann was
married, he pursued Behrens relent-
lessly until she finally gave in.
A few months later, Bormann was
forced to confess to his wife, Gerda,
that he’d fallen “madly in love” with his
mistress. Gerda, instead of being stung,
had a novel solution. Why not establish
a polygamous household together?
“One year [Manja] has a child, and
the next year I do, so that you will al-
ways have a wife that is mobile,” Gerda
gushed to her husband. “We’ll put all
the children together in a house on a
lake.”
She went so far as to suggest a con-
tract be drawn up, granting the mis-
tress the same rights as the lawful wife.
Gerda even thought a law should be
passed in Germany “which would enti-
tle healthy, valuable men to have two
wives.”
For Bormann, a man with an “unre-
strained libido” that he satisfied “with-
out regard to social convention,” this
was a perfectly acceptable idea.
But the threesome didn’t last long.
Manja struggled with the arrangement
and left, choosing instead to work 15-
hour shifts at an armaments factory.
Bormann’s tale is just one of the
many bizarre romantic Nazi relation-
ships detailed in “Nazi Wives: The
Women at the Top of Hitler’s Ger-
many” (St. Martin’s Press) by British
historian James Wyllie, out Nov. 3.
“I think rightly so historians have
been focused on what their husbands
were up to,” Wyllie told The Post. But,
“the wives were very interesting.”T
Ake Ilse Hess, the wife of Rudolf
Hess, deputy fuhrer. She was the
daughter of a respected doctor
who was killed during WWI.
While still a schoolgirl, she first met
the then-26-year-old Hess when they
were both staying at the same hostel.
Ilse was smitten and pursued him,
but Hess resisted. He was still a virgin
and had a tortured relationship with
his body and desires, at times craving
a “monk-like existence.”
The couple dated for several years
during which Hess “showed absolutelyVERBOTEN
no interest in sex,” the author writes.
The two were bound by a shared love
of classic German culture and poetry.
The pair first saw Hitler speak
around 1920 and were immediately un-
der his spell. “We are anti-Semites,”
Ilse wrote a friend. “Constantly, rigor-
ously, without exception.”
In 1927, while Ilse, Hess and Hitler
were dining at a cafe, Ilse was musing
about what she’d do in the future. Hit-
ler took her hand, placed it on Hess’
and suggested they marry. Although
Hess described Ilse as a “loyal friend,”
the two agreed to get hitched and
pulled the trigger in December 1927.
They moved into a small Munich
apartment together, but Hess’ aversion
to sex remained. Ilse complained to a
friend that she felt like a “convent girl.”
Heinrich Himmler was also averse
to bedroom intimacy. “Sex both scared
and fascinated him,” the author writes.
Like Hess, the head of the SS re-
mained a virgin into his late 20s after
reading a book that suggested young
men should channel their sexual en-
ergy into more useful pursuits. Celi-
bacy was also a way to make a “virtue
out of his abject failure with women,”
Wyllie writes.
One woman who didn’t reject him
was Margarete Boden. She had been
a nurse on the Western front during
WWI, and that experience likely dam-
aged her. She met Himmler on a train
in 1927, began corresponding with himHitler’s No. 2, Rudoph Hess
(above) married young Ilse
(below, with their son, Wolf) —
but was mostly uninterested in
sex, much to her dismay.Alamy (2)Hitler’s secretary Martin
Bormann (top) convinced wife
Gerda (together left) to add a
third to their romance — actress
Manja Behrens (right).Getty Images (3)