IGN.com|AskMen.com|Rotten Tomatoes|GameSpy|FilePlanet|TeamXbox|CheatsCodesGuides|GameStats|Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

Register | Log In | What is RT?
It's our 10th birthday, so you get presents!
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | In Theaters | Opening | Upcoming | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
 
MOVIES / ON DVD / THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE
The Nazi Officer's Wife

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy DVD
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

The Nazi Officer's Wife

86%
100%
100%
N/A
N/A
N/A
86 %
Reviews Counted: 14 Fresh: 12  Rotten:2 Average Rating: 7/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Theatrical Release: Jun 13, 2003 Limited

Synopsis: "The Nazi Officer's Wife" looks at the extraordinary and unforgettable life of Holocaust survivor Edith Hahn Beer. Born in Vienna in 1914, Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into the Jewish ghetto. Soon Edith was... "The Nazi Officer's Wife" looks at the extraordinary and unforgettable life of Holocaust survivor Edith Hahn Beer. Born in Vienna in 1914, Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into the Jewish ghetto. Soon Edith was deported to a labor camp, and though she convinced Nazi officials to spare her mother, when she returned home she discovered that her mother had been deported. Knowing she would become a hunted woman, Edith tore the yellow star from her clothing and went underground, scavenging for food and searching each night for a safe place to sleep. Her boyfriend, Pepi, proved too terrified to help her, but a Christian friend was not. With the Christian woman's identity papers in hand, Edith fled to Munich.

Edith was now what became known as a "U-boat" -- a fugitive hiding in plain sight in Nazi Germany. She got a job at the Red Cross and lived in a boarding house outside Munich. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who fell in love with her. And despite her protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity secret. The two of them - the Nazi and his Jewish wife - lived out the war together, even bearing a child. Angela Vetter, their daughter is the only Jewish girl known to be born in a Nazi hospital.

Edith Hahn and her daughter survived the war, while potential exposure lurked at every corner. But Edith Hahn is not simply a hero ­ she is a complicated woman who kept her story of survival secret for nearly half a century, deceiving even her children. The film explores issues of faith, family and identity in this complex portrait of a woman who had to bury her true self in order to survive. -- © Seventh Art Releasing [More]

Genre: Education/General Interest

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Julia Ormond

DVD Info

Release:

Jul 29, 2003

[DVD Details]

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 15 (sorted by date)
Text View
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
09/24/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
3/4

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
07/16/05
Paul Sherman
Boston Herald
Ratings Image
3/4

You cannot help but be riveted by it.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/26/04
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Ratings Image
2.5/4

A compelling survival drama despite the mundane telling.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/26/04
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3.5/4

One of the most compelling films the Holocaust has yet produced.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/27/03
Janice Page
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/4

Though The Nazi Officer's Wife is more a story of cunning survival than it is of torture, pain and death, it still manages to capture the horror of that insane and shameful period of human history.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/20/03
Jeffrey M. Anderson
San Francisco Examiner
Ratings Image
4/5

It is a bewitching and harrowing tale of the continual submersion of self to stay alive, told by a woman who survived the impostures in which she cloaked herself.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/13/03
Elvis Mitchell
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/4

The amazing story of Edith Hahn Beer, an Austrian Jew who survived the Holocaust by passing herself off as Aryan.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/13/03
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3.5/5

At a brisk 97 minutes, the film skips over many episodes that make Hahn's book a pulse-pounding page-turner, but offers her rare perspective on both sides of civilian life during those nightmare years.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/12/03
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
06/12/03
Onion AV Club
Ratings Image
3/4

Sarandon narrates and Ormond reads excerpts from Hahn's memoir, supplemented by archival footage and interviews with the survivor herself.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/12/03
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor
Ratings Image
N/A

A powerful account of living in isolation and constant terror.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/10/03
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

The film does little to penetrate the psyche of a woman who survived the way Edith did.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/09/03
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International
Ratings Image
A-

If I had to choose a Holocaust film that was most compelling, this one would rate near the top of my list.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/06/03
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
N/A

Unmistakably among the better screen treatments of the Holocaust.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/01/03
Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
1 - 15 (sorted by date)
Text View
See More Topics...

Related Forums

REEL_REVIEWER
THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is another intiguing story that's been suppressed till now!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/11/05


REEL_REVIEWER
THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is another intiguing story that's been suppressed till now!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/11/05


REEL_REVIEWER
THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is another intiguing story that's been suppressed till now!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/11/05


REEL_REVIEWER
THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is another intiguing story that's been suppressed till now!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/11/05

Around the Network

• The Nazi Officer's Wife at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Nazi Officer's Wife at AskMen
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.