This book is a farther-son project, Nobert Lebert visited some of the children of leading men from the Third Reich in 1959 (Wolf-Rüdiger Hess, Martin Bormann, Niklas and Normann Frank, Gudrun Himmler, Edda Göring and Robert von Schirach) and forty years later the son, Stephan, contacts them again to find out how their lives have developed over the years.

Following the introduction, it is one chapter based on the interview made by the father with one of the children (or in the case of the Franks, two) followed by one where the son attempts to get a follow up with each interviewee and also share his thoughts on things like human nature and the post-war Germany as reflected on their lives before the book moves on to one of the other children.

The interviews made in 1959 are interesting and deserve more space and would benefit from more background information on the events and persons discussed. I get the feeling that there is more material to be added from these interviews and it would be interesting to read more of it.

The follow up interviews (in the case of Gudrun Himmler and Edda Göring no follow ups were made) are less interesting, those chapters are only to a degree about the interview and are largely made up of the authors own thoughts.

Both the interviews by the father and the son are to a large degree focused on how the children handles the legacy of their fathers, some of them refuse to see the bad things (Himmler for example) while others hate their fathers (Frank) and how they feel about Nazism today.

Unfortunately there is an at times poor editing and the book would also benefit from verifying some of the claims made as certain myths are simply repeated, for example Lebensborn being “breeding homes” or the claim that Himmler had furniture made of human bones.
On a few occasions in the book it also seemed like Stephan Lebert ignored aspects of an event because they did not fit with the point he is trying to make, for example when he mentions the Wehrmacht exhibition and the criticism it got, he does not mention that it was withdrawn for a period as several items in it was found to be incorrect.

It is an interesting topic for a book and it has a good foundation in the 1959 interviews and it is at times very interesting but unfortunately it promises more than it can actually deliver.
This book is often found at bargain prices in paperback and despite the criticism above, it is worth buying at those prices for anyone interested in the post-war lives of these children.

(Reviewed by Marcus Wendel)