Wolf: A Novel
By Herbert J. Stern and Alan A. Winter
4.5/5
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About this ebook
Perhaps no one is more controversial or more hated than Adolf Hitler. Yet questions remain about how this seemingly unremarkable man gained power to become one of the most diabolical dictators of all time. Based on extensive research, the historical novel Wolf lifts the curtain on Hitler’s secret life, revealing truths that have been hidden for one hundred years.
The story begins as World War I is ending, when the fictional character Friedrich Richard meets Hitler in the mental ward of Germany’s Pasewalk Hospital. Hitler, a.k.a. Wolf, is an army corporal suffering from hysterical blindness. Unable to see or care for himself, the future Führer relies upon Friedrich for assistance, and the two men form an unbreakable bond.
As Wolf progresses, Friedrich becomes history’s eyes and ears. Interacting with real people, places, and events during a fifteen-year time frame, Friedrich watches Hitler evolve step-by-step into a megalomaniacal dictator. A book for history buffs and fiction fans alike, this remarkable thriller presents a fully-realized, flesh-and-blood Hitler that is more realistic and more chilling than any we’ve seen before.
Herbert J. Stern
Herbert J. Stern, formerly US attorney for the District of New Jersey, who prosecuted the mayors of Newark, Jersey City and Atlantic City, and served as judge of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, is a trial lawyer. He also served as judge of the United States Court for Berlin. There he presided over a hijacking trial in the occupied American Sector of West Berlin. His book about the case, Judgment in Berlin, won the 1984 Freedom Foundation Award and became a film starring Martin Sheen and Sean Penn. He also wrote Wolf: A Novel with Alan A. Winter, Diary of a DA: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Took on the Mob, Fought Corruption, and Won, and the multi-volume legal work Trying Cases to Win.
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Reviews for Wolf
5 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On a day when people are sending a message of love, I'm reading the book WOLF about a man who sent a message of hate.Herbert J. Stern and Alan A. Winter team up to create a brilliant blend of fact and fiction in this well researched historical novel. And, I must tell you that this book had me hooked at the Prologue where Bernard Weiss is saved by fictional character Friedrich Richard.The story is narrated by Richard. About four chapters in, we are taken back to October 21st, 1918. Germany has suspended all submarine warfare and two men have a close encounter outside Pasewalk Military Hospital. The man with bandaged eyes, being guided from the wagon cart to the ground, is called Wolf ( Adolf Hitler). The man following is Friedrich Richard. A name assumed from a soldier who'd taken his own life.Yes! Hitler's soon to be bunkmate has amnesia. Hitler is the central character of the story. He's receiving special care for the mentally afflicted. Hitler believes himself to be suffering vision loss due to gas poisoning but we learn it's actually hysterical blindness. The hospital is short-staffed, so Richard befriends Hitler with kindness and the two form a strong bond. Aside from his military training, Hitler is a fine artist who expresses he despised his father who was an abusive drunkard. Hitler's father died and Hitler's mother was not able to be saved by the Jewish doctor who attended to her illness. Less than a month from Hitler's arrival at the hospital the Armistice of Compiègne is signed and Hitler is devastated by this news.Dr. Forster is employed in Pasewalk Hospital's psychiatric department. He hypnotizes Hitler and a monster is created. Hitler believes his sight is regained because he has a special purpose and heavy responsibility to save Germany. Soon after, Richard and Hitler are discharged from the hospital. Richard follows Hitler as he rises to power and becomes the chancellor of Germany. I found this book to be an utterly astounding look at dominating hierarchy which is well known in wolves. We find unified forces who obeyed orders. Hitler engages in small talk, forms bonds, and uses people to achieve his ends. He has a plan and it seems nothing is going to stand in the way of this WOLF. I received a copy of this evocative thriller through the generosity of Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc. Despite the depressing nature of the book, as we already know of the social discrimination and genocide against specific groups, we can appreciate the open and honest way in which the authors write about relationships. We can recognize the things we take so readily for granted and build on the hope for a brighter, more compassionate, future.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The possibility that a monster like Adolph Hitler could have ever been a ladies man never crossed my mind. Never. But that is exactly the way that Hitler is portrayed here in Wolf, the new fictional look at Adolph Hitler’s rise to power by authors Herbert Stern and Alan Winter. And according to the novel’s “Historical Notes” section, there is good reason to portray him that way because Hitler was not really the cold, emotional wreck of a man who was incapable of forming meaningful relationships with others that so many “esteemed” historians claim he was. Stern and Winter say that he, in fact, “forged life-long friendships with numerous people,” people to whom he was “exceedingly loyal.” This is particularly true in cases of the men who were with him from the very beginning of his rise to power - as it was true of the “stable of women” he manipulated for his own purposes throughout most of his adulthood. Most of the characters in Wolf were real people, but the book’s narrator, Friedrich Richard, is not one of these. Rather, Richard is a fictional, amnesiac soldier who meets Adolph Hitler in the mental ward at Pasewalk Hospital in 1918. Richard is in the hospital for treatment to help him recover his identity when Hitler, having been diagnosed as a psychopath suffering from hysterical blindness, introduces himself to Richard as “Wolf.” Both men are suffering from World War I combat-related issues. Richard is not particularly happy to have been asked by doctors to help look after Wolf, but after Wolf becomes completely dependent on Richard’s assistance for getting around the hospital, the two begin the close friendship that will last them for at least the next sixteen years. The sixteen years encompassed by Wolf, beginning in October 1918 and ending in August 1934, would see Adolph Hitler rise all the way from being a mere corporal whose mind has convinced his body that he is blind, to the moment that German voters decide to “anoint” him their country’s dictator. Along the way the two men’s friendship will be tested numerous times, but Richard convinces himself that by staying close to Hitler he will be able to curb the man’s worst impulses. Hitler, on his part, remains dependent on Richard and is always more willing to listen to counsel from him than from anyone else in his organization. The supreme irony of their relationship is that Richard’s good advice is instrumental in Hitler’s rise to the top of German politics – and to all that will soon follow. Bottom Line: Wolf helps explain what many readers will have only wondered about: How did the citizens of Germany not simply allow, but actually vote, a man like Adolph Hitler into the absolute power that would lead to him becoming perhaps the greatest monster the world has ever seen. While the novel can at times read a little too much like a history book, it is in its best moments a horrifying reminder of just how easily something like this could happen again.Review Copy courtesy of Skyhorse Publishing