I saw little of Hitler during the early months of 1944. . . He was surly, irritable, and always directed blame away from himself to those beneath him. Hitler the Infallible could do no wrong. (He) had the uncanny knack of refusing the sound advice of his generals and then excoriating them for losses of men and material. They were doomed by his failure to listen, his belief in his omnipotence.
V.S. Alexander’s historical fiction about the expendable servants who shielded Hitler by tasting his food is not especially quotable, but I replayed this passage of the audiobook numerous times, so struck was I by the chilling parallels to Donald Trump.
Politics aside, here is a measured look at life in the führer’s shadow as told by a young woman reluctantly drawn into his web by the circumstances of war. Part chronicle and part romance involving a traitorous SS officer, this twelve-hour listen is a suspenseful tale of treachery seasoned with a crash course in poisons.
It is always intriguing to ponder where authors get their ideas, and in this case I’m guessing it was the sole-surviving taster of the Hitler regime, Margo Woelk, whose story made a media splash five years before Alexander published her novel. Here is Woelk’s account, as reported on Newsy TV in 2013.