Why a Booktrail?
1943: A woman becomes a taste tester for Hitler
The Women at Hitler’s Table
Why a Booktrail?
1943: A woman becomes a taste tester for Hitler
What you need to know before your trail
Hitler hides away in the Wolfsshanze – his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war and his enemies circle ever closer. Ten women are chosen. Ten women to taste his food and protect him from poison. Twenty-six-year-old Rosa has lost everything to this war. Her parents are dead. Her husband is fighting on the front line. Alone and scared, she faces the SS with nothing but the knowledge every bite might be her last. Caught on the wrong side of history, how far is Rosa willing to go to survive?
Travel Guide
Germany
The novel is set in and around Berlin and in several places in the German countryside. The setting is clearly wartime Germany and this is a worrying time for all. In September 2014, the author read a short Italian newspaper article about Margot Wölk, Hitler’s last living food taster. Frau Margot Wölk had never told anyone about her experience, but at the age of ninety -six she decided to make it public. That letter inspired this novel.
Poland
Wolf’s Lair
Remains of Hitler’s wartime base with shelters, barracks, 2 airfields, power station & rail station.
Gross Partsch
In Gross-Partsch, she stayed with her parents in a house. Less than three kilometers away was the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) which was Hitler’s first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The complex was built for the start of Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union – in 1941.
Booktrailer Review
Everyone has had a job they’ve found hard and would probably rather forget, but imagine if that job was food taster for Hitler? Talk about a double-edged sword. This is actually the true story of Margot Wolk who died in 2014 aged 96. This was her job and this is the novel of how she coped with such a role in wartime.
It’s a gripping story and we’re taken back to when she lives in Berlin and is rounded up for want of a better word to this dubious role. The story of Germany at this time is neatly portrayed as we see Berlin on its knees after Versailles Treaty, then people suffering from the high inflation which followed and then a certain figure who rounded up and made himself the leader of the new Germany….
What would happen if you tasted his food? He was a high risk for someone to poison him of course. Imagine being the person who had to pass the food that was safe? The very person you hated and knew it would be for the good of humanity if you let any poison end up on his plate. But either way, you as taste tester would die….
A fascinating look at a remarkable lady and what she and others went through. An insight into the inner sanctuary of evil too.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Women at Hitler’s Table
Destination : Berlin, Germany, Poland Author/Guide: Rosella Postorino Departure Time: 1953
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