AllMovie

Liz Garbus' The Nazi Officer's Wife is a fascinating story about one woman's struggle for survival. Garbus, along with screenwriter Jack Youngelson, has turned Edith Hahn's remarkable tale into an informative and riveting film. The source material, including Hahn's own first-hand account, is so strong that it would be easy to overlook how expertly the filmmakers have assembled the material. They really do justice to Hahn's amazing journey, providing just enough historical context and background to give a real feeling for who Hahn was and the times she lived through. The narrators, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormond, do a fine job, though it could be argued that it's somewhat deceptive having the mellifluous voice of Ormond reading from Hahn's biography, which was written when Hahn was a much older woman. That minor quibble aside, the film is a unique survival tale of the Holocaust that gives viewers an unusual look deep inside the Third Reich from the perspective of a proudly intelligent Jewish woman. With all the documentaries that have been made about the period, this is one story we haven't heard before.