In this gripping narrative, Venke takes readers through her traumatic forty-year search for the truth about her parentage and the shocking discovery that her father was Heinrich Fehlis, the feared chief of Gestapo in Norway, and her mother, his young Norwegian mistress.
Over the years, her mother ekes out snippets of information, an array of distortions, half-truths, and outright lies. In her quest, Venke finds out that her father committed suicide rather than be captured, and her mother was confined to an insane asylum after attempting to kill herself and young Venke. She tracks down a half-brother from the family Fehlis left behind, meets her father’s widow, and develops a warm bond with this side of her family. All the while, the relationship with her abusive, narcissistic, and alcoholic mother continues to deteriorate.
In the end, Venke comes to terms with the consequences of her search: that her father was a Hitler henchman who callously sent men to their deaths and earned the reputation as the Desktop Executioner.
VENKE is an admirable memoir that makes plausible the chilling account of her findings and humanizes what we might otherwise deem as unspeakable—essential reading for anyone interested in the atrocities of World War II and how it affected individual lives.
