“The Housewife” Film at TIFF
I read about a film in production a while ago, maybe even last year, called “The Housewife” starring Naomi Watts. I’ve been following the progress of the film and it debuts tomorrow, September 10, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
The TIFF website describes the film as “The year is 1964. A very proper Hermine (Watts) and her hardworking husband Russel (Evans) enjoy a seemingly normal life in New York City — until the fateful day Hermine meets The New York Times journalist Joseph Lelyveld (Sheridan). Following a tip from a Holocaust survivor, Joseph is investigating the possibility that Russel might be a Nazi in hiding.” Here is a link to the full article.
As you can imagine, a film about a hidden Nazi in New York piqued my interest. It was 2015 when I was watching a documentary about the rise of Hitler in Germany. A quick snippet showed a group of women in a frenzy, with crazed worshipful looks in their eyes, restrained by police. That moment grabbed me, and caused me to wonder. Despite the Nazis being covered extensively in fiction and non-fiction books, documentaries and films, one never really hears much about the women of the Nazi moment. Other than a few stories about Eva Braun and Magda Goebbels, women of the Nazi movement have not really been a focus. That moment lead to me the book “Hitler’s Furies” a non-fiction book about the women who took on roles supporting the regime’s industrialized killing machine. This book lead me to another non-fiction book “The Nazis Next Door, How America Became a Safe Haven For Hitler’s Men” which details how America actively recruited scientists, intelligence officers and former SS men to work for the United States government after the war. The Cold War and fighting communism had become the national priority and the government was willing to employ former Nazis to collect intelligence and win the space race.
From those early days of historical research I found out about Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, the first Nazi criminal extradited from the United States. That became the basis for my novel, “The Nazi Housewife of Queens, New York” and led me down so many interesting historical rabbit holes. Like most people, I had not known the extent to which Nazis had found safe haven in the United States and how reluctant the U.S. government was in looking into potential Nazi criminals in our midsts in the 1950s and 1960s.
I’m so glad this film appears to be exploring not only the true story of Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, but also the evil that can live among us in the most common places, like our neighborhood. The friendly neighbor who keeps a nice garden, walks their dogs, and contributes to the church Christmas sale may have a hidden past.
The film has received early accolades for Naomi Watts performance. I’m excited to see the reviews that come from the TIFF premiere and hope the film has a wide release in the United States. I’m excited to buy my ticket for opening night.
