What Happened to the Wives of Nazi Leaders After World War II?

The crimes of Nazi Germany’s leadership during World War II have been examined exhaustively—through trials, testimonies, and historical scholarship. Names like Himmler, Göring, Heydrich, and Hess are inseparable from genocide, terror, and mass destruction. Yet far less attention has been paid to the women who stood beside these men: their wives. These women lived at the center of power during the Third Reich, benefiting from its privileges and often embracing its ideology. But what became of them after the regime collapsed in 1945? Were they punished, absolved, or quietly reintegrated into postwar society?

The fates of these women reveal uncomfortable truths about accountability, denial, and how history treats those adjacent to power.

Ilse Hess: Loyalty Without Regret

Ilse Hess’s life was defined by unwavering devotion—to her husband Rudolf Hess and to Adolf Hitler himself. She met Hess in the early 1920s, during the formative years of the Nazi movement, and joined the Nazi Party before it rose to dominance. Their marriage in 1927 was not merely personal; it was political. Adolf Hitler not only supported the union but served as godfather to their son, Wolf Hess, symbolizing Ilse’s deep integration into the Nazi elite.

Throughout the Third Reich, Ilse remained fiercely loyal. When Rudolf Hess undertook his infamous solo flight to Scotland in 1941—an unauthorized attempt to negotiate peace with Britain—Ilse defended him passionately, insisting his motives were noble even as he was branded a traitor by the regime.

After the war, her life unraveled. With her husband sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials, Ilse was left to survive alone with her child. Like many wives of high-ranking Nazis, she was arrested and interned in Augsburg. Though later released, she never renounced Nazism. Instead, she relocated to Allgäu and opened a boarding house, quietly rebuilding her life.

Ilse remained politically committed long after the war, supporting Stille Hilfe, an organization that aided imprisoned and fugitive SS members. In 1952, she published a controversial book defending her husband and criticizing the postwar justice system. Until her death in 1995, Ilse Hess tirelessly campaigned for Rudolf Hess’s release from Spandau Prison, where he remained incarcerated until 1987. She never expressed remorse—only grievance.

Margarete Himmler: Ideology in a Nurse’s Uniform

Margarete Himmler presents a particularly unsettling case. Trained as a nurse with aspirations of healing, she became the wife of Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the SS and one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust. Far from being a passive spouse, Margarete joined the Nazi Party early and actively organized social gatherings for SS leadership families.

By 1939, she held a senior role within the German Red Cross, overseeing hospitals across Berlin-Brandenburg. Her duties took her to occupied territories, including Poland. Her diary entries from 1940 are chilling, describing Jews and Poles in dehumanizing terms and expressing approval of German “order” imposed through occupation.

Despite this, after the war Margarete sought to distance herself from her husband’s crimes. She claimed ignorance, denying any knowledge of the genocide. Investigators, however, concluded that she had profited from the regime. In 1953, she was sentenced to 30 days of penal labor, stripped of voting rights, and denied a pension—light consequences given her proximity to power.

Living under the alias “Margarete Boden,” she spent her remaining years in relative obscurity, attempting to erase her past. She died in 1967, never publicly acknowledging her complicity.

Lina Heydrich: Power, Profit, and Denial

Lina Heydrich was not merely married to power—she helped create it. A committed Nazi before meeting Reinhard Heydrich, she was instrumental in redirecting his career after his dismissal from the German Navy. It was Lina who suggested he join the SS, a decision that ultimately placed him at the heart of Nazi terror as head of the SD and one of the chief architects of the Holocaust.

Rewarded for her husband’s service, Lina received a large estate in occupied Bohemia, where she allegedly exploited forced laborers and abused prisoners. When the war ended, she fled ahead of the advancing Soviet Army.

Despite this history, Lina was acquitted during de-Nazification proceedings. Even more controversially, she successfully sued the West German government for a pension in the late 1950s, arguing entitlement based on her husband’s rank—despite his central role in genocide.

Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by Czechoslovakia, Lina nonetheless avoided punishment. She remarried in Finland, largely to change her surname, and later turned her former Nazi residence into a restaurant. In 1976, she published Life with a War Criminal, a memoir that relentlessly defended Reinhard Heydrich’s legacy. She died in 1985, unrepentant.

Emmy Göring: From “First Lady” to Prisoner

Emmy Göring embraced the grandeur of Nazism more openly than most. Married to Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe and one of the regime’s most powerful figures, Emmy styled herself as the “First Lady of the Third Reich.” She hosted state functions, wielded social influence, and openly disdained Eva Braun—behavior that eventually earned Hitler’s disapproval.

During the war, Emmy lived in extraordinary luxury, benefiting directly from wealth looted from Jewish families and occupied territories. The Görings’ estates, art collections, and palaces symbolized the regime’s corruption.

After Germany’s defeat, Emmy was arrested and convicted by a denazification court. She served a year in prison, lost a portion of her wealth, and was banned from performing on stage for five years. Reduced to a modest apartment in Munich, she later published an autobiography portraying herself as a victim of circumstance rather than an accomplice.

She died in 1973 at the age of 80—far removed from the power she once wielded.

Accountability Without Justice

The postwar lives of Nazi leaders’ wives expose a troubling pattern. Most avoided serious punishment. Few expressed remorse. Many benefited from legal loopholes, societal fatigue, or the desire of postwar Germany to move on rather than confront complicity beyond the courtroom.

These women were not merely bystanders. Many actively supported Nazi ideology, profited from persecution, and helped sustain the regime socially and politically. Yet history often relegated them to the margins—neither fully condemned nor fully absolved.

Their stories remind us that power rarely operates alone. Behind every regime are networks of belief, loyalty, and silent endorsement. Understanding these women’s lives does not absolve them—but it ensures history does not forget how deeply Nazism permeated private life.