Eva Braun remains a puzzling mystery to many scholars and historians about the nature of the leader of the greatest dictator in modern history, Adolf Hitler. To believe letters and quotations, Eva Braun and Hitler either lived a shallow façade of sexual companionship or believed themselves to be in love while perpetrating the greatest mass murder of all time. Hitler purposely chose a woman who could never threaten or upstage him, and had no authority from her position from birth or rank to cling to.

The love story at the top of any social pyramid (or its demise)is usually a love story. Caesar has his Cleopatra, Napoleon had his Josephine, the Duke of Windsor had his Wallis Simpson. The myth of Homer’s Iliad is founded on the classic story of a face that launched a thousand ships. Even Juan Peron of Argentina was savvy enough to employ the myth of “Evita” to underscore his iconic power in the public eye. The marriage of the man in the top job has laways mattered.

But Eva Braun was merely an upper middle class woman of no particular brilliance, average looks, and a part time photography job. Her relationship with Hitler early was scarred by a suicide attempt when he attempted to leave her. The dynamics between the two were cemented: she claimed a emotional dependence, he allowed her to continue but in a role that merited her not at all. Hitler included her in his regime only as far as it suited him.

With Goebbels assuming the public role of perfect German husband and father, Hitler held his mistress in the shadows while commanding the daily life of most of Europe and the rest of the world. But Hitler may have blotted his copybook by squandering the political currency a key alliance or contracting the powerful family association that might have aided him. Hitler reigned supreme until his abysmal defeat, isolated and unthreatened in a tiny circle of cowering staff and supporters.

But Hitler, rising to power in a land where titles and blue blood were everywhere, refused to give Eva Braun any status beyond functional paramour. Over six million Jews were murdered, herded off to camps, tortured and persecuted, while Hitler assumed the role of statesman with a middle class woman he didn’t marry until the end was nigh. When the Russians invaded Berlin, Eva Braun and Hitler were biting into cyanide capsules. Can such a relationship possibly be termed healthy?