![Hilde Bonhage at 31 years of age, in a portrait dating from 1938.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-hilde-bonhage-300x225.jpg)
My Nazi grandmother
I learned late that my grandmother, whom I never met, was a staunch Nazi. After reading hundreds of letters, I realised with horror how much guilt she had incurred.
![The student Hilde with her future husband, Andreas; Bonn, 1927.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/studentin-300x231.jpg)
![Letters like this one from February 1945 reflect Hilde’s admiration for the National Socialist ideology.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/brief-hilde-213x300.jpg)
![The wedding of Hilde and Andreas in Dortmund, 12 July 1930.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/hochzeit-hilde-300x221.jpg)
![Declaration of admittance to the NS-Frauenschaft, 1933.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/aufnahmeerklarung-300x174.jpg)
![Hilde and Andreas Bonhage in the garden in Posen with their six children, October 1943.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/familie-1-300x217.jpg)
I learned late that my grandmother, whom I never met, was a staunch Nazi. After reading hundreds of letters, I realised with horror how much guilt she had incurred.