Bertha's Word

Bertha Siegelman grew up in Munich and witnessed firsthand the rise of Nazism. Later she had a role in its downfall. As a young girl Bertha notices a remarkable gift. She can sense people's inner thoughts and peer into the future. Clairvoyance isn't her vocation, at least not initially or by choice. She attends college in Munich, marries, and lectures in history. As the Third Reich consolidates, Bertha and her husband lose their positions and she turns to her gift to earn a living. Her reputation as a seer spreads and her clientele grows in numbers, devotion, and power. Reinhard Beck, a colonel in German counterintelligence, is deeply impressed by her gift and spreads word to the upper circles of Berlin, including Hermann Göring and eventually Adolf Hitler himself. Determined to do her part in the war, Bertha shapes her counsel in a manner that will help bring the Third Reich down. She encourages political and military leaders, including Hitler and Rommel, to continue the unwinnable war in Russia and delay the response to Allied landings in France.