I have just re-read this book which is a moving account of a young Czech woman who ends up serving as a leader in the Nazi Youth movement in Germany. She speaks openly of her prior allegiance to Hitler and his ideals, basically having been groomed through various forms of propaganda along with many of the youth. Eventually she begins to realise that the Nazis are "evil" and those that oppose them are not. She flees her country and becomes a refugee. Later in life she becomes a Christian through a faithful minister who visits her home in all manner of weather conditions. She marries a man she was once in love with who also served as an officer under Hitler.

For some reason (she says God told her to) they move to America and things seem to go rapidly downhill. I found this part of the book hard to read as I believe Hansi made a mistake in going to America against the advice of her family and friends.

There is an additional chapter in this addition of the book which indicates that she and her husband divorced and she formed a ministry partnership with another lady. As they grew older they lived together and took part in many preaching engagements around the country and elsewhere but their efforts were marred by the suggestion that she had left her husband for another woman. I don't know the truth of these allegations but I was saddened that the marriage broke down in light of everything they had been through together. I also don't believe in women preaching so couldn't endorse the ministry that she and this other woman founded.

I enjoyed the first part of the book but feel the author got distracted from her role as a wife and mother (to 5 children) somewhere along the way ...and began pursuing her own agenda. She was always studying or teaching or involved in something keeping her very busy and forcing her husband to take more of a back seat.

I also found her charismatic leanings difficult in places as she uses "God told me to do this" for virtually everything...

Great story but not sure about the aftermath.





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This is a very moving memoir written in the 1970's by Marie Anne Hirschmann (nicknamed Hansi at one point in the story) who was a 14 year-old from the Sudentenland when she won a scholarship to a Hitler Youth school in Prague. It is chilling to read of her growing devotion to the Fuhrer, as she and the other students listen in rapt attention to his radio broadcasts:

"At that time I heard one of Hitler's many speeches over the radio. We listened to all of them, but that address was something special, given at one of the annual sport festivals for the Hitler youth. How that deep voice could send chills down my back!

'Hitler Youth, you are my youth," he said affectionately at the end. 'I believe in you and I claim you, for you are the Germany of tomorrow, MY Germany of tomorrow.'

Thousands of voices drowned out the rest of his words. Young voices responded the way we all felt. 'Heil! Heil! Seig Heil! Sieg Heil! Heil Hitler!' We could imagine the sea of outstretched arms, the eager faces, the exultant shouts. Tears ran down my cheeks and as we heard the national anthem over the radio we all stood with outstretched arms to join in, but I was too choked up to sing.

Yes, we all belonged to Hitler, even little me. For the first time in my life I felt someone claimed me as his own -- and I WANTED to belong to him. . . And if I had to make the supreme sacrifice someday and lay my life down for him, I would be willing to do so. Hitler's war raged and his youth stood ready to die! Fuhrer, command; we obey. Heil Hitler!"

Marie Anne had nominally embraced Christianity out of love for her devout step-mother, only to be gradually convinced otherwise when confronted with Nazi propoganda: "Jesus of Nazareth had been a Jew, and the Jewish people were condemned. Now, why would the Son of the eternal God have to be a Jew if those people were so bad? Didn't it show poor judgment on God's part?"

The book goes into great detail regarding her narrow escape from the nightmarish Soviet "laborer's paradise" into Germany's American zone where she has her first encounter with U.S. soldiers, who, she is surprised to find, aren't urban, gun-totting gangsters who chew gum constanly. Well, they ARE gum-chewers, but that's the only thing Goebbels got right. The friendly kindness with which they treat Maria Anne, her friend, and the little girl whose mother was caught by Soviets as they tried to rush the border will make U.S. readers want to give a cheer (or shed a tear) for the "greatest generation."

But I digress. The second half of the book involves Marie Anne's two odysseys: a spiritual one as she inches her way back to Christianity and a cultural one as she gradually becomes acclimated to her adopted homeland, America.

The writing is a little choppy (not surprising since English was her second language) but her incredible recall of detail -- not only the monumental events that she was part of but also her personal reactions to each of these events -- makes this a very gripping read. ( )