Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika [Paperback]

Maria Anne Hirschmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1973

"Don't ever forget Jesus!" This tearful admonition of her foster mother followed the teen-aged orphan girl as she began her trip to Prague. Maria ("Hansi") was the envy of all in her little Czechoslovakian village because she had won a scholarship to the Nazi school in the capital and would be able to serve the Fuhrer.
Thus Maria began a long journey in 1940 which was to lead her into the darkness of blind devotion to Hitler and the atheism of the Nazi system. The path led to a storybook romance...cruel disillusionment at Hitler's suicide...a traumatic awakening to the swastika's scourge across Europe and upon the Jews...a breathtaking escape from Communists...and a reemergence into the love and lordship of her mother's Jesus.
Eventually Maria and her family came to the United States. You will find chuckles vying with tears as you see the New World through the eyes of these immigrants, bewildered by the careless affluence of their adopted land and dazzled by the freedom to serve and teach one's deepest convictions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers; Third Printing edition (February 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0842312900
• ISBN-13: 978-0842312905
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling testimonal, March 30, 2000

By 

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hansi (Paperback)

This is the true story of Maria Hirschmann, an orphaned Christian girl in Czechoslovakia, who got caught up in Hitler's Germany -- but eventually found her way out of it, renouncing Nazism and returning to her foster mother's Christian faith.

How did Marie, nicknamed "Hansi," become a Nazi? She won a scholarship to a Nazi school in Prague. Such an opportunity was scarcely dreamed of amidst the poverty she had grown up in. And so, it wasn't ideology or hatred of Jews that drew her to the Hitler Youth at first. It was simply that she thought she was being offered the opportunity of a lifetime -- to get an education.

The banality of this story is chilling, but also quite understandable. When I read this book ten years ago, I saw for the first time how ordinary people with basically good hearts got caught up in the Nazi machine. Hindsight is always 20-20, but when an event is taking place in our lives, we don't always have the wisdom to make the right decisions.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Dear Teacher, June 26, 2009

By 

B. Morgan (waukegan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Hansi, is one of the greatest books written by the greatest teacher I have ever had. Maria Anne Hirshmann, was my teacher from 1970 - 1972. She gave me the determination to graduate from high school. If she could flee from Nazi Germany, we could graduate and make our lives worthwhile also. Must read!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ever better than here I changed Gods, April 20, 2008

By 

tim can (Pocono Mts of PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika (Paperback)

This is the more complete version of her story origionally told in the release titled I changed Gods (refering to her changing gods from the Almighty to Hitler) and published by a small denominational press who heavily edited her story making it much more tame than this version.

Here we see much more of the same story. The excitement of education by the nazi's on full scholarship, the thrill of being involved in something important, world changing even, and then the bitterness of discovering the true nature of the man and system she so beleived in.

This is a story that will thrill you and provide fantastic insights into how the average Hitler Youth viewed the war and the person leading Germany.

(WARNING)For those who might be sensitive the book deals directly with the wholesale rape of German women by Russian troops a situation only lightly alluded to in "I Changed Gods"