Customer Reviews

Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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"

Maria Anne Hirschman's life story is so remarkable that if it weren't true, it would be too outlandish to believe. It's not very well-written, hence the 4-star rating, but the story of this remarkable woman deserves to be told. So many episodes in her life would be a fascinating story in and of themselves, and I just can't believe they all happened to the same person. So how does one go from an orphan in the Hitler Youth to working with troubled teens in California? Would Hollywood dare to make a movie that seemed so unbelievable?

I read this book in 1973, I was thirteen at the time, and it still resonates in my memory. I don't know what other endorsement I can give it - except that after 37 years I remember it vividly and it changed the way I thought...

This is one of those books you read, and it stays in your mind for a lifetime! How amazing it was to read history from another perspective. I'll never see Nazi's the same way again. Innocent and ordinary people were brainwashed into thinking that Hitler was God, and that their duty was to make the Jewish race go exctinct! Not only was this book historically fascinating, but to hear the testimony of Maria Anne Hirschmann and how she came to know Christ as her personal Savor was very encouraging.

I started reading this as I was interested in German life during the war. In this aspect it was full of very interesting information about how daily life went for typical Germans.

The Christianity aspect of the book was there but didn't overpower the book at all. Actually, the book could have easily been published by a non-christian publisher as the story is more centered upon Hansi's life during (and then after) the war, with the religious aspect seeming to be just part of the story and not the entire story (which made the book that much more interesting).

This book gives you a peep into what it was like to be a German youth during WW11 who gets involved with the Natzi thinking.
It's not the best written book, but like Anne Frank, it's written from a young persons viewpoint and thinking.
Not sure if school age children would get a lot of out it - I know there are better true stories with a clearer message... like "In My Hands" memories of a Holocaust rescuer.