On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood [Hardcover]

Irmgard A. Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

On Hitler's Mountain is a powerful, intimate, riveting, and revealing account of a seemingly halcyon life lived mere paces from a center of evil and madness; a remarkable memoir of an "ordinary" childhood spent in an extraordinary time and place.

Born in 1934, Irmgard Hunt grew up in the picturesque Bavarian village of Berchtesgaden, in the shadow of the Eagle's Nest and near Adolf Hitler's luxurious alpine retreat. The very model of blond Aryan "purity," Irmgard sat on the Fu hrer's knee for photographers, witnessed with excitement the comings and goings of all manner of famous personages, and with the blindness of a child accepted the Nazi doctrine that most of her family and everyone around her so eagerly embraced. Here, in a picture-postcard world untouched by the war and seemingly unblemished by the horrors Germany's master had wrought, she accepted the lies of her teachers and church and civic leaders, joined the Hitler Youth at age ten, and joyfully sang the songs extolling the virtues of National Socialism.

But before the end -- when she and other children would be forced to cower in terror in dank bomb shelters and wartime deprivations would take a harrowing toll -- Irmgard's doubts about the "truths" she had been force-fed increased, fueled by the few brave souls who had not accepted Hitler and his abominations. After the fall of the brutal dictatorship and the suicide of its mad architect, many of her neighbors and loved ones still clung to their beliefs, prejudices, denial, and unacknowledged guilt. Irmgard, often feeling lonely in her quest, was determined to face the truth of her country's criminal past and to bear the responsibility for an almost unbearablereality that most of her elders were determined to forget. She resolved even then that the lessons of her youth would guide her actions and steel her commitment to defend the freedoms and democratic values that had been so easily dismissed by the German people.

Provocative and astonishing, Irmgard A. Hunt's On Hitler's Mountain offers a unique, gripping, and vitally important first-person perspective on a tumultuous era in modern history, as viewed through the eyes of a child -- a candid and fascinating document, free of rationalization and whitewash, that chronicles the devastating moral collapse of a civilized nation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hunt's moving, unsettling memoir is part of a literary and historical trend: examining the lives of ordinary Germans during WWII. She was born in 1934 in an intriguing locale—Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, where Hitler set up his headquarters. In fact, in one of her most compelling stories, Hunt recalls sitting in Hitler's lap during a 1941 visit, "suspiciously studying his mustache, his slicked-back, oily hair... while at the same time acutely seeing the importance of the moment." In remarkable detail, she relates the normal parts of childhood (the birth of a sister, going to a new school) interspersed with the extraordinary events (e.g., Hunt's father was one of the first German soldiers killed during the war) of the time and place. The older members of her family and others in the village had vastly differing reactions to Hitler. The author (who now lives in Washington, D.C.) remembers how some teachers said, "Heil Hitler," while others preferred more traditional greetings. She also shows how Nazism pervaded day-to-day life. Although she portrays herself as uncomfortable with the regime, she pushed to join the Hitler Youth, only to leave it in the final months of the war. Those looking for an explanation of the Hitler phenomenon will be disappointed, but readers who want a richly textured memoir of a German girl during WWII will find it here. B&w photos.
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From Booklist

Hunt, a former executive of various environmental organizations, currently resides in Washington, D.C. She was born and raised in Berchtesgaden, a Bavarian village at the foot of Hitler's mountain retreat, the Eagle's Nest. At the age of three, she was embraced by Hitler on one of his periodic forays into the village. Hunt was only 11 when the war ended, so the "eyewitness" account cannot provide much personal insight into life under the Nazis. However, this is primarily a family memoir in which Hunt, through the experiences of her parents and grandparents, tries to explain (but not justify) why "moral and honorable" Germans tolerated or even supported the Nazis. Her parents, traumatized by the rampant unemployment and hyperinflation of the interwar years, saw in Hitler a hope for stability and regeneration. Despite the protestations of her staunchly anti-Nazi grandfather, Hunt's parents closed their eyes to the deepening depravity. Hunt's later recollections of life under occupation and her personal struggles to cope with the legacy of her parents' generation make this a poignant, valuable account. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First edition edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060532173
• ISBN-13: 978-0060532178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, July 26, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood (Hardcover)

This World War II book is unique because it's told from a child's viewpoint. The author was born in 1934 and her home was in the Bavarian mountain area of Berchtesgaden where Hitler had built Eagle's Nest, a fortified compound for him and his high-level commanders' families.

The author describes the day-to-day life of the German people following their defeat in WWI and the pursuant inflation, job loss and depression.

This story is interesting because I have visited the part of Germany Hunt discusses and saw the beauty of it and how isolated the Eagle's Nest was. The author has included some beautiful photos of that area, in addition to historical moments - like the GIs in her home town pulling down the Nazi flag.

Her story tells us how much the Nazi doctrine governed what they ate, what they said and sang, what they named their children, and most of all, how they had to behave to stay out of terrible trouble. Teachers tried to get students to tell on their family members who might talk against Hitler. One aunt, when face to face with Hitler, found her arm rising in the Heil Hitler salute as if his stare hypnotized her - and years later, she shared that she was embarrassed to give in, but terrified not to.

Hunt, an idyllic 3-year-old Aryan blonde child, was photographed on Hitler's lap. She went to school with Nazi official's children, and after the Nuremberg trials, realized that some of those children had just said good-bye to their father before he was executed.

After the war, Hunt felt that patriotism (a word she came to hate) became the excuse for almost everything that had happened. The German people tended to whitewash what their Fuhrer did.

The author brought war to our door, our eyes and our hearts. Armchair Interviews says that On Hitler's Mountain gives great historical viewpoint - but more important, a personal view of war, and a worthwhile reminder that it affects young and old alike.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up in the Shadow of The Eagle's Nest, May 25, 2005

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood (Hardcover)

You may have read numerous books on World War II, but Irmgard Hunt has written an account from her viewpoint of growing up in Nazi Germany in the town of Berchtesgaden. She describes conflicting opinions held by family members regarding Adolf Hitler and her confusion as to who and what to believe. Was he Germany's savior or a monster to be feared? School became something she hated due to pro Nazi teachers who indoctrinated the students and abused their authority with unnecessary corporal punishment. One of her classmates was the son of Albert Speer while another was the son of the executed Fritz Sauckel. Irmgard describes an experience of a fanatical pro Nazi teacher who insisted she get up in front of the class and state how proud she was that her father gave his life in the war for the Fuhrer. Another of her teacher's appeared to be a kindly woman who gently asked whether or not one of her relatives was supporting the Fuhrer. She hesitated in answering, but then lied that he doesn't talk about the situation. She later found her teacher was an informant for the Gestapo, and shuddered as to how close she had come to consigning him to a concentration camp. She also relates her uncomfortable experience of sitting on the knee of Hitler in addition to her fear of allied bombings and wondering how the Americans would treat her family members once they invaded Berchtesgaden. This book is told from the viewpoint of a child and the fears and conflicting thoughts she had regarding the war. The book also includes a picture of Hitler's Berghof after it was bombed along with a picture of the Eagle's Nest sitting on top one of the mountains. The author also speaks of her beginning to challenge her mother's beliefs. The war became tiresome and Irmgard realized she had been robbed of a significant part of her childhood. This book is a quick read, but whether you are a grizzled veteran of World War II books or a neophyte this is a book that gives you the war from a different viewpoint ( a child).

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life for ordinary Germans in Nazi Germany, March 29, 2005

By 

Hipparchia - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood (Hardcover)

Thanks to the work of historians, filmmakers, memoirists, and novelists, we have some ideas about what the big players in the Third Reich were like as well as the victims of the Holocaust. But what was it like to be an ordinary German during the 30s and 40s, when Hitler rose to power? Hunt's personal memoir provides us with a glimpse into the world of the ordinary, respectable German families who backed his reforms and regime, and then had to live through the consequences of World War II. She writes vividly of her childhood in Berchtesgaden, a town nestled in the German Alps where Hitler and many of his top lieutenants maintained their primary residences outside of Berlin. She draws portraits of the adults around her, and their attitudes towards Hitler-ranging from the slavish allegiance of a despised teacher, to the critical skepticism of her beloved grandfather. She ends with a reminder of how easily complacency and conformism can lead to the worst political regimes. Hunt's book is a great read, beautifully and elegantly written, honest and frank on topics which still make many Germans uncomfortable, with many photos of her childhood in Berchtesgaden and anecdotes and stories which make this period of her life, and of German history, come alive. Highly recommended! This would make a great addition to any high school or college European history course reading list.