Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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).

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.

Author Imgard Hunt from birth to the age of ll experienced the fears, tensions and dark glories of growing up almost literally on Hitler's lap, a stone's throw from his famous Eagles Nest in the Bavarian mountains. She was doddled on the dictator's knee when 5. She almost betrayed her socialist grandfather for his privately uttered anti-Hitler remarks when she was 9. She prowled the bombed out ruins of the Eagles Nest in early May of 1945 when she was ll. Her anecdotes and insights into the nightmare that was Hitler's Germany are doubly moving. They are fascinating in themselves. But additionally, they sparkle with the innocence of a child's feelings and perceptions, later enriched with the rueful reflections of the adult whom the child became. This is a wonderful tale, and a unique and powerful addition to any understanding of Germany under the Nazis. Can't recommend it more highly. - Rich Thomas

On Hitler's Mountain is a beautifully-written, thought-provoking memoir of Nazi Germany from the perspective of a young blond German girl. Irmgard Hunt describes the everyday life of her childhood in a remarkably frank style. She resists any temptation to justify or editorialize her recounts of her joining the Nazi youth group or her parents support for Hitler. Her depictions of war-time poverty and the pressures from teachers and neighbors to conform don't seek to justify the behavior of her family and neighbors. Rather, they illuminate how one can be lured into thinking or acting in ways that are in retrospect so monstrously wrong.

Like me, you may well finish this book in just three evenings and not stop to wonder how you would have behaved, either as a child or an adult, in Nazi Germany.

To all that's been written about an astonishing period of human history, this is a unique addition. Ms. Hunt's memoir is so simply put, so without "drama," so beautifully written that the reader will see something not seen before about the nazi experience. We see how much can be missed and misinterpreted even when one is living in the middle of it. Being bounced on Hitler's knee must have been a very heady event for a little girl. Especially since all the people in her "neighborhood" thought Hitler was a good guy who would save Germany. This is a truly amazing and tender recounting of a young girl's life living on Hitler's mountain. What she saw and how it informs her adult life. Read it. You won't be sorry. Cynthia Burke

I have read a number of holocaust survival books. This is the first world war II book I have read from the point of view of a German. Irmgard and her family lived on the mountain of Berchtesgarden, the same mountain which Hitler built his alpine retreat. Her family, like most Germans, joined the Nazi party amidst Hitler's promises of economic stability and prosperity. During the war they experienced food and heating shortages, but managed to survive in their peaceful little town. Although they heard rumors of Jewish transport trains, they knew nothing of the horrors committed at the concentration camps. As one of the last areas to be conquered by the Allies, Berchtesgarden was spared most of the destruction of other German cities.

Although this was an interesting book taken from a unique point of view, it was slow at times. I found it hard to sympathize with their struggles and hardships, not because they were German, but because of the author's writing style.

Excellent story of WW2 from the perspective of an ordinary little girl. I loved this story because it was a whole new look at this era of world history, a view not often captured. A must read for any enthusiast of the era.

Irmgard Hunt's book is a thoroughly engrossing story of a childhood in extreme circumstances. Equally enthralling is her description of how evil crept so easily into German society. Her parents voted for Hitler in 1933 because they were desperate for stability and prosperity. Their middle class respectability kept them from questioning authority or the authoritarian tactics of the Nazi regime.

Her description of the hardships and ravages of the war from a child's point of view makes for a fascinating narrative. Someone once said of U.S. Grant's memoirs that it's the only book about the Civil War that you keep reading because you want to find out how the war turned out. The same can be said of Hunt's book.

This proves to be an interesting and somewhat insightful look from the perception of child. Irmgard Hunt spent her first 11 years of her life living in Berchtesgaden, under the shadow of Hitler's mountain retreat. She even had a honor of being on Hitler's lap and her parents must have been die-hard Nazis themselves to be allowed to live in that Bavarian village so close to their Fuhrer's own mountain home.

Hunt's recollection proves to be informative on how life was for people who lived in that village where Nazism was so strong. Many of her stories actually make great deal of sense to anyone familiar with the Third Reich and it made whole lot of sense to me especially since, the author was living in Berchtesgaden.

However, I do wondered how much of the book reflects reality. After all, she was very young when all this took place, most normal people do have a hard time remembering what they did, felt or thought when they were eight, nine or ten years old. The author may remembered very few details but I doubt if she could remembered all of it without being compromised by passing years of faded memories.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story of an ordinary German girl growing up in one of the most nazified villages in Germany. But I would also caution these readers that you are relying on a memory of that child who is now a grown woman and asked yourself how much of your childhood you remembered with such details.