On Hitler's Mountain

Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood

By: Irmgard A. Hunt

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

Growing up in the beautiful mountains of Berchtesgaden - just steps from Adolf Hitler's alpine retreat - Irmgard Hunt had a seemingly happy, simple childhood. In her powerful, illuminating, and sometimes frightening memoir, Hunt recounts a youth lived under an evil but persuasive leader. As she grew older, the harsh reality of war - and a few brave adults who opposed the Nazi regime - aroused in her skepticism of National Socialist ideology and the Nazi propaganda she was taught to believe in. In May 1945, an 11-year-old Hunt watched American troops occupy Hitler's mountain retreat, signaling the end of the Nazi dictatorship and World War II. As the Nazi crimes began to be accounted for, many Germans tried to deny the truth of what had occurred; Hunt, in contrast, was determined to know and face the facts of her country's criminal past. On Hitler's Mountain is more than a memoir - it is a portrait of a nation that lost its moral compass. It is a provocative story of a family and a community in a period and location in history that, though it is fast becoming remote to us, has important resonance for our own time.

©2005 Irmgard A. Hunt (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"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." ( Booklist)

Educational

When I let go and forget about how much each word is costing me, I enjoy this book.

Believable

I read another book written by a faculty member at a college where I worked. He was the same age as the main character in this book. His story was not believable because he lived not too far from a concentration camp. But this author is believable because of where her family lived in such isolation and in such protection from the rest of Germany. I am sure there were parts of Germany so rural and difficult to get in or out of that people in those areas may truly not have known or knew very little about the horrors perpetrated on the Jews and the Slavs and others. I liked the frankness in her tone regarding the collective guilt suffered by the German people. May we all be blessed with a non-discriminatory attitude toward all peoples.

Fantastic book

This book teaches so much through reading the exciting account of her experiences through WW2.

very descriptive

The view of the war from not only children but children of the top commanding officers

Amazing read. Highly recommend!

Wonderfully told from a child's perspective, very moving & captivating. This story needs to be heard by all.