Surviving Hitler, Evading Stalin

One Woman’s Remarkable Escape from Nazi Germany

By: Mildred Schindler Janzen, Sherye S Green

Narrated by: Carol Irvine

The peaceful farm life of a teenage girl in Germany is abruptly upended when WWII comes knocking at her family’s door. One month before her 16th birthday, Mildred “Mickchen” Schindler and her family are captured by Russian soldiers. Having already survived life in Hitler’s Nazi Germany, they now face the terror of a new enemy - Stalin’s Red Army.

Driven from their home, Mildred and her family become refugees along with a sad, slow-moving caravan of other families who have suffered the same fate. Cleverly disguised by her mother, Mildred avoids being taken to a work camp until one morning when authorities arrive unexpectedly. Her father has already been taken by Russian soldiers, and now she is taken from her mother and brother.

Mildred recounts, in meticulous detail, her treacherous journey and the roller coaster of raw emotions she experiences - fear, regret, loneliness, humility, perseverance, and defiance. Mildred’s odyssey of making her way home and finding her family in a war-torn countryside takes many riveting twists and turns. The discovery of a secret, hidden document offers hope for a brighter future.

From harrowing to heartwarming, this memoir provides a unique perspective of a Gentile girl’s road to resilience and her fortitude against all odds to forge a life filled with love and laughter.

Surviving Hitler, Evading Stalin is a remarkable testimony to the strength of the unconquerable human spirit and an endearing account of God’s faithfulness in the midst of faithless circumstances.

©2020 Mildred Schindler Janzen (P)2021 Sunbury Press, Inc.

Highly Recommend

A true treasure - my expectations of this book were more of a historical nature but what I found was a beautiful demonstration of faith in God. Thank you for sharing your story - it is truly inspirational.

Amazing personal memoir

If you want detailed info on Hitler or Stalin, look elsewhere. Those books have been written numerous times. If you want to know what impact their decisions made on one farm family, particularly on one teenage girl living through wartime Germany, and hear about her journey to a rediscovered home, where she chronicled the next seven decades of life, this book is for you! God's protection/provision is a constant theme throughout. An amazing memoir!