On Hitlers Mountain, Irmgard A. Hunt
On Hitlers Mountain, Irmgard A. Hunt
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On Hitler's Mountain
Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood

Author: Irmgard A. Hunt

Narrator: Christa Lewis

Unabridged: 8 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/28/2017

Synopsis

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 eleven-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.

About Irmgard A. Hunt

Irmgard A. Hunt has been an executive at a number of environmental organizations, including the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe, a project of the German Marshall Fund. After years as a consultant to several international not-for-profit organizations, she retired and began to write her memoirs. She holds a BA from Columbia University (which she earned at age fifty-two) and an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She lives in Washington, D.C., and has two children and two grandchildren.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Pam on March 02, 2024

The author was born in Upper Bavaria in 1934 to parents who voted for Hitler when he ran for Chancellor. Her father dropped his membership in the party but was killed in France early in the war. Her mother remained a Nazi supporter and firm nationalist. Early in the author’s life they moved to Berch......more

Goodreads review by Bharath on September 23, 2016

The book is an easy and natural read. It provides an honest view of one of the most painful periods in history. Irmgard does not over-analyse in the book on how the Nazi movement gained popular support, rather allowing the reader to form their opinions based on the events she describes. As I read th......more

Goodreads review by Kavita on May 07, 2017

Irmgard Hunt lived right up on the mountains in Berchtesgaden and lived through the Nazi years as Hitler's neighbour. However, in spite of this (or perhaps because of it?), she was kept safe and away from most of the trouble that the Nazis and the war were causing. Born one year after Hitler came to......more

Goodreads review by Erik on January 30, 2022

I rarely award five stars. Four indicates what I consider an objectively excellent product, five one that's both objectively and subjectively impressive. My mother grew up in Oslo under Nazi occupation while my dad, her American cousin, fought against them. Irmgard Hunt also grew up under the Nazis,......more

Goodreads review by Zach on June 27, 2008

This is a well-written memoir of a Nazi childhood, the fall of Germany during WWII, and the aftermath. Rather than coming off like a big act of catharsis, this book seems more like an urgent warning to the reader about the dangers of blind patriotism, not questioning authority and internalizing gove......more

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