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

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 power, Irmgard herself rarely encountered daily hassles until the very end of the war when they faced intense bombing. In fact, she was shocked when they took a trip to her grandparents' and saw the city bombed out. That's how sheltered she was.

Most of the book is restructured from her mother's diary and from talking to other people in her life who were older and remembered more. There is actually very little in the book in terms of pretty much anything to do with the war or the Nazis, especially in the first three parts of the book. Her parents supported Hitler because they believed he would bring stability, but they were not fanatic Nazis - they did not denounce anyone, they did not indoctrinate their children forcefully, they did not hate the Jews. All they did was look the other way and hope for stability after the chaos of the 1920s - certainly a contributing factor to the Nazi hold but not very interesting or useful in terms of a book.

The author goes into far too much detail about the mountains and its beauty and daily life, her chores, her family, her neighbours, etc. There are a couple of places where it does get interesting and emotional, such as when sending off her father to war where he dies. There is another incident where she almost denounces her anti-Nazi maternal grandfather. But apart from a few rare instances like these, the book mostly just talks about random daily life stuff.

The last one fourth of the book is life immediately after the war, which I found rather interesting. During this time, the author was old enough to actually put across her memories of the time in detail and flesh out the nuances. But there was not much about overcoming a 'Nazi childhood' because really, other than joining Hitler Youth and playing games, she did not have much of a Nazi childhood at all! The best part is how she and her mother toured Eagle's Nest and how she scavenged the supplies of the prominent Nazis right after the war.

I don't think this is the best book about a Nazi family. Her mother, if she had written a book, would have been interesting because she had the actual experiences and knowledge of what being a Nazi meant and why she would overlook certain things that were taking place around her. But she didn't and the daughter's account is just too superficial. I also found the tone a bit preachy about how Germans must all carry a collective guilt, even those who stood up against the Nazis or merely paid lip service in order to avoid intense persecution. That's just ridiculous. Was she expecting people to risk going to concentration camp so little Irmgard could think well of them? The pro-America yammering in the epilogue was very annoying to me.

If you know nothing about this time at all, then this book is good. Otherwise, I am sure there are better memoirs with more direct information.