Review
"A marvelous story that needs to be told" --
Baltimore Sun, 1985"It is a complicated, lingering history that Heck carries with him." --
Boston Globe March 29, 1985"Necessary for a full understanding of World War II" --
Detroit Free Press 1985"This
is savagely good yarn. As good in many respects as Erich Maria
Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT as a social history of common
people in uncommon times." --
Los Angeles Times March 7, 1985
The book,and its sequel, "The Burden of Hitler's Legay," is a
unique inside view into the methods of youth indoctrination. The author
is the only former high-ranking Hitler Youth leader who writes and
speaks openly about his adolescent fascination with Adolf Hitler.
The
book is the basis for the 1991 HBO documentary "Heil Hitler:
Confessions of a Hitler Youth." Alfons Heck is the narrator and subject
of the film, for which he won an "Emmy" and a "Peabody," as well as
other awards.
The BBC also used the book in 1988 as source
material for its documentary "The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler," in
which the author is featured. That film is frequently aired on A&E's
"Biograph" series, as well as on the "History Channel."
Heck is
also the co-author of the award-winning young adult book "Parallel
Journeys," the account of his life as described in "A Child of Hitler,"
but in contrast to that of his former lecture partner, Helen Waterford, a
Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. The late Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck
gave joint lectures to hundreds of schools across the United States for
nearly ten years. Heck still continues to give lectures at schools and
universities. In 1999, he gave the keynote speech during the Holocaust
Awareness Week at the University of Colorado at Boulder, based on his
book.
As a student of the Second World War I am very critical when it comes to
the books I read over the subject and their sources. Heck's account is
nothing short but a must read on the subject. I believe this work is as
important as "The Diary of Anne Frank". Most books over this period
usually concern themselves with portraying the Germans as monsters and
sadists but Heck really gives us an inside depth into the Nazi
mentality, especially the Hitlerjugend. In the end he makes the
assertion that most regular Germans were the other victims of Hitler
besides the Jews and as you read the book you begin to see on what he
grounds he bases this claim. The book is a fast read, easy to follow,
rich in detail, and very touching. As my German title suggests, "one
must read this book"!
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