About the Book

Growing up in the beautiful mountains of Berchtesgaden, Germany, Irmgard Hunt had a seemingly happy, simple childhood. However, the Nazis were in power and she and her family lived just steps from Adolf Hitler’s alpine retreat. In her fascinating memoir On Hitler’s Mountain, Hunt tells the story of an ordinary family living under the Third Reich.

After the end of World War II, as Nazi crimes began to be accounted for, many Germans wanted to bury the past; Hunt, in contrast, was determined to know and face the facts of her country’s recent history. On Hitler’s Mountain is more than a memoir — it is a portrait of a nation that lost its moral compass. It is also a warning to others to never to reject rational thought in favor of blind nationalism.

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 B.A. from Columbia University (which she earned at age fifty-two) and an M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She lives in Washington, D.C., and has two children and two grandchildren.

“Vital ... Hunt’s is a precautionary reminder of what can happen when an ordinary society chooses a cult of personality over rational thought.” — Library Journal

Critical Praise

“This candid picture of how it felt [to grow up in Germany during the Hitler years] is an enlightening rarity.” — Daily Mail (London)

“A gripping and beautifully written memoir.” — Washingtonian magazine, online edition

“Compelling . . . A chilling insight into the heart of darkness.” — Glasgow Herald

“[A] very good memoir . . . [A] real, universal gain for understanding.” — Daily Telegraph (London)

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780060532185
• ISBN 10: 0060532181
• Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
• On Sale: 01/31/2006
• Trimsize: 5.310 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 0.680 in (d)
• Pages: 304
• List Price: $16.99
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / Europe / Germany
• BISAC2 : HISTORY / Military / World War II
• BISAC3 : HISTORY / World
• BISAC4 : HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century
• BISAC5 : HISTORY / Modern / 21st Century
• BISAC6 : HISTORY / Holocaust
• BISAC7 : RELIGION / History
• BISAC8 : RELIGION / Leadership
• BISAC9 : RELIGION / Faith
• BISAC10 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical