TITLE: Surviving Hitler

AUTHOR: O. Hakan Palm

Page Count: 240 

 RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2014

Book Description: 
Gustav Palm kept his secret for more than forty years. He’d been a young man when Hitler invaded his native Norway. After being forced to guard a Nazi prison camp, however, Gustav took his only option for escape: he volunteered for the Waffen-SS to fight at the front.

 Agnes Erdös grew up in privilege and prosperity as a child in Hungary. She and her parents were practicing Roman Catholics, but they were ethnic Jews, and after the Nazis invaded her country, Agnes and her parents were sent to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

 Miraculously, both Agnes and Gustav survived. And after the war, they found each other. Told in their own words, Surviving Hitler is the story of two indomitable spirits who built on their life-altering experiences to overcome the past, help each other heal, and embrace a common faith in God that led them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Review:

I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.

Surviving Hitler is not what I expected based on the description but it was still a book I’m glad I read. It’s about two people who fall in love and marry, but that happens near the end of the book. It is more about their journey before they met.

We have all heard of the atrocities performed by the Nazis during World War II but to read a first hand account by two people who actually went through it, to imagine both what they experienced and what they witnessed is heartbreaking. I also realize that no matter how many photos we see or stories we read we will never come close to understanding what Gustav and Agnes went through.

Both Agnes and Gustav are amazing people but it would take strong, amazing people to survive Hitler. I had no idea that so many people were forced to serve against their will like Gustav was. That makes a lot more sense, though, than so many people blindly following Hitler’s crazy orders.

I definitely recommend Surviving Hitler for everyone, even for those who don’t normally read nonfiction.