Maria Anne Hirschmann

Maria Anne Hirschmann (born 1926) is a Czechoslovak-American author and public speaker on Christian subjects.

Hirschmann was caught in the events of World War II when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia and the local Sudeten German population came under the influence of Nazism. During this time, she was sent to Prague and educated to be a local leader of the Nazi Youth. When the Soviets came, she was imprisoned by Russian and Czech communists in a labor camp. Eventually, she managed to escape to American-occupied Germany. In 1955 she emigrated to America as a teacher and wrote a book about her life, originally published as ''I Changed Gods'', and more popularly published later as ''Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika'' in 1973. The book has sold more than 400,000 copies; later editions are titled ''Hansi: The Girl Who Left the Swastika''. It was also published as a comic book by Spire Christian Comics.

Hirschmann founded Hansi Ministries in 1974. Provided by Wikipedia