Resistance Heroines in Nazi & Russian Occupied Austria: Anschluss and After Hardcover is written
by Tim Heath , Virginia Wells , and Herti Bryan. This is the story of Herti Bryan who, as a young child, witnessed the nightmare of Hitler. I have not heard of Herti Bryan prior to this book. The authors give us a picture of life in occupied Austria. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book - all thoughts are my own.

This book could have used a different title and some more developmental editing to break up the testimonies into something a little more readable, but the three women's stories are inspiring and offer a different perspective of WWII. I was glad to have a chance to read about it.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was such a fascinating and informative read! Various women share their experince of the Nazi invasion into Austria when they were children. I found this to be an especially emotional read since my great grandfather was born in Graz, Austria. He immigrated to America a little before WWI, but his daughter, my grandmother, was born around the time that these women were and would have been right there (one woman's experience shared actually was in Graz!) With my grandmother's Jewish heritage though, her experience likely would have been more tragic. The women who share their experiences did not have Jewish heritage, but were still heavily affected by these events. They were forced to join the children Nazi groups, but showed resistance to this ideology they did not believe in, in meaningful ways as they grew older. In addition to the experiences shared, a lot of background information is shared about what was occurring generally, starting with the anschluss to the end of the war and Russian occupation. Despite having studied the period previously, I was unaware of the devastation that came with Russian occupation and how that time was viewed as worse than when the Nazis were in charge. The events were horrific, animalistic, and terribly tragic. Overall, this is such a moving and engaging book. Thank you to the authors for sharing their experiences of heartache and tragedy during their youth to help enlighten more recent generations on the experiences that were had at the time.

It is commonly thought that the German-speaking peoples did not resist the Nazis at all, that there was never any partisan movement. Of course, this is not the case, as anyone who takes the trouble to scratch beneath the surface knows, even though Nazism's peculiar ability was to infiltrate society so completely that the expression of any dissent was particularly difficult. The testimonies brought in this book, however, which are female testimonies, show that the capacity to resist is innate, I would say genetically encoded in certain people, who are able to see injustice of whatever kind and to overcome it effectively.
Having said that, from a literary point of view the book has no merit, because the putting on page of the collected testimonies is clearly amateurish, which in some places makes for heavy reading.

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Publish Date: March 31, 2021

We all know of the atrocities that occurred during WWII, this book tells of the determination and gumption of three young girls in Austria. The three women recall their poignant stories and near escapes in this truly inspiring book. I took a while to read this because the subject matter is heavy at times. I would recommend to anyone who loves history or kick ass empowering stories.

#hildeschubert #millykeller #hertibryan #resistanceheroines

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was well researched and very interesting. I was completely invested in the lives of these women.
This book tells Herti Bryans story and those of Milly Keller and Hilde Schubert who describe their experiences during the war, Incredible first hand accounts of their thoughts, feels and a reflection on their courage and bravery.
Thank you for the chance to read this.

I loved that the focus of this was on the female perspective of wartime life and resistance in occupied Austria. It’s so great when I get to read a war book focus on female activism during the war. It provided a variety of perspectives of dissent during the war. Written from the memoirs of people who lived through WWII in Austria. This book gives a painful yet ultimately hopeful insight into Austria during WWII and the atrocities that they lived through , living through German occupation and then to suffer the things the Russians put them through, it’s a hard read, but a necessary one. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, for education, for remembering and to gain more insight into how much women did in the war, so hidden for so long.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I greatly enjoyed the book, it was well researched and interesting. I found myself almost invested in finding out what had happened with the women featured in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

This is the harrowing and true story of Herti Bryan, of growing up during Hitler’s regime. Her views and experiences from a young child on into her teen years, how she grew to fight back and resist. This is unlike other stories I have read and parts of it are so horrifying and heartbreaking, it was hard to read. For Herti to make it through to the other side and be able to stand strong and live a vibrant life shows such strength. Thank you to Herti and the other women in this book, Milly Keller and Hilde Schubert for sharing their stories, we need more stories like this. May we never forget.

We have been bombarded with stories of people suffering atrocities set upon them by Hitlers Regime. However, this book is nothing like what has been written down before. The perspective from a childs standpoint as she grew into her teenage years and the suffering that she endured in her home country of Austria that Hitler claimed was his as well. He still allowed his men to kill the Austrian citizens and displace them from there homes.

Two other girls also share their stories, Milly Keller and Hilde Schubert. The things they survived supposedly under the saviors of the Russians is disgusting and almost will cause you to stop reading. I had tears trail down my face.

I’m so glad I read this book because my grandmother was of Austrian descent, but always said she was from Hungary. While reading I seen the name “Krause “ come up and realized that those names were relevant to my family tree! It was destined for me to get this book! Now I understand why my grandmother wouldn’t talk of her life here. She was 21 when she came to the United States and I wished I had more time with her before she passed.

Thank you for telling your stories because we need them told so that these same things are never forgotten and they do not happen again to our future generations! That they REMEMBER!

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

Herti Bryan was a young child who lived through the totalitarian nightmare of Hitler's invasion and annexation of Austria. She chose to courageously work to frustrate the occupying Nazis. This book tells her story and the stories of Milly Keller and Hilde Schubert who shared Herti's contempt for the Nazi occupiers.
The three girls vividly describe their different experiences during the war and their terror under the post-war liberation by the Russian army. I appreciated the firsthand accounts of the girls' courage, bravery and inner thoughts.
The alternating storylines were confusing. I also thought the book was exclusively about Herti and wasn't sure why Milly and Hilde were mentioned.
Overall, this book tells an important story, but it could use a bit of editing.

Authors Tim Heath (https://www.timheathbooks.com), Virginia Wells, and Herti Bryan will publish the book “Resistance Heroines in Nazi and Russian Occupied Austria” on May 31, 2021. Mr. Heath has published four WWII history books.

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains a few mature situations. The story is set in wartime and postwar Austria. The book primarily follows the life of Herti Juliana Bryan.

Herti was born Herti Krouse on February 21 1929 in Austria. By the time the Germans occupied her country, she was nine years old. Rather than seen as conquerors, the Austrians welcomed the Germans into their country. After the Nazis arrived, Herti noticed that a few schoolmates and neighbors began to disappear. Taken by the Gestapo.

She stood up as best she could against the Nazis. Her father died of natural causes in January 1940. She, her mother, and siblings struggled to survive as the war came closer and closer to their home. The Russians advanced into Austria in 1945. Herti, at 16, left home and headed on her own towards the British lines. She became an interpreter for the British and later moved to the UK.

The book does not tell of only Herti. The stories of other young Austrian girls are also included. How they defied the Germans. How they scavenged in the bombed ruins of Austria for food. Their treatment by both the German and Russian soldiers.

I enjoyed the 6+ hours I spent reading this 216-page WWII history. I read and reviewed the book Hitler's Housewives: German Women on the Home Front by Tim Heath about this time last year. I found it and this book very interesting. Both gave a different outlook on the war. So many books about women in WWII focus on those that served the Allies with the SOE or at Bletchley Park as Wrens. I like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4 out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

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While another WW2 book, this is an interesting glimpse into an unknown part of confronting the Nazi, with success

One of my favorite genres, WW2 and the resistance, the brave people who saw what was happening was wrong and tried their hardest to protect those vulnerable to the growing anti-semitism rhetoric of mad men. I praise these men, women, and yes children for being more brave than I believe I could have been had I lived then. The best I can do to honor these heroes is to make sure their stories remain and future generations are taught what happened but shouldn’t have.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

I devoured this book in one day. Written from the memoirs of people who lived through WW2 in Austria it gives a painful yet ultimately hopeful insight into what life was like for millions of people. The atrocities that they lived through and how they rebuilt their lives after the war will stay with me for a long time. To live through German occupation then suffer what they did when the Red Army arrived to "liberate" them broke my heart. But what shone through most was the determination to help those who were trying them. To risk their lives to save others is truly inspiring. I have no idea how they moved on from this most awful of times to lead happy,normal post war lives. This book should be read by everyone.

I've read a lot about World War 2 and theres not many good books out there about the women who fought, whether it was covertly or not. I really liked this.

I know very little about the Nazi occupation of Austria, and even less about the Russian occupation of Austria, so this was a really interesting book to read as an introduction. It gives you a tour of the political basics so as to give you a background on the three girls' experiences, and getting the two at once as an introduction to this period of Austrian history was perhaps a more rounded experience than just one or the other, and I found all of it really interesting.

I would say that the title is a bit misleading. The focus of the book is very much on the lived experiences of these three girls during the two occupations, and while resistance activities certainly happen, they're a much smaller part of the book than I was expecting given the title and description. It's a shame, because what the book actually is is great, and first hand accounts of life under those circumstances are super important. There was plenty of opportunity within the girls' stories to focus more on the resistance aspects if the authors had wanted the book to be about that specifically, but it never happened.

Aside from that strange dissonance, this is a good book. The accounts of what life was like under the two occupations are interesting and, at times, compelling. It's a pretty easy read, except for the poor formatting of the ebook, and for the most part is told at a distance from the events, so is not as harrowing as some books about this era are. The exception is the accounts of multiple rapes perpetrated by the Russian occupiers, probably because the three girls who narrate the events of this book were much closer to them and their victims than they were to the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. I think this was a good, basic introduction to this era of Austrian history, though, of course, I say that as someone who knows very little of Austrian history aside from this book! It does make me want to read more, though, and that's always a good thing for a book that serves as an introduction or a way in to something.