Elisabeth, or, The Hitler Girl: A novel of German youth

by Maria Leitner, Gabriele Popp (translator)

Maria Leitner (1892-1942) was first and foremost a journalist, specialising in underground reportage. She used research gathered on travels through Nazi Germany as the background for her fictional account of Elisabeth, ein Hitlermädchen. The novel was originally published in 1937 and serialised in the Pariser Tageszeitung. Only recently rediscovered and republished in its original German, the book will now be published in English for the first time. It tells the story of a girl’s journey from being an ardent follower of Hitler, who believes in his promises of a new dawn for German youth, to becoming a critical observer of the country's preparations for war.
We first meet Elisabeth at a Nazi rally on the 1. May, where she falls in love with a young SA man called Erwin. But his bourgeois family want nothing to do with a working-class girl from the poorer parts of Berlin. As she falls pregnant, not even their shared belief in the ideology of German motherhood prevents Erwin from asking for an abortion. It causes the first rift in their relationship and the first hints of doubt creep into Elisabeth’s faith in National Socialism. And then she and her colleagues, all salesgirls in the shoe department of a great (formerly Jewish-owned) department store are sent to a work camp…

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2025