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Into enemy arms: The Remarkable True Story of a German Girl's Struggle Against Nazism, and Her Daring Escape With the Allied Airman She Loved
Ditha Bruncel’s detailed memory of living in Germany during the Second World War provides a rare, first-hand insight into the day-to-day struggle against Nazi oppression, when even small acts of defiance or resistance carried great personal risk.
In 1945 Ditha was living with her parents in the small town of Lossen, in Upper Silesia. Close Jewish friends had vanished, swastikas hung from every building, and neighbors were disappearing in the middle of the night. At the same time more than one thousand, five hundred British and Commonwealth airmen were being marched out of Stalag Luft VII, a POW camp in Upper Silesia. Twenty three of these prisoners managed to escape from the marching column and by chance hobbled into Lossen. One amongst them, Warrant Officer Gordon Slowey, was the man Ditha was destined to meet and fall in love with.
This book tells the extraordinary story of Ditha and the escaped POWs she helped to save. Together they embarked on a dangerous and daring flight out of Germany. As they faced exhaustion, hunger, extreme cold and the constant risk of discovery, Ditha and Gordon’s love for one another intensified, and so did their determination to survive and escape together.
In 1945 Ditha was living with her parents in the small town of Lossen, in Upper Silesia. Close Jewish friends had vanished, swastikas hung from every building, and neighbors were disappearing in the middle of the night. At the same time more than one thousand, five hundred British and Commonwealth airmen were being marched out of Stalag Luft VII, a POW camp in Upper Silesia. Twenty three of these prisoners managed to escape from the marching column and by chance hobbled into Lossen. One amongst them, Warrant Officer Gordon Slowey, was the man Ditha was destined to meet and fall in love with.
This book tells the extraordinary story of Ditha and the escaped POWs she helped to save. Together they embarked on a dangerous and daring flight out of Germany. As they faced exhaustion, hunger, extreme cold and the constant risk of discovery, Ditha and Gordon’s love for one another intensified, and so did their determination to survive and escape together.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 30, 2006
75 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Michael Hingston
2 books1 followerMichael Hingston tells true stories about seemingly ordinary people forced by circumstances into undertaking extraordinary feats. His book, Into Enemy Arms, published by Grub Street in 2006, recalls a German teenage girl’s struggle against Nazism and how she helped to hide and save a group of Allied Prisoners of War and then accompany them on their dangerous flight out of Germany. One amongst them was his uncle, the man she was destined to fall in love with and marry.
In Renegade Hero, published by Pen & Sword in 2011, Michael recounts the six-year secret life and exploits of a Cold War RAF helicopter ace who faked his death by drowning in order to join a clandestine CIA air force in the former Belgian Congo and then go on to run a UN-sponsored mercy mission during the Nigerian civil war. Michael covered the pilot’s court martial for desertion when he was working as a journalist in the early seventies.
Michael is currently working on what he hopes will be his next book - a maritime story which vividly resurrects the long-forgotten heroism of a steamer captain whose bravery made him the toast of the nation.
A self-proclaimed ‘orphan of the Empire’, Michael was born in British East Africa and spent his childhood in the Kenyan highlands and then in the coastal town of Mombasa. After attending the naval college, HMS Conway, on Anglesey from the age of thirteen, he became an officer cadet in the Merchant Navy before leaving the sea to become a journalist and then public relations consultant. Seven years after founding his own public relations company in London, he took it public and then sold out in order to fulfil a lifelong dream to sail round the world. This he did on his forty-four-foot ketch with his wife, Julia – a circumnavigation of three years during which they had to contend with pirates off Colombia and in the Red Sea.
Since retiring, Michael has lived in the Caribbean and is now settled in south-west France.
In Renegade Hero, published by Pen & Sword in 2011, Michael recounts the six-year secret life and exploits of a Cold War RAF helicopter ace who faked his death by drowning in order to join a clandestine CIA air force in the former Belgian Congo and then go on to run a UN-sponsored mercy mission during the Nigerian civil war. Michael covered the pilot’s court martial for desertion when he was working as a journalist in the early seventies.
Michael is currently working on what he hopes will be his next book - a maritime story which vividly resurrects the long-forgotten heroism of a steamer captain whose bravery made him the toast of the nation.
A self-proclaimed ‘orphan of the Empire’, Michael was born in British East Africa and spent his childhood in the Kenyan highlands and then in the coastal town of Mombasa. After attending the naval college, HMS Conway, on Anglesey from the age of thirteen, he became an officer cadet in the Merchant Navy before leaving the sea to become a journalist and then public relations consultant. Seven years after founding his own public relations company in London, he took it public and then sold out in order to fulfil a lifelong dream to sail round the world. This he did on his forty-four-foot ketch with his wife, Julia – a circumnavigation of three years during which they had to contend with pirates off Colombia and in the Red Sea.
Since retiring, Michael has lived in the Caribbean and is now settled in south-west France.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 19, 2012
This true story of compassion, fortitude and bravery in the face of both the Nazi and Bolshevik regimes is well worth the time in order to extend one's understanding of WWII.
Worth quoting: "Millions of Germans who survived the war in Germany's eastern territories of Silesia, East and West Prussia, Pomerania and the Sudentanland were forcibly evicted when boundaries were redrawn in its aftermath, provoking the Roman Catholic Bishops of West Germany to issue a proclamation on 30 January 1946 declaring: 'The world remains silent on the subject of this terrible tragedy, and it is as if an Iron Curtain has been let down to conceal this part of Europe.'" Turns out Winston Churchill borrowed this reference five weeks later for his speech in Fulton, Missouri.
Worth quoting: "Millions of Germans who survived the war in Germany's eastern territories of Silesia, East and West Prussia, Pomerania and the Sudentanland were forcibly evicted when boundaries were redrawn in its aftermath, provoking the Roman Catholic Bishops of West Germany to issue a proclamation on 30 January 1946 declaring: 'The world remains silent on the subject of this terrible tragedy, and it is as if an Iron Curtain has been let down to conceal this part of Europe.'" Turns out Winston Churchill borrowed this reference five weeks later for his speech in Fulton, Missouri.
May 8, 2016
Not the best written book in the world, but these family books seldom are.
If it were fiction it'd be a bit .... blah.
But as an actual, the recolections of war and colapse, and glimpses into small history make for an interesting read.
Those into their WWII might find some interest in the Soviet offensive, and German attitudes to it.
If it were fiction it'd be a bit .... blah.
But as an actual, the recolections of war and colapse, and glimpses into small history make for an interesting read.
Those into their WWII might find some interest in the Soviet offensive, and German attitudes to it.
February 12, 2019
Living as a German girl among the Nazi rule
The book follows the life of a young German girl, Ditha, through her school years, the beginning of the war, meeting the English POWs and helping to hide them during the war to her escape during the Russian occupation to England and her marriage to the soldier. It is a good story and has a lot of historical content.
The book follows the life of a young German girl, Ditha, through her school years, the beginning of the war, meeting the English POWs and helping to hide them during the war to her escape during the Russian occupation to England and her marriage to the soldier. It is a good story and has a lot of historical content.
October 4, 2008
My boss's husband wrote this book, and in spite of the fact that he is a pompous twat, it was pretty good! Compelling story, easy to read, and would make a good movie. For the history channel at least. :)
January 6, 2025
fascinating account.
A gripping account, so many aspects of World War III, which I had not known about. – What it was like to have a family opposed to the Nazis in the middle of Germany, life in the prison camps for the RAF palette, the Russians storming through into Germany,long trek, and then voyage to England. And the courage of this young woman and her good heart that saved the man she loved in many others.
A gripping account, so many aspects of World War III, which I had not known about. – What it was like to have a family opposed to the Nazis in the middle of Germany, life in the prison camps for the RAF palette, the Russians storming through into Germany,long trek, and then voyage to England. And the courage of this young woman and her good heart that saved the man she loved in many others.
March 3, 2020
Wow. A telling memoir detailing life as a non-nazi inside Nazi Germany, survival, love, loyalty and family.
September 18, 2023
A must read for everyone
April 17, 2023
Really interesting to get this detailed biography of the experience of a German family in wartime.
September 26, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. So interesting to read a real-life account of what it was like to live through the war, as a German opposed to Hitler's rule. Sensitively written. An eye-opener.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews