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Maria Hirschmann

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After escaping from a communist labor camp after World War II, Maria Hirschmann continues her tale of survival as she gets pinned down by Russian machine guns trying to escape Russian territory. (Her Post-War Odyssey, Part 2 of 4) (9:57)

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As a young Czechoslovakian girl in the late 1930s, Maria Hirschmann recounts the sweeping admiration for Adolf Hitler at the time, and the circumstances under which she began training as a Nazi Youth leader. (8:39)

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Maria Hirschmann describes how her Nazi education and expectations were torn to pieces as she finally concluded her voyage from captivity to freedom in 1945. (Her Post-War Odyssey, Part 4 of 4) (7:52)

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Having been trained as a Nazi Youth leader during World War II, Maria Hirschmann describes the first step in her journey of survival after being taken prisoner by anti-Nazi forces following the war's end. (Her Post-War Odyssey, Part 1 of 4) (5:21)

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Maria Hirschmann remembers how head-strong and self-assured the Nazi forces were right up until the end of World War II. (1:10)

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Continuing her tale of survival, Maria Hirschmann describes escaping Russian territory only to find herself surrounded by another enemy. (Her Post-War Odyssey, Part 3 of 4) (8:13)

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Maria Hirschmann, author of several books about her life experiences during World War II, shares her perspective on the war and freedom, and expresses her incredible gratitude to the service members who saved her life. (4:59)

Maria McClough

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Originally from Poland, Maria McClough was born into a rather large family with four siblings of which she was the youngest. Her father was in the Polish Army before the invasion of Germany from the west and Russia from the east. Soon after her family was separated by the Russians, and she was put on cattle wagons with her mother and two of her siblings. At one point on the trip they were stranded on the wagons because of a railroad track bombing and didn't have any food or water for three days. (4:59)

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The Russians used the cattle wagons to transport McClough with her mother and two siblings to Siberia. They were put in barracks along with incredibly malnourished prisoners that were already being kept there. While she was deemed too young to work, her mother was forced to strip bark off of trees, and eventually was worked to death. McClough and her siblings were lucky if they got one meal per day. (5:30)

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While in the concentration camp, Maria McClough and the rest of the prisoners were guarded by soldiers with machine guns and guard dogs. Fortunately, General Wladyslaw Sikorski was able to help free many Polish people from the clutches of these camps, and so she and her siblings were shipped out of Siberia and over to Tehran, Iran. While there, her father found them but wasn't able to bring them back with him. (4:23)