Anita dittman biography

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series about Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman.

For 13 years, Anita Dittman lived in what she could only describe as hell. Hitler’s hell.

In 1927 in Breslau, Germany, Dittman was born to an Aryan father and a Jewish mother. She said she was about 5 1/2 years old when Adolf Hitler came into power in 1933, and brought along with him his Nazi regime.

According to Dittman, Hitler referred to people of Jewish heritage as germs.

“Hitler had a grandiose idea,” she said. “He was going to make Germany into a master race — he called them the Aryans — and he would purify the people, the German race, so that there would be no interference, and all the undesirables were to be annihilated. Among all the undesirables, at the top of the list, was the Jewish people.”

Soon after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, life as Dittman knew it began to unravel.

A family torn apart

Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, Dittman and her mother, Hilde, were woken up in the middle of the night by Dittman’s father, Fritz.

“My father told us to leave one night,” she said. “Told us to pack up and leave.”

Dittman said her father favored her older sister, Hella, and had her stay with

As a teenager during World War II, Anita Rowden narrowly escaped a Nazi work camp, traversed several European countries on foot and finally managed to reunite with her mother, who had just been liberated from a concentration camp. She credited her Christian faith with giving her the strength to continue.
To her family, however, Rowden was simply a caring mother and grandmother who occasionally happened to share her unbelievable story.
"She was just my Nana," said granddaughter Gina Smith of Montrose. "A wonderful, loving, attentive grandma."
Rowden, 93, previously of Ham Lake, died Oct. 13 of natural causes at Comfort Residence in Blaine.
She was born Anita Dittman in Breslau, Germany, in 1927 to a Christian father and a Jewish mother. Her childhood was shaken when her parents split up, forcing her mother, Hilde, to move her and her sister Hella to a small apartment.
According to her daughter, Jeanette Lynch of Apple Valley, Rowden attended a Lutheran elementary school, where her faith took root, and began attending church after the family met a pastor who protected local Jews. The next years brought a move to the ghetto and the start of the war.
While her sister received a visa and moved to England, Rowden had to quit school and work in a factory. With the borders closed, Rowden and her mother "were basically trapped," Lynch said.
The Gestapo moved Hilde to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, in 1944, and Rowden was sent to Barthold, a work camp for people who were part Jewish. After several months there, she and some other women escaped when the guards weren't looking, bribing passersby in a carriage with money and cigarettes for a ride.
After walking miles in wooden shoes, Rowden developed a blister that became infected. The infection traveled up her leg and put her in the hospital. After accidentally revealing her Jewish background while under anesthesia, her nurse began withholding treatment and tried

Be merciful unto me,
O God, be merciful unto me:
for my soul trusteth in thee:
yea, in the shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge
until these calamities be overpast.
PSALM 57:1

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18

ANITA DITTMAN

Anita Dittman, a Jewish believer since the age of seven, speaks to many churches and groups about her experiences during World War II in Germany. She resides in Minnesota.

Since my arrival in America in 1946, it has been my dream
and prayer to share with others the glorious miracles the Lord performed during my twelve and a half years of persecution under the Nazi regime. However, in the Lord’s timing, the book did not take shape until sometime in the winter of 1977, after I had reaffirmed my faith in Jesus Christ and renewed my total commitment to Him during one of Billy Graham’s Crusades on TV.

I dedicate this book to the glory of God and with deepest gratitude in memory of my pastor and beloved friend the late Bishop Ernst Hornig of Germany, who through his perfect Christlike example first led me into a living relationship with my Savior when I was twelve.

My sincere appreciation also goes to my dear friend Dr. H. Allan Talley of Hope Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis whose care and concern for me have been a constant source of comfort and encouragement. He in turn introduced me to the talented young writer of this book Jan Markell. Her friendship and her spiritual depth have had a powerful impact upon my life. May the testimonies on these pages awaken each reader to the full realization that Christ is alive today and that His miracles, love, and forgiveness are unlimited.

JAN MARKELL

Jan Markell has authored nine other books. She is the Director of Olive Tree Ministries, an informative, cutting- edge news ministry that includes her relevant syndicated radio talk show, Understanding the Times, now on 551 radio stations across America.

This book is dedicated to my parents, Ben and Helga Markell.

My father’s Jewish heritage gave me a passion to understand the truth of all things Jewish including the Holocaust. He died a believer in 2001. My mother prayed me through many serious circumstances in life including major illness. She was a