A powerful testimony to God’s power against evil

Six million people. That’s the hocking, unfathomable number of Jews killed under Nazi rule. But the Holocaust is not confined to history. Half a century later, the impact of this evil is still being felt. What about those who lost loved ones in the ‘final solution’? What have the advancing years brought them? How have they handled the inevitable hatred and anguish?
Forgiving Hitler is the true story of one such person, Kathy Diosy. It is intense and personal, showing that even the darkest evil is not insurmountable. A greater power is at work in the world.

Born in Hungary in 1920, Kathy Diosy grew up amid the cancerous spread of fascism, which eventually led to WWII. The book begins with her first contact with Nazism at her Vienna boarding school, right through to her escape from postwar Hungary as a refugee to Australia.
While Forgiving Hitler recounts Kathy’s physical fight for survival, its main focus is on the emotional and spiritual trajectory of her life. It’s a trajectory that touches almost every emotion imaginable, as she journeys through depths of despair and bitterness, to the joy of finding peace with God.

To Kel Richards’ credit, the story is not presented as a ‘triumph of the human spirit’. In fact, the hatred that threatens to overcome Kathy is key to the narrative. Rather, God is the main protagonist. It is God who saves her – not only forgiving her sins, but saving her from the awful power of resentment and vengefulness that threatened to enslave her.

The book raises important questions about forgiveness. Where does repentance fit? Is it Kathy’s (or anyone else’s) place to forgive Hitler for what he did? Is it ever right to maintain a righteous anger? Readers will be left pondering these big questions.

Forgiving Hitler brings the realities of WWII closer to home. It is an incredible testimony to the power of the gospel, and a moving account of how God has worked in the life of one remarkable woman.