Irmgard Bryant: The Living Proof Of The Nazi Regime

We’ve all heard stories about the Nazis and how they were all horrible, immoral people, but we were never given any proof that this was true. Irmgard Bryant is the living proof of what the Nazi regime was really like. Born in 1930, Irmgard is the oldest of two daughters to a very devout Catholic family. Before she was born, Irmgard’s father, a World War I veteran who had been gassed, prayed for his life to be spared and promised the Holy Mary that his first born son would be a priest. When she was born and discovered to be a girl, her father couldn’t accept the fact that he would not be able to fulfill his promise, so he treated her as a boy, calling her “Strong Jack.” Thus, starting at a very young age, Irmgard’s family took away an important part of her identity.
Irmgard, naturally curious and cunning, asked too many questions both at church and at school …show more content…
“Brought up in a very constricted environment”, Irmgard experienced “an absolute feeling of freedom [in France]. Nobody told [her she] couldn 't think what [she] wanted to think.” She started by working under a contract as a maid, exploited by her employers, and what little salary she did get she “spent…on cultural activities by buying books and going to the library”. Even though she left many of her restrictions behind, Irmgard again felt as though she didn’t fit in perfectly because she was a German servant, the enemy of the French. Regardless of what the French thought of her, “[she] found [her] own independence; [she] found [she] could rely on [herself]; [she] didn 't need to rely on others anymore.” Irmgard started out obediently cleaning the house all day long, but then she got more rebellious and arrogant; she started correcting the French of the native speakers. She decided that maybe she simply needed to move