The Electrifying Story of a Soldier and His Family Who Dared to Practice Their Faith in Hitler's Germany

This is a very interesting book and easy to read. It details the Lord's gracious hand of protection and provision to one family, who held to their convictions in the midst of WWII's evil and chaotic turbulence. The only warning I would give readers is to be careful not to use this book as a promotion for the Seventh Day Adventist Church or for legalistic behaviors, such as keeping the sabbath or abstaining from certain foods which you yourself have not been convicted by the Lord to do. (If you question this statement, please read Romans 14). However, my warnings above do not negate the fact that the Lord is honored by the honest sacrifices we give to him and based on the accuracy of this book was honored by this family. I would definitely recommend reading this book because it is an encouraging story that offers people a different perspective of WWII.

I bought this book after reading 'The Heavenly Man' and 'God's Smuggler', hoping to find a similar testimony of God's work amongst Christians following Him no matter what.

The main theme of the book is about keeping the Sabbath all through the war. There was very little mention of Jesus and the incredible work of the Good News in people's lives, which stands in contrast to the above mentioned books.

I also felt a bit uncomfortable about Franz's assistance that he gave to the German war effort, but I don't want to judge too harshly a situation that I've never had to experience. But I felt that it fell short of the stories of Christians who have laid down their lives rather than compromise their beliefs, and as such I found the book interesting, since it is the account of a Christian in WWII Germany, but not inspiring.

As a story about WWII it did not grip me either. I thought 'Because of Romek' was much more absorbing, even though it was so plainly written. I am surprised to see 'A Thousand Shall Fall' with such high reviews, so I guess it must appeal to some. I only finished reading the book on principal and to give it a chance.

Feel free to disagree, this is merely my opinion of the book, but maybe this will help someone else make a more informed choice.

The author remarks in the preface, "I should mention, however, that I have taken certain liberties in the telling of the story, particularly having to do with the precise sequence of events and who may have said what to whom. Also, I have sometimes combined two or more people into one when I felt it necessary for clarification and simplification. Nevertheless, my intention was always to illuminate more brightly the truth."

This preface is foundational. Essentially, the biography is both non-fiction and fiction, true but not true. The front cover proclaims, "The electrifying story of a soldier and his family..." but the preface leaves it wide open as to what parts of the story are true. The author provides no clarification as to which fictitious words, actions, or parties involved might have been of pivotal significance in the telling of this story. What really happened and what didn't?

After reading the preface I felt like I had read a label on a bottle proclaiming "100% Orange Juice" while one of the ingredients is filtered water. To be purposely blunt, reading this book would be like eating wonderful-tasting brownies knowing that one of the ingredients is manure. It's dangerous to receive encouragement from a story that is decisively and selectively untrue. Would it not be like reading a newly published Bible containing the preface, "Liberties were taken in changing sequence of events and who may have said what to whom"? Get real, be real, or don't sell the story as real.

Susi Hasel Mundy writes of her own family experience during the terrible years of Hitter's reign in Germany. She tells in her book A Thousand Shall Fall of her father's reluctance to fight in Hitler's war for empire. As a Seventh-day Adventist her father Franz Hasel wanted nothing to do with Hitler's promises of a new Germany.

Franz Hasel's family life was suddenly turned upside down when he was drafted into Hitler's army. On the very day that Franz leaves in order to report for duty he bluntly informs his young son Kurt that Hitler was an evil man. "Hitler is an evil man," Franz tells him, "Never trust what he says. You must stay true to God and God only!"

Franz then gathers his children and his wife Helene in the family living room and reads Psalm 91 to them: "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night; nor of the arrow that flieth by day; ...a thousand may fall at thy side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but is shall not come nigh thee." The family then sings the hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." These few short moments sets the stage for the theme of the entire book. Indeed a God acted as a "Mighty Fortress" to the Hasel family. And indeed thousands died around them as Hitler's war wore on. Yet at the end God brought the Hasel family back together again.

Hasel relates the story of her own birth during the war. She tells how hours after her birth an air raid forced her mother and three siblings to flee from their house to a bomb shelter. Her mother--having just given birth to child--was forced out of the home on a dark night. The family was forced to flee to a nearby air-raid shelter where they spent the rest of the night.

Franz Hasel was often the brunt of jokes in the Nazi engineer regiment that he was in. They often mocked him for his Christian beliefs and absolute refusal to break his Sabbath. Being a Seventh-day Adventist Franz acknowledge the Lord's Day on Saturday--the same day as the Jewish day of rest. This of course created another problem in Hitler's Germany where any suspicion of being a Jew resulted in distrust and often worse. Franz was belittled by the mean Lieutenant Peter Gutschalk who tried many tactics to humiliate Franz.

This book is ranked in my mind next to Corri Ten Boom's The Hiding Place in its distinctly Christian message. It is also interesting to read a real-life story about a family living in this tumultuous time in Germany. Our society often looks on the German army as the "bad guys",or at least Hollywood does. A Thousand Shall Fall gives its readers a glimpse at Hitler's Germany that is not often seen. It is the story of a fine Christen family and how God preserved them through the struggle of World War II. This book was indeed an adventure story well worth reading!

Can you imagine anyone in Hitler's army surviving with an imitation gun? Susi's father did not believe in killing anyone. Since he found he had a deadly aim, he determined that he would not carry the military issued weapon. No one knew he was weaponless until the very end of World War II when the German soldiers were forced to surrender their weapons by their captors.

All through his experience, Hasel remained true to his convictions. God performed miracle after miracle to preserve him and his family. Out of his entire battalion only three men returned home unscathed, Hasel was one of them.

Helene, Susi's mother faced death more than once. After the American soldiers had taken their village, all the women and children were ordered to go to the bridge. Helene, fearful of what might happen, ordered her oldest boy, Kurt, to hide in the attic so he could tell his father their fate. U.S. tanks closed the bridge on one end while soldiers with their guns aimed at the women and children closed the other side of the bridge. Kurt spent his time in the attic, alternating between praying for deliverence and peeking through a knothole. You will want to read A THOUSAND SHALL FALL to learn the outcome.

This book invites many re-reads each time your faith sags. Truly, God cares for those who put their trust in Him.

Betty L. Sheldon, author of OMNIPIECE

What are your convictions and beliefs, can you keep them no matter how bad things might become? No matter what your convictions, this book tells the story of a family fully committed to serving God during one of the worst holocausts of history and how God protected them. God promises that for each us and I know my faith is strengthen by this story.

"A Thousand Shall Fall" is indeed an inspirational story of a WWII German soldier, Franz Hasel, and his family who maintain their faith and morality as best they can in the most difficult of times. I found the tale, written by Hasel's youngest daughter who was born during the war, to be thoroughly enjoyable, uplifting, heartbreaking and an extremely easy read. The obstacles that Franz had to deal with while serving in Russia and that his wife, Helene, and their children regularly confronted in Germany are dramatic and suspenseful, and their commitment to their beliefs through it all is a powerful testimony to what is good and admirable in humanity.

Their story is written in a direct and even simple manner, but also from a rather sentimental and I'd say romanticized point of view. The instances of the family's certain failings (they are human, after all) and stumbles with their faith, and their reactions to the events surrounding them are very rare and relatively trivial in degree. The book seems to combine the basic truth of their journey with a bit of myth and perhaps even fantasy. For example (and hopefully without giving too much away), while I have no doubt that there were instances where American soldiers committed unsavory acts during the war, I found the chapter where US soldiers place the village women and children in peril of their lives to be improbable at best, and the soldiers' reaction to the resolution of the situation to be too sentimental to be accurate.

As to the Hasel family's faith and their view of their relationship with God, I found them to be very human in their "willingness" to box God into the kind of God that was most relevant to their circumstances and their own views. Their zealous adherence to Sabbath keeping and the avoidance of pork is both admirable and yet questionably dogmatic (as it relates to scripture and the teaching of Christ). It is also revealing of the egocentric point of view we all struggle with that when Helene and the children are on the only train car that is saved from destruction (from Allied bombers) while traveling out of the city she praises God for protecting her and her children. Surely their were people in the other train cars who were also praying for God's protection and yet died in the attack, as well as non-believers and even "bad" people who were saved in the train car along with the Hasel family. This is not to say that the Hasel's were foolhardy or wrong in their beliefs, only that their view of God seemed somewhat limited in scope at times, which is of course a very normal limitation we all share.

This book might make for a fine small group study and topic of discussion.

A gripping story that moves at a steady pace. It is well written and the narrative switches in a synchronised way back and forth, between the wife and young children living in blitzed Frankfurt, and the father who had been drafted into Hitler's army and sent to the front.

Being a 'child of the blitz,' and having been raised on a diet of WW2 stories, I found this one to be different, in that it was about a Christ-centered family who were in the midst of the terror and violence of the war, but who defied the Nazi authorities believing that God would protect them. I stand in admiration of their decision to be faithful to Christ despite the threats and possible consequences. They were faithful to God and He proved His faithfulness to them. The divine interventions in time of crisis, were awesome. Read this book and be inspired never to compromise your faith for fear of men.

The story of one German Adventist family during WWII kept my interest from cover to cover. Their Christian faith manifested itself in several ways: they hid a Jew, and maintained friendly relationships with Jews as long as they knew them; they bore malice towards none and told the truth; and they obeyed several religious rules that caused them to be singled out for persecution. They experienced miracles throughout the story, and they received kindness from friends and acquaintances that allowed them to survive the dangers and deprivations of wartime. Their faith and endurance were inspiring. Aside from the Christian elements of the story, the perspective of WWII by ordinary citizens was new to me. The deprivations of Germans in both the city and the countryside during WWII were depicted realistically. Bravery and endurance were necessary for civilians to survive. For soldiers, it seemed more a matter of luck. The Eastern Front and some of the soldiers' suffering was part of the story. It was clear that some German soldiers were Nazis through and through, while others were conscripted and went along to get along. I felt doubtful about the accuracy of an averted civilian massacre by one American officer. An American war atrocity unfortunately rang true. A POW camp housed German soldiers at the end of the war. Overall, the book was worth reading, but I won't recommend it to friends because of my theological differences and doubts as to its overall accuracy.

This is an absolutely Terrific true story!!
My daughter knows the woman who wrote it! Get ready for what lies ahead in this country! Choose you this day who you will serve but as for me, I will serve the LORD!!

A riveting story of one family's commitment to God, the obedience, and each other. How they were brought though the war alive is a story of faith and courage born of a personal relationship with God. Read it for yourself. Read it to your kids.

Read how a German Christian family put their complete trust in God during World War II. Alternating between the story of how a civilian family experiences the war with an account of a front-line soldier's life, this true story will inspire you to dare to follow God's Word in your personal life. Excellent reading for middle school students and adults. Our 7th & 8th grade students are finding that this makes history really come alive.

This book was filled with intrique and suspense. Reading was a joy. However, I must say that this family seemed to be a bit more captivated by their Adventist teaching than the simple testimony of the grace of God's protection in Jesus Christ. The challenge of maintaining a Christian testimony seemed to get lost in their preoccupation with worshiping on Saturday and staying away from pork. If you can look past the sectarianism you'll enjoy this.

This is a compelling recounting of life during WWII. The Hasel family stays true to their faith in God, and God continually rewards them. They are kept safe and fed, at times, literally by the hand of God.

At the beginning, the author states that she is taking some liberties with characters, etc., the usual things authors do in order to better tell the story. No issue there.

It can't be later than 1941 in the book when Moroccan forces invade and devastate a Black Forest village that the family has left just the day before. Now there were in fact Moroccan and Algerian forces attached to the French forces, but the invasion of Germany proper began end of 1944/beginning of 1945. It would have been that much later that Moroccans attacked anything in Germany. In WWII, the entire war changed in the meantime.

That does not take away anything from God's work and protection and the family's faith which is inspirational (albeit, sometimes more focused on the being an Adventist than a follower of Jesus Christ). However, taking liberties to the point that the personal story disconnects from history in general does more damage to the story than simplify anything.

I have not finished the book yet, and while the story itself has me curious about the rest, I wonder whether I would find more inaccuracies. I understand that such a story is hard to tell in all details, but when there are obvious things that are wrong, you are left wondering a bit.