Hans G. Rolfes

Home, Heaven and Hitler's Hell Hans G. Rolfes

In spite of all the stories about Germany during Hitler's heyday, virtually nothing has been written about the 105 Marian Apparitions that occurred from 1937 - 1940. The sightings happened in Heede, a village close to the Dutch border and less than twenty miles from the birthplace of author Hans Rolfes. Totally unexpected, not unlike what took place in Lourdes, the sightings were seen by four local girls. This raised the ire in Berlin to such an extent that the girls, then 11 to 13, were placed in a mental institution and a hospital for ten weeks. Hitler's obsessive interest was the industrial behemoth Krupp and its nearby firing range, where the "Big Bertha" rattled dishes in the author's home as it threw one-ton shells airborne. The events in Heede, so good, so pure, so hard-to-explain had no value for him. Today he and his ilk are gone, but tens of thousands of Christians flock annually to the area. The veil of silence surrounding Heede was lifted only recently, with its official recognition as a Marian Prayer Site. Many more events are described, including the author's unbelievable experience when he and other boys investigated an Allied bomb that suddenly, precipitously, exploded.... Hans G. Rolfes is a retired professional engineer who lives in Westchester, N. Y. He was a senior consultant for General Foods for a quarter century-the basis for his book, General Foods, America's Premier Food Company. He has visited and studied at the apparition site in Heede, Germany, many times.