April | 2026
On Wednesday, April 15, the actress Patricia Litten was our guest. As part of the “Youth Forum”, she read from her grandmother’s book “Eine Mutter kämpft gegen Hitler” (A Mother Fights Hitler) and repeatedly engaged in conversation with the pupils.
The reading, which focuses on her own family history, got under the skin and left many of them thinking.
Despite the seriousness of the topic, we ended the evening together – first with a buffet in the Schloss and then, very traditionally, in a small group on the 2nd floor of the Schloss until late in the evening.
Dear Patricia, thank you very much for your visit to us in Stein.
The following is the follow-up report by independent rapporteur Pia Mix:
Forum der Jugend: Patricia Litten talks about the life and death of her uncle Hans Litten
Stein an der Traun. Patricia Litten was a guest this week as part of the “Forum of Youth” series at Schule Schloss Stein. She read from the book “A mother fights Hitler”, which her grandmother Irmgard Litten wrote in 1940. It vividly describes how the young, committed lawyer Hans Litten, Patricia Litten’s uncle, became a victim of National Socialism.
“So many things are getting out of hand again today”
Patricia Litten, a multi-award-winning actress, gave an insight into her own family history during the reading and emphasized that she wanted to make the audience, and especially the pupils, think, because one thing is very important: “We must do everything we can to ensure that structures like those of the National Socialist era never prevail again, we must stay awake.” What happened back then could also happen in a “supposedly protected democracy if we are not careful.” Even today, there are similar incidents in some autocracies around the world, where the opposition is silenced and people are locked away. Patricia Litten is of the opinion: “So much is getting out of hand again today.” She holds her lecture on Hans Litten again and again to keep the memory alive, and also for all the children of the world who “are not in a privileged position, but live in theaters of war or are on the run because old narcissistic men are bringing disaster to the world”.
Hitler threatened to wipe out the family
Hans Litten took an early and determined stand against the rise of National Socialism. In 1931, he forced Adolf Hitler to testify in the courtroom in an hour-long interrogation and exposed the anti-democratic orientation of the NSDAP. It was an act of extraordinary moral courage and great courage. Hitler is said to have said at the time: “As soon as it is in my power, I will wipe out this family.”
After the National Socialist takeover, Hans Litten was arrested in February 1933 along with many other political opponents of the National Socialists, severely mistreated for years and passed through several concentration camps. The constant interrogations and torture robbed him of his dignity and destroyed the man, yet he held out for five years. During all this time, his mother made countless attempts to get him released, even offering herself as a prisoner in exchange for her son. However, nothing helped and in 1938 Hans Litten finally died in the Dachau concentration camp.
His mother Irmgard Litten wrote about her son’s fate in her haunting book. In it, she describes not only the persecution of her son, but also her desperate and tireless fight for his release.
Pia Mix | freelance reporter | 18.04.2026
