SILVERHILL, Ala. — World War II ended for Hilmar von Campe in the hands of Communist partisans in Yugoslavia.

Von Campe, now a Silverhill resident, grew up the son of a “Landrat,” an official much like an appointed county commissioner in Halle, Westphalia, in northwest Germany.

Hilmar, born in 1925, had two brothers, Asche and Burchard and a sister, Sibylle, and by his account, the family had a good position in the community, with a private car and a “nanny” for the children.

That began to change when Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party came into power and trouble for the von Campe family began.

“I was 8 years old,” wrote von Campe about the Nazi rise to power in “Defeating the Totalitarian Lie,” one of several books von Campe has written to draw attention to his beliefs that God is being driven out of society and that Western culture is in danger of moving closer to a Nazi or socialist-style totalitarianism.

One of the things von Campe is quick to point out is that Nazism is a socialist, not a fascist movement.

“… my father rejected the proposition to join the (Nazi) party and was promptly fired afterwards,” wrote von Campe.

However, because the von Campes were considered minor nobility, and the elder von Campe still had a contract with the federal government, he was transferred to a lower position in Aurich, a town in Ostfriesland near the North Sea. He later was sent to Freiwaldau in Sudetenland, again as a landrat. There, the family settled into what was “normal” in Germany for the time. However, the eldest son, Asche, whom von Campe describes as “no friend of the Nazis,” was drafted, and fell as a soldier in November of 1942 in Russia.

Hilmar was required to enter the Hitler Youth.

“There is very little to report on about those years except that we met twice a week, on Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings,” wrote von Campe.

Von Campe eventually joined the army and on his request was assigned to the assault artillery. Burchard was called to army service at age 17 and Sibylle was working on a farm in Thüringen.

After his capture, von Campe went through various POW camps. He and his comrades quickly decided that they would be better off under British or American control.

“We thought we would not survive the winter,” said von Campe.

The escape, with its close calls and lucky chances “ought to be a film,” said von Campe.

He was alone when he eventually reached the British occupation zone in Austria.

Back in Germany he found his mother, sister and brother as refugees in Halle. His father had perished in a Soviet concentration camp.,

He learned about the Holocaust and the atrocities of the Nazis. "I had to find an answer to the question how was this possible in Germany and what was my own moral responsibility" said von Campe.

He realized that the Nazi ideology and society was built on lies and that his own personal lies and moral compromises did not make him a Nazi but made him an instrument of the Nazis like millions of other Germans who, like him, could not distinguish the difference between right and wrong. He gave his life to God to make restitution for the atrocities committed by a German government even though he had no part in their crimes.

“I had to find answers to the German defeat,” said von Campe. “My change can’t be understood until you understand the totalitarian system.”

In Washington, he apologized to Rabbi David Weinstein, then executive director of the Holocaust Memorial Council.

“I told Rabbi Weinstein that the crimes of the Nazis were only possible because of the moral cowardice of so many of us non-Nazis. We Christians, the so-called good people, had a relative morality and only small personal goals," von Campe wrote on his Web site, voncampe.com.

While finding direction, von Campe completed a university degree (and picked up an impressive dueling scar) and learned Spanish and English.

He found himself in Latin America, working for an international investment company, headquartered in Lima, Peru. He also married Dina Gamio in Peru, meeting her at a friend’s wedding. After the wedding, the couple was transferred to Jamaica. The couple, married for 36 years, has two children, Stefan and Sabrina.

He eventually became the owner of an auto parts factory that supplied VW and a travel agency.

While in Mexico, von Campe and Dina began to look to the north.

“Mexico is very corrupt,” said von Campe. “There was no religious education in the schools. I didn’t want the children growing up in that atmosphere.”

Eventually, the family moved to Colorado, and then to Miami, which von Campe said “was not the same city any more which we had known.”

Von Campe and his son started to look for a place in northwest Florida. But a few “wrong” turns brought them to this area.

“My son and I looked here, and I liked it very much,” said von Campe who has become an American citizen.

While the von Campes love this country, Hilmar began to see parallels between this country and Germany before Hitler.

“History is repeating itself here,” said von Campe. For von Campe, it was time to go to war again. This time it was an ideological war.

Von Campe has founded the National Institute for Truth and Freedom, a nonprofit organization that allows him to speak out on issues important to him. He has also published a number of books, available from local bookstores or on-line at voncampe.com.

“I have a great desire to speak both to students and Christian congregations. It’s one way to get into the center of the ideological debate,” said von Campe.

If you think von Campe is on a mission, you are right.

His newest book "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie - a former Hitler Youth warns America" was released in November and is available from local bookstores. Books ordered through his Web site come with his signature.

If you think von Campe is on a mission, you are right.

“America has a mission,” he says, “It is to establish freedom throughout the world. But if there is no truth, there is no lasting freedom. The battle for freedom is the battle for truth."

Von Campe is available to speak to groups. Contact Hilmar@voncampe.com for more information.