CRANBERRY TWP — German dictator Adolf Hitler once predicted his Nazi Third Reich would rule for 1,000 years.

For Gisela McBride and other Germans who survived, the dozen years of Hitler's racial subjugation, from 1933 until 1945, felt like 1,000 years.

McBride of Carlisle, Pa., will speak Tuesday to Seneca Valley students and the public at The American Conflicts Roundtable.

Her book, "Memoirs of a 1000-Year-Old Woman: Berlin 1925 to 1945," describes McBride's experiences as a girl in Nazi Germany, said Jim Lucot, a Seneca Valley Senior High School history teacher and co-organizer of the event.

McBride was a second grade student when Hitler took power in 1933 and she lived in Berlin until his suicide in 1945, Lucot said.

"She talks about how a democratic society can change so drastically by political correctness, by hate, however you define it," he said.

"In her book you see the innocence of the girl," Lucot said, describing a chapter in which McBride's parents are discussing Hitler's regime while she is more worried about planning her 9th birthday party.

McBride's parents were social democrats who were against Hitler, exposing McBride to points of view opposing others in the community and at her school, Lucot said.

"She was their age at the time," he said of similarities between McBride and his students.

McBride also gives first person accounts of other World War II experiences, Lucot said, including the total absence of citrus fruit and lack of knowledge of Eva Braun, Hitler's famous bride at the end of his regime.

At the end of World War II, McBride emigrated to England and worked as an interpreter for the Royal Air Force War Crimes Section, according to her Web site, mylifeinhitlersberlin.com.

She moved to the United States in 1957 and graduated with a liberal arts degree from the Penn State University in 1988.

McBride now lectures to organizations about growing up in Berlin and life during the Third Reich.

In its second year, the American Conflicts series aims to bring historic events to life for the community.

Attendance grew at each roundtable held last year, said Madeline Petrus, Victory Family Church administrator. More than 200 people attended in April, she said.

"Our church is always looking for opportunities to reach out into the community," Petrus said. "Anything that brings history to life for the kids is a valuable thing."

Lucot agreed.

"It's important for them to see the other side" of World War II, he said. "The message I want to get to my kids is, that was a democracy. Hitler was elected."