Behind Blue Curtains: The metamorphosis of writer, activist, Lizzy Hershberger

Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

Bill Cannon Police off the Cuff/Real Crime Stories

True Crime

4.6 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2024

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Behind Blue Curtains: The metamorphosis of writer, activist, Lizzy Hershberger When Lizzy Hershberger turns fourteen, her schooling ends at eighth grade, and she has no choice but to leave home to work as an unpaid maid for another family. To avoid being rejected by her ultra-conservative Swartzentruber Amish family and community, Lizzy is forced to abandon her dreams because they are “too worldly.” After being raped by an Amish deacon over two dozen times, Lizzy makes her first attempt at “jumping the fence” to pursue a non-Amish lifestyle. But without any modern life experience or education, Lizzy must decide whether the risks of this unpredictable and dangerous world are worth losing the ties to her Amish friends and family forever. Almost thirty years later, after she has created a new life for herself, her small community is rocked by disturbing sexual assault allegations. Lizzy must decide whether to keep silent for her newly-created family’s sake or come forward against the church to advocate for the Amish children she left behind. In 2019, Lizzy Hershberger successfully brought her abuser to justice in an extraordinarily rare case addressing sexual abuse in the Amish church. She faced death threats and intense pressure to stop telling her story. Lizzy refused to back down, and she forged ahead to spark a national movement bringing awareness to the prevalence of sexual assault in isolated communities protected by religious liberties. This gripping true crime memoir reveals the truth behind one of America’s most revered and secretive religious sects—hidden behind the blue curtains of the Amish lifestyle. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/otcpod1/support

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to police off the cuff, real crime stories.
0:14.0	I'm your host.
0:15.2	Retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a 27-year veteran of the NYPD.
0:20.6	We have a little bit of an unusual show today,
0:23.0	and it's actually part of the Police Off to Cove Real Crime Authors series, Law and Crime
0:30.1	Author series. And our guest today is Lizzie Herzberger, who I met two and a half years ago when her book came out behind the blue curtains.
0:41.8	And since those two and a half years gone by, she has grown a great deal as a human being, as a mom, as a former Amish person that now is outside of that sort of cult, I'll call it,
0:58.4	cult-like religion. And she's really moving on with her life to great things. And I think that
1:06.0	you're really going to enjoy her perspective on what occurred. Right now, she's an activist, a proponent of women's rights,
1:15.9	and a real heroine in regards to what she has been through in her own life that helps her
1:23.0	to share with others, and so that they could be in similar situations,
1:29.3	will have the courage and the bravery and the tenacity to go against the powers that be
1:34.7	and realize that you can win, you can come out on top.
1:38.8	So folks, hold on to your chairs.
1:41.5	Hold on to your seats and get ready to enter the real crime from a police perspective.
1:49.2	Off the cuff, the police off the cuff zone. It has to be some common sense.
2:09.6	Yes, sir, and they have the car stopped intended to branch microphone.
2:12.6	We still don't know who called the trigger. We're back. The book is behind blue curtains.
2:42.2	And I'm going to read what Amazon said about this book.
2:45.7	When Lizzie Herzberg returns 14, her schooling ends at eighth grade and she has no choice but to leave home to work
2:52.8	as an unpaid maid for another family. To avoid being rejected by her ultra-conservative
2:59.3	Swartz and Trouba Amish family and community, Lizzie is forced to abandon her dreams because
	...

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