The political climate of Europe had prompted Hans and his brother to make the journey: Hans could see that war was coming, and he wanted to get himself and his brother away from an increasingly aggressive Germany. His grandmother’s brothers owned a garage in the Bronx and provided a connection with which to start life in America. In 1938, Hans came to America, where his father had lived for several years at the beginning of the century.

If I asked about something I saw in his apartment, he would be able to tell me a detailed history: where and how he found the object in question, what it was and what it meant, how much he paid for it, and even how the process of haggling went! Everything had a story and a meaning behind it. Hans had an excellent memory for each and every one of the beautiful things he owned. That was his day for going to the flea market. Whenever he was making plans for me to visit, Hans would not be available on Sunday. Ironically, Hans found most of these artifacts much closer to home - at the New York City flea markets where he was a regular browser. He filled it with incredible objects, whose ultimate origins ranged from India and Egypt to Western Europe. Hans loved his apartment, where he lived for forty-seven years, from 1962 to 2009. While it would take several books to describe the full extent of his rich and eventful life, the following are some stories that illustrate our friendship and the character of this remarkable gentleman. Hans received many guests in his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he would talk with them about his books, his life, and his outlook on the world. However, he also wrote several books that are immensely important to Witchcraft in the 20th century, including Witches: True Encounters with Wicca, Wizards, Covens, Cults and Magick Wicca: The Way of the Witches and Powers of the New Age. In pop culture, perhaps his most well-known works are those surrounding the house in Amityville, Long Island, which was the basis for The Amityville Horror. Most of his work deals extensively with the occult. Hans wrote one hundred and thirty-eight books, as well as plays, musicals, and episodes of television shows. They also created a fascination with the supernatural, which was to last his entire life. Tales he heard from his Uncle Henry inspired young Hans to fascinate his kindergarten classmates-and shock their mothers-with ghost stories of his own creation. Hans Holzer, the world-famous parapsychologist, ghost hunter and author, was born in Vienna in 1920.

True ghost stories hans holzer