One man happy to step into that void was Erik Jan Hanussen, who even caught the eye of Adolf Hitler. Erik Jan Hanussen’s early lifeErik Jan Hanussen didn’t always go by that name. In his autobiography Meine Lebenslinie (‘My Lifeline’), Hanussen claimed that his psychic powers emerged at an early age. Before the war was out, Hermann fled the army and adopted what would become his stage name, Erik Jan Hanussen. Erik Jan Hanussen’s shocking demiseHanussen had become friendly with Nazi officials, even bankrolling many of their decadent personal pursuits, such as gambling.