Monday 23 November 2015

The language dilemma



I once saw two different productions within a fortnight of the same Molière play. One was a close translation of the original text, and  it's staging contained many of the elements of the time when it was written. The second one was brought right up into the 21st century, with a modern setting and modern jokes. Quite quirkily it was delivered mainly in rhyming couplets. I slightly preferred the latter though also appreciated the former. I remember this as I try to make my decision now.
I'm currently working on the third book in the Schellberg cycle. This one is almost completely fictional and set in  Nazi Germany. I'm allowing my characters to speak in quite modern English. I do agree that this would sound strange if the story were set in 1940s Britain. However we're one step away here as the characters are all speaking another language some of the words and phrases might be useful. In any case, just as in the second version of the Moliere play, bringing our characters into the 21st century might make them more accessible.
A couple of examples:
1. older brother Kurt refers to younger Eberhard as "Bro". This could anyway be a translation of "Bruderchen" or "Mein Bruder" both of which may have been used in the 1940s.
2. A school girl struggling with fractions complains that the work is "doing my head in". This phrase does not exist literally in German. However there was no doubt something equally colloquial then in German as there is probably as well now. The modern German would not be appropriate but the modern English may be acceptable as an equivalent.
So, there seems to be a suggestion that this might work.
However, in the first novel, The House  on Schellberg Street , I do use a  1940s' English. This is partly because it is set in that place and time and partly because the letters I transcribed as part of my research produced a certain pleasingly old-fashioned tone.
So. It remains a dilemma for the moment. It could be that by the time you read this a decision has been made.

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Renate Edler



Renate Edler was born on 25 July 1925 in a thunderstorm at Jena. She was premature and she was not expected to live. The local priest was sent for straight away so that she might be christened. He was a little drunk.  He named her Klara Renate although her family had wanted her to be Renata, spelt the Italian way with Clara, with a C, as a second name and in honour of her two grandmothers. She always claimed that the priest’s mistake helped to save her life. 
The family moved from Jena to Nuremberg. Renate then went to the Wilhelm Löhe School. This was a school for girls run according to Lutheran principles. Renate had no idea that she was Jewish but all of the teachers who knew about her helped her family to keep this a secret from her and from the authorities. Nuremberg was possibly the worst place for a young Jewish girl to live in the 1930s. The huge rallies were held there and the prolematice race laws were created there.
She had the opportunity to go on a school trip to Italy. For this she needed a passport. Her father took her to the office where children’s passports were issued. He had a fearsome row with the officious young man there. Her father wanted her correct name on her passport.  Naturally, she had to have her name as on her birth certificate. They were sent round the corner to get an adult passport as she was already old enough. When she needed to leave Germany in 1939, she already had a passport though an identity card would have been enough. However, there was much confusion about this and having the passport already possibly made processing paperwork quicker. 

Sunday 27 September 2015

Sophie Scholl



Sophia Scholl was born on 9 may 1921 and died on 22 February 1943.  She was executed by guillotine because of her involvement in the White Rose movement.
Her activities included distributing anti-war leaflets with her brother Hans at the University of Munich.      
Sophie was brought up as a Lutheran and enjoyed a happy, carefree childhood. When she was twelve, she joined the Jungmädel, the junior version of the Bund Deutscher Mädel. Their parents were not so enthusiastic. Their father, Robert Scholl, told his children that Hitler and the Nazis were leading Germany down a road of destruction. Later, in 1942, he would serve time in a Nazi prison for telling his secretary: “The war! It is already lost. This Hitler is God's scourge on mankind, and if the war doesn't end soon the Russians will be sitting in Berlin.” Gradually, Hans and Sophie began realizing that their father was right. They concluded that, in the name of freedom and the greater good of the German nation, Hitler and the Nazis were enslaving and destroying the German people.
Sophie had a talent for and loved painting and drawing. She also had a very firm Christian belief, which led her to believe in every human being’s basic dignity. This in turn led her to resist the Nazi ideology.
She loved children, so worked as Kindergarten teacher. She hoped that this might count for her Reichsarbeitsdienst. She had to do this before she could go to university and unfortunately her work as a Kindergarten teacher was not recognised. In Spring 1941 therefore she had to do similar work in Blumberg. She found the military-like regime distasteful and she began to think about passive resistance.
After her RAD was complete she enrolled at the University of Munich to study biology and philosophy. She made friends there with a group of people who joined in student life to the full but who eventually became politically active. They wanted to end the Nazi time and World War II.
The group designed, printed and distributed leaflets encouraging people to end the war and resist the Nazi regime. On 22 February Sophie, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were beheaded.
 Her last words were:
How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?
A film has been made of her story: SophieScholl – The Final Days, 2005, screen play by Fred Breinersdorfer and directed by Marc Rothermund.    

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Nicholas Winton



Nicholas Winton was born on 19 May 1909. He helped to rescue 669 children, most of whom were Jewish, from Czechoslovakia. He did this through what came to be known as the Czech Kindertransport. He founded homes for the children in Britain as well as helping then to get there. The UK press has sometimes referred to him as the British Schindler. 
His parents were German Jews who moved to Hampstead. London in 1909.     
Winton's parents were of German-Jewish origin, originally called Wertheim. In 1907, they moved from Germany to Hampstead, London where they also changed their name.
Just before Christmas in 1936, Winton, by now a stockbroker, gave up a skiing holiday in order to help a friend in Prague, Martin Blake, who was working with Jewish refugees. He decided to set about organizing help for the children of Jewish families who were at risk form the Nazi regime. His office was a dining table in his hotel.
He found places for 669 children on a special Kindertransport. The last group of 250 left Prague on 1 September 1939.  Unfortunately this last group was sent back because the Nazis invaded Poland. Most of them did not survive the Holocaust. 250 people waited for them in vain at London Liverpool Street station. Of the 669 who did get to Britain, most never saw their parents again. 
Winton registered as a conscientious objector and worked first for the Red Cross and then in Administrative and Special duties for the Royal Air Force during World War II.  
He kept quiet about all the rescue work he had done until his wife Grete found a scrapbook in their loft in 1988. It contained lists of children, including their family details. 80 children who had been saved were contacted and appeared with Winton on a special edition of Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life broadcast that year.   
In 2010, Winton was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the Britsh Government. A statue in his honour was erected at Maidenhead Station in September 2010. There is another statue exists at Prague railway station.
On 1 September 2009, a special "Winton train" set off from the Prague Main railway station. The train, consisting of an original locomotive and carriages used in the 1930s, headed to London via the original Kindertransport route. On board the train were several surviving "Winton children" and their descendants, who were to be welcomed by Winton in London. The occasion marked the 70th anniversary of the intended last Kindertransport, which was due to set off on 3 September 1939 but never did because of the outbreak of the Second World War.

Thursday 13 August 2015

Some thoughts on Seminar 1 – notes from the author



The unconscious Jewess
Warning: this may cause a few spoilers if you haven’t already read the book.

 

Realisng she was Jewish

Renate really had no idea she was Jewish until just a few weeks before she came over to England on the Kindertranpsort. She mixed with ordinary German children. Her mother and father were both scientists and weren’t particularly religious. Her grandparents, although born as orthodox Jews, had converted to the Lutheran religion. They considered it more up to date than the Jewish religion.
Renate’s teachers had protected her from much of the Nazi indoctrination. Several of them got into a lot of trouble because of that.  Renate lived in Nuremberg and the Nuremberg rallies could not have been very pleasant. In fact the Blutschutzgesetz was also made in Nuremberg. 
So it came as a complete shock to her to find out that she was partly Jewish. This may seem unbelievable – and this included fact almost stopped the book being published. Fortunately Crooked Cat were convinced.
In retrospect she realised that this was an explanation for her mother’s strange behaviour. Her mother had given up going to the opera, was often found weeping and made a real fuss about not allowing Renate to go on a school trip just because she had the remains of a cold. She was probably too scared to let her daughter out of her sight.
Some of the Nazi indoctrination had worked – Renate at least realised that Jews were regarded as a disgrace.

 

The Blutschutzgesetz  

The Blutschutzgesetz – literally the blood protection law – sees Jewishness as a race rather than a religion. As Renate had two Jewish grandparents, she was a Mischling of the first degree. 

The Kindertransport

Renate’s parents decided to send her to England on the Kindertransport. The £50 that had to be guaranteed was not a problem for them. They were relatively wealthy. Renate’s papers were in order also as because her father had had a run-in with officialdom she had her own adult passport even though she was still a child. Again, this seemed improbable and almost stopped the book being published. However, this story is also true.
It may seem cruel, taking the children away from their parents. The British didn’t however want to have whole Jewish communities coming to England. It may have led to anti-Semitism in a country that had just gone through a major depression. The authorities didn’t want to give the working people the opportunity to resent the Jews and accuse them of stealing their jobs.   
We scratched at the surface: we saved just under 10,000 children. 
The Quakers did a lot of work on the Kindertransport. The Germans who accompanied the children as far as England were expected to return to Germanys straight away. If they did not, the Kindertranpsort would be stopped.
At the Dutch boarder, Dutch women provided drinking chocolate, snacks, blankets and soft toys for the children.
For Renate the whole of the journey would have been odd. She was probably travelling with orthodox Jews and knew very little about them. She considered herself to be German.
Most of the children arrived at Liverpool Street station in London.  Here they were either picked up by families who were going to look after them or taken to a centre where they lived together for a while before places could be found for them.
Many of the children never saw their families again.
Here again Renate was different.  Her two uncles met her in England. Her mother came over a few months later. They had found a very nice family for her. She was even reconciled with her father after the war. She attended a Steiner school where staff and students would have been very open-minded. 
Many of the Kindertransport children never saw their families again. Some were abused.  Quite a few were used as free slave labour.  

Becoming English

What made life easier  

  • She had a lot of support from the family with whom she lived.
  • She was immersed in English.
  • Her friend and teacher, Mrs Cohen, understood her confusion.
  • She befriended a cat. Many children who had to leave their families – including our own British evacuees - found it easier to relate to animals than to people.
  • She could run well

What made life more difficult  

  • The school seemed supportive but the other students still found her strange at first.    
  • It became worse when the Second World War started. As you know if you’ve read the book, the fact that her mother was in London being bombed by the Germans and her father in Nuremberg being bombed by the Allies, lead to her having a nervous breakdown.  
  • She and her mother became Enemy Aliens Class B. This meant:
    • They could not go near to the sea without permission. Renate’s school was by the sea.
    • They had to report to the Police station.
    • They couldn’t go near munitions factories. Not that either of them wanted to,
    • They mustn’t go more than ten miles away from their home.  However, Renate’s home was more than ten miles from the Police station.
    • They mustn’t be out after 10.0 p.m. ( Fortunately for Renate the local policeman was very friendly and sensible.)
·         Although she became very fluent in English and was an extremely able and intelligent girl, she was not allowed to go to a British university. The 1944 Education Act made it a lot easier for people of her generation and those that came afterwards. Her lack of official Britishness did not. She later took on British nationality but it was still not easy.    
               

Monday 10 August 2015

Seminar 1 The House on Schellberg Street - Renate's story



You will find it easier to follow this is you have read the book The House on Schellberg Street  

Renate’s Story

Not being Jewish

Consider Renate’s childhood:
  • Mixed with ordinary German children
  • Went to a Lutheran school
  • Had connections with the Waldorf School in Stuttgart
Try to work out what it must have been like for her at that age of eight to thirteen.
Write a short account of what she felt when she found out she was Jewish or discuss this with your group OR
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What might Renate have thought when she found out she was Jewish?   

Further help:

http://www.thehouseonschellbergstreet.com/search/label/Wilhelm%20Lohe%20School

See 22 December 1938 in the book  

Being Jewish

The Blutschutz rules make her Jewish
These see Jewishness as a race issue rather than a religious one.
Consider this: Renate did not realise that she was Jewish until a few weeks before she came over to England on the Kindertransport.
The Kindertransport cost each child £50.00. This is the equivalent of about £3,000 today.
Why do you think Britain only offered help to the children? Why didn’t we invite whole families to come and stay?
Some facts about the Kindertransport:
  • It was run mainly by the Quakers.
  • The adults who accompanied the children had to return to Germany or the Kindertransport would be stopped.
  • The children were allowed one small suitcase.
  • Dutch women met them at the border, with hot chocolate, snacks, blankets and soft toys.   
  • They arrived mainly at Liverpool Street station in London.      
Note:
  • Some children were abused – usually by being used as cheap labour.
  • Many children never saw the rest of their family again.
  • A few were well cared for but never felt really at home. Why not, do you think?
Renate was fortunate in many ways:
  • Her uncles were already in England.  
  • They found her a really nice family.
  • She went to a very welcoming school.
  • Her mother came over to England a few months later.  
Even so it remained difficult for her:
  • She didn’t speak English when she first arrived.
  • Clothes were different.
  • Houses were different.   
Imagine you are Renate. Write two letters to you grandmother - one about the journey of England and the other about your first few weeks in England.
OR
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What were the problems Renate faced in the first few weeks in England?   
Further help:
In the book see:

Becoming English

What might have helped her to learn English?
She had two curious talents – she could run and she could play cricket? How might this have been helpful?
How might being close to animals help?
How did her friend and teacher Mrs Cohen help?   
She faced several obstacles:
·         Soon after she came to England, World War II started – England was at war with Germany.
·         Because of the war, she and her mother were classed as Enemy Aliens Class B.
·         Her mother was in England being bombed by the Germans. Her father was in Germany being bombed by the Allies.
Write an extract from Renate’s diary about the difficulties she faced when trying to become English. What helped her?
OR    
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What helped and hindered her in becoming English?

       Further help:

In the book see:
Renate, 9 April 1940
Käthe Edler, 10 May 1940
Renate, 5 July 1941
Renate 25, December 1941
Renate 6 June 1944  
    

Notes for teachers


The unconscious Jewess

Warning: this may cause a few spoilers if you haven’t already read the book.

 

Realisng she was Jewish

Renate really had no idea she was Jewish until just a few weeks before she came over to England on the Kindertranpsort. She mixed with ordinary German children. Her mother and father were both scientists and weren’t particularly religious. Her grandparents, although born as orthodox Jews, had converted to the Lutheran religion. They considered it more up to date than the Jewish religion.
Renate’s teachers had protected her from much of the Nazi indoctrination. Several of them got into a lot of trouble because of that.  Renate lived in Nuremberg and the Nuremberg rallies could not have been very pleasant. In fact the Blutschutzgesetz was also made in Nuremberg. 
So it came as a complete shock to her to find out that she was partly Jewish. This may seem unbelievable – and this included fact almost stopped the book being published. Fortunately Crooked Cat were convinced.
In retrospect she realised that this was an explanation for her mother’s strange behaviour. Her mother had given up going to the opera, was often found weeping and made a real fuss about not allowing Renate to go on a school trip just because she had the remains of a cold. She was probably too scared to let her daughter out of her sight.
Some of the Nazi indoctrination had worked – Renate at least realised that Jews were regarded as a disgrace.

 

The Blutschutzgesetz  

The Blutschutzgesetz – literally the blood protection law – sees Jewishness as a race rather than a religion. As Renate had two Jewish grandparents, she was a Mischling of the first degree. 

The Kindertransport

Renate’s parents decided to send her to England on the Kindertransport. The £50 that had to be guaranteed was not a problem for them. They were relatively wealthy. Renate’s papers were in order also as because her father had had a run-in with officialdom she had her own adult passport even though she was still a child. Again, this seemed improbable and almost stopped the book being published. However, this story is also true.
It may seem cruel, taking the children away from their parents. The British didn’t however want to have whole Jewish communities coming to England. It may have led to anti-Semitism in a country that had just gone through a major depression. The authorities didn’t want to give the working people the opportunity to resent the Jews and accuse them of stealing their jobs.   
We scratched at the surface: we saved just under 10,000 children. 
The Quakers did a lot of work on the Kindertransport. The Germans who accompanied the children as far as England were expected to return to Germanys straight away. If they did not, the Kindertranpsort would be stopped.
At the Dutch boarder, Dutch women provided drinking chocolate, snacks, blankets and soft toys for the children.
For Renate the whole of the journey would have been odd. She was probably travelling with orthodox Jews and knew very little about them. She considered herself to be German.
Most of the children arrived at Liverpool Street station in London.  Here they were either picked up by families who were going to look after them or taken to a centre where they lived together for a while before places could be found for them.
Many of the children never saw their families again.
Here again Renate was different.  Her two uncles met her in England. Her mother came over a few months later. They had found a very nice family for her. She was even reconciled with her father after the war. She attended a Steiner school where staff and students would have been very open-minded. 
Many of the Kindertransport children never saw their families again. Some were abused.  Quite a few were used as free slave labour.  

Becoming English

What made life easier  

  • She had a lot of support from the family with whom she lived.
  • She was immersed in English.
  • Her friend and teacher, Mrs Cohen, understood her confusion.
  • She befriended a cat. Many children who had to leave their families – including our own British evacuees - found it easier to relate to animals than to people.
  • She could run well

What made life more difficult  

  • The school seemed supportive but the other students still found her strange at first.   
  • It became worse when the Second World War started. As you know if you’ve read the book, the fact that her mother was in London being bombed by the Germans and her father in Nuremberg being bombed by the Allies, lead to her having a nervous breakdown. 
  • She and her mother became Enemy Aliens Class B. This meant:
    • They could not go near to the sea without permission. Renate’s school was by the sea.
    • They had to report to the Police station.
    • They couldn’t go near munitions factories. Not that either of them wanted to,
    • They mustn’t go more than ten miles away from their home.  However, Renate’s home was more than ten miles from the Police station.
    • They mustn’t be out after 10.0 p.m. ( Fortunately for Renate the local policeman was very friendly and sensible.)
·         Although she became very fluent in English and was an extremely able and intelligent girl, she was not allowed to go to a British university. The 1944 Education Act made it a lot easier for people of her generation and those that came afterwards. Her lack of official Britishness did not. She later took on British nationality but it was still not easy.    

Would you like this as a handy PDF?  Download it here.