Norman Longmate ‘How We Lived Then'

This book gives a lot of insight into how World War II affected daily lives. It has helped me great deal with background to the novel.

For instance, it was clear that the people in Britain were expecting war. It was not so much a matter of if but when. (p8)

I have my characters on holiday in the summer of 1939. Longmate confirms that this did happen, and that people took their gas mask with them. (p13)

Life was boring for evacuees and other who had sought the sanctuary of the countryside during the “phoney” war.  (p72)

Bombing, when it did start, was vicious. (p140)

Longmate provides much detail about everyday life. There are numerous photos of the era, including of some important documents.  This is a very useful resource.       

The Reichsbürgergesetz and the Blutschutzgesetz

These two important laws were really the foundation of the Holocaust. The first, the Reichsbürgrgesetz, coming into effect in 1935, defined a difference between people who belonged to the Reich and people who had German citizenship. This immediately declared that all Jews were not Reichs people. Those who had three or more Jewish grandparents were definitely Jewish. Those who had two or more Jewish grandparents were known as “Mischlinge” and could also not become Reichs citizens. This made Clara Lehrs and her three children definitely Jewish. Renate Edler thereby becomes a Mischling. In some way, being a Mischling is even tougher than being a Jew. A Mischling cannot enjoy solidarity with other Jews.

Clara Lehrs’ Catholicism and anthroposophism did not help at all because of the Blutschutzgesetz.  This was the law for the protection of racial purity. It forbade certain marriages. The marriage between Hans Edler and Kathe Edler, Renate’s parents, became illegal.

These two laws, taken to extreme, led to the Holocaust and the Final Solution. The Blutschutzgesetz also has implications for the Nazi ideal of the Master Race.                 

Balancing History and Story

I’m now charging along with the Hani (note the new spelling) and Clara Lehrs thread of the story. I’ve just had Hani got to BDM initiation meeting. She is disturbed by some of the things she learns and faces some puzzling questions about the relationship between National Socialism and religion. As a teenager, she is ambivalent. She likes some of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the organisation, though she doesn’t feel all that comfortable with the other girls. She did go to a different school until the Nazi regime shut that one down so does not know the other girls as well as she might.  She is beginning to feel some resistance to the Nazi ideals. She loves the uniform, though – the navy blue and white make her look slimmer.

She is puzzled, however, by her mother who at home is very secretive and seems not quite to approve of the BDM. Yet in public she seems to support it.

I have a true, puzzling story that I am telling here: there are many gaps and my research is still drawing blanks about this one area. It doesn’t make sense in its background which I have been able to research thoroughly. I have to rely on fiction at the moment. I’m using fiction as a tool for uncovering possible fact.  

I’ve left my writing today at a point where the story is about to get quite tense.  I guess that’s a good place to stop.              

Lyn Smith’s ‘Young Voices’

This is a very useful book that gives many eye-witness accounts of what happened to people who were children during World War II. The narrations are from memory but are nevertheless useful.

I was particularly pleased to read about an Anglo-German family who had as many problems with saying Heil Hitler as Hans Edler and Wilhem the handyman do in my book (Rodney Giesler p7). In a slightly more serious snippet (p19-20) Giesler reports how charming and helpful the SS were to them as foreigners. They had impeccable manners. The war upset Giesler more because he was losing friends than because the Nazis were particularly terrible as far as he could see. He was shocked later to find out about the concentration camps and the death camps.

The book also gives some very exact timing for the bombing of major cities and details the damage caused also. This has been surprisingly difficult to obtain form other sources.     

Reichsarbeitsdienst

 I read a few articles yesterday which gave me some more insight into this. The girls mention it a lot in their letters. It seems to loom large for them and they all participated in it one way or another. However, as far as the way everyone else understood it, it was of far more importance for men. It was originally started up as a way of getting employment for the 6,000,000 unemployed German men.

However, it became a forerunner of Kreigshilfsdienst for the girls and actually trained them in all sorts of useful tasks that helped the war effort.

There were three parts to this: the training, “Aussendienst” (where they worked outside the camps, putting into practice what they had learnt) and “Innendienst” (where they helped run the camps and train other girls). Now some of what I’ve read in the letters makes a lot more sense.

It is interesting also that the men had a very military-looking, dull brown uniform. The women were dressed to look like house-wives. Their uniform consisted of two blue cotton dresses with short sleeves, two white pinafores, two red headscarves, two pairs of boots, two pairs of thick socks, one brown overcoat, one jacket and one hat, along with state-issued underwear. Ursula Sabel’s account of this is very informative.  

            

Creative Project: Onwards with Hanni’s Story

I’ve now finished the first attempt at transcribing the letters. I shall have to come back to them at some point, but I’m leaving them to rest a little now. I’ve decided to have a go at the Hanni / Clara thread – an example of someone defying the authorities and getting away with it.   

I’ve now got Hanni going to her BDM meeting. I’ve found myself delving into the copious notes I’ve made about uniform and the activities. The navy-blue and white uniform suits her and makes her look smart and feel grown-up. Even her mother, who knows exactly what is going on, is impressed. So, being in the BDM was a chance to build self-esteem. And Hanni is a teenager. She can’t understand her mother’s mixture of pride and dread.    

I’ve had a look at the bigger picture. It seems to be a matter of writing what is important for each thread and then weaving them together later. I’m very aware that first part and the third part are both going to cover a short space of time and that the second part is going to going to cover a longer period. But I’m also much clearer now about how the three parts will come together.

I’m pleased that both Hanni and her mother are developing well as characters.