Letters from Berlin
Page 36
While researching my very first book, The Girl from Munich, and sifting through the treasure trove of documents, photos and memorabilia that my German grandmother left behind after she died, I discovered a single letter from her cousin that began the journey to Letters from Berlin.
The letter was sent to my grandmother in her twilight years by newly connected relatives in Germany trying to find other branches of the family that had dispersed after the war. They had found my grandmother’s cousin, recently returned to Germany after spending nearly sixty years living in South America where his mother’s family had migrated in the early 1900s and he had written them a short letter in response to their enquiry about his family.
He wrote that he remembered meeting my grandmother’s brothers, who visited his family on their way to the war and learnt that both had perished on the Eastern Front, but he’d lost contact after his father’s death at the end of the war. It was wonderful to discover a part of my grandmother’s family that I knew nothing about, but frustrating too, as there was little more detail. However, accompanying the letter was a copy of a German newspaper article and, intrigued to know what it was about, I set about translating it. I was blown away as it contained everything I wanted to know and so much more! What I learned was explosive detail about his family during the war years in Germany and into the Soviet occupation, information I subsequently found in multiple German newspaper articles that had reported his story and even in a British tabloid.
This story was so sensational because he was involved in a landmark legal case in Germany involving his family estate. After the reunification of Germany it was possible to lodge claims for property lost as a result of the war. However, properties expropriated by the Soviets were precluded as part of the terms of reunification. The question then became whether the estate lost at the end of the war was confiscated by the Gestapo, as a result of persecution or acts of resistance against the Third Reich, or expropriated during the Soviet land reform after the war. Archives from Moscow had eventually been accessed, documenting aid given by the family to Soviet soldiers in escaping from Sachsenhausen. One Soviet captain had returned in 1947 to find the family gone and the estate expropriated in the Soviet land reform. He was able to obtain an order from Moscow to restore the estate to the family, making the expropriation null and void. But by this time, my grandmother’s cousin, the only surviving family member in Germany, was unable to be found, having begun his journey across Europe to Genoa in Italy where he boarded the ship for South America.
The case took over 20 years to be settled, moving through various courts in the land, until it reached the Supreme Court. The final verdict, a resounding victory, was handed down when my grandmother’s cousin was lying in hospital. His courage, determination and persistence had finally paid off. He died two weeks later.
Besides being an incredible story, the amazing thing for me was to learn more about my family. I discovered through the newspaper reports that my grandmother’s uncle was married to a Russian Jew who received her Jewish registration papers, officially marking her as a Jewish person in January 1943, after years of her husband dealing with Nazi officials to keep her off the list. He owned a large estate outside of Berlin and was predominantly a timber merchant. His son, my grandmother’s cousin, wanted to follow his father into agriculture but was prevented from attending university. Government contracts with the Reichspost and Reichsbahn were cancelled, as were orders for seed and fuel. The family was denied emigration to South America twice, once just before the war and again after her registration. I was so proud to find that my grandmother’s uncle had joined the Free Germany resistance movement and took part in aiding the escape of Soviet POWs from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin and later helping the escape and hiding of deserted child flack helpers from the Luftwaffe.
My grandmother’s cousin was sent to a work camp in November 1944 as part of the wave of labour recruitment of ‘mischlinge’ or ‘half-breeds’ and was further sent to a satellite camp of Buchenwald in late 1944 where he was told by the guards that his days were numbered. His father orchestrated his escape and he hid in Berlin as a Silesian refugee where the safe house he was in collapsed in an air raid. He came home to the estate, hiding in a forester’s cottage with his mother when the Gestapo visited their home in the final days of the war, where they remained until Soviet liberation. His father was betrayed to the Gestapo when deserter flak helpers he’d been helping hide were seen, with the devastating consequences described in the book.
After the war, the Soviets expropriated the estate in the land reforms, even after an appeal had been submitted with information regarding the family’s connection to the resistance and aid given to Red Army POWs. They were evicted with twenty-four hours to leave the district and subsequently moved to Berlin. There, my grandmother’s aunt met her tragic end by jumping from a bridge into the Spree River. She just couldn’t take any more.
My grandmother’s cousin left Germany in 1947, making his way through the different zones of Germany to Lake Constance in the French zone where he was detained for a time before being allowed to travel on to Switzerland. There he obtained the paperwork he needed to board a boat in Genoa bound for South America where his sister and family members and friends were living. The estate remained part of the land reform, subdivided into smaller allotments and the manor house was demolished, pulled down piece by piece until all that remained were the stables.
I couldn’t believe everything this family, my relatives, had endured. Their story made me immensely proud and I knew that I had to tell it – not just because it’s such an incredible story full of heartbreak, survival and human endurance, but also because it’s about family. What a family will do to stay together, what a family will do to protect its own. The particulars contained in the reporting of this legal case were the only details I had to begin with but I soon realised that the shortage of information also gave me the freedom to tell a story of family and war from a unique but fictional female perspective. Susie, an upper class German girl from Georg’s world with the understanding of what’s happening to the Heckers and the Jewish people as a whole, is in the perfect position to complement the heroic actions of my grandmother’s uncle to protect his family, actions which I attributed to Georg and Leo. We see the war through her eyes and as experienced by a rarely mentioned group of people, those Jewish people married to Germans and their children who were considered ‘half-breeds’, like my grandmother’s cousin.
Once I began researching, I was fascinated to learn that even with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, German law still protected Jewish people in mixed marriages, especially Jewish women not practising their faith married to German men, like Elya and Georg, who were considered to be in ‘privileged marriages’ with the status and privileges of German citizens. Despite these privileges, children like Leo, with a German father, were forbidden to join the military, attend university, have a relationship or marry a German, among other restrictions. Although not in immediate threat of deportation to the eastern ghettos and concentration camps of Poland, the lives of those in ‘privileged families’ were still tenuous. This was made increasingly difficult with the ‘Final Solution’ and as the war continued and the closer Germany came to defeat, the threat to their very survival rose exponentially.
As I began writing, I realised that I was writing about family and legacy. Weaving through the fictional storyline of Susie and Julius has added layers to the story of war, building on the picture and the extent people were prepared to go to protect the ones they loved. I found that this was a reoccurring theme running through the war years – ordinary people doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times.
In the process of learning about this branch of my family and what their lives were like, it seemed fitting that the prologue and epilogue are told by Ingrid and Natalie, Susie and Leo’s descendants in Australia, mirroring my own breathtaking journey of discovery of my family on the other side of the world.
I hope you enjoyed
reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Tania
Acknowledgements
The letter which began my journey of discovery that became Letters from Berlin, was found among my German grandmother’s family documents after she passed away at ninety-one. Because of her meticulous keeping of documents and letters such as this, I have learnt about a part of my family I didn’t know I had. This story is because of her.
Thank you to everyone at Simon & Schuster Australia for their support and belief in me, especially Dan Ruffino, Fiona Henderson, Michelle Swainson, Anna O’Grady and the amazing sales and marketing department. And to my publisher Cassandra di Bello, for her endless behind-the-scenes work, ensuring everything runs smoothly and I can focus on writing at my best. Thanks also to my fabulous editor Roberta Ivers for her guidance, support and friendship. Her insights and expertise helped me sculpt and fine-tune my story to make it sing. I would be lost without her. I am blessed with a wonderful team who have helped make Letters from Berlin the beautiful, eye catching book you now hold in your hands.
This book has been a legacy to family, and nowhere is this sense of family more evident than through the love and support of my own family. I was most fortunate to have my mother Giselle Brame beside me in this journey and who shared my fascination as we discovered this branch of our family. A big thank you to her, my father Domenic Martino, my wonderful in-laws Christine and Terry Blanchard and my sister-in-law Trish Casey, for their interest in my story and for the gift of their thoughtfulness. It’s wonderful to know that my family is always behind me.
I’m so grateful to my friends, who have coaxed me away from the writing desk for fresh air, cups of coffee and conversation, particularly when I’m too brain dead to think straight! They have helped keep me sane. My special thanks to Diana Schamschula for her support and generous gifting of background information on the European Jewish community during the war, and to all those who have helped with research and support while writing this story.
A massive thank you to all my readers, especially those who have reached out to me to share your kind thoughts, insights and your own stories after reading The Girl from Munich and Suitcase of Dreams. As a writer, there’s nothing better than to know that the story has connected and resonated with a reader. I’ve been so touched by the stories you’ve shared, many so very similar to my own family story. I’m so grateful for your support which drives me forward to bring you the very best and most authentic story that I can.
Uncovering such a sensational but heart-wrenching story has been a rollercoaster of emotions. I thank my own immediate family for their support and patience as I spent hours upon hours hidden away, delving deeper into the background of this story, as I tried to craft a story that wove together fact and fiction and bring the characters to life on the page. Their small acts of love touched my heart; bringing me cups of hot, strong coffee and tea, putting freshly picked flowers on my desk and listening with interested expressions as I explained excitedly how the latest bit of research fit into my story. They are my number one fan club, sharing my stories and updating my progress with friends, teachers, associates and peers, and are with me each step of the way, celebrating the little successes and encouraging me whenever I hit a wall. I’m thankful for the support of my daughter Hollie and her insightful ideas on how to make the story flow, even in the midst of studying for her HSC. It’s been a great joy to share my historical findings with her as she is a history buff just like me. I love the discussions we have about historical events and the course of history. Thank you to my beautiful boys Nathan and Benjamin, for their excitement and pride in what I do. To my wonderful husband Chris, your unflappable calm and vast knowledge of all things to do with construction and agriculture, and not to mention practical solutions to technical problems within my story, helped me past so many challenges and allowed me to breathe.
My family is my rock and they make it all worthwhile. This handing down of family stories through my novels is my legacy to them.
Reading group questions
In the novel, Ingrid and Natalie discover their roots and family they never knew they had. How do you think this discovery would have affected them? How would their perspective of family have changed?
Many families were fragmented and dispersed, often across the world, as a result of World War II. Generations later, how do you think this separation has affected families? How has it impacted those who remained in their homelands? How has it influenced the cultural identity of those who left, and their descendants?
How do you think Elya’s childhood experiences, fleeing the pogroms of Kiev, shaped her as a woman and affected her choices in life?
How do you think the idea of family is represented throughout the novel? What does family mean to you?
Susie and Marika are best friends throughout the novel, helping each other through highs and lows over many years. Why is Susie’s friendship with Marika so important to her? What do you think makes an enduring friendship?
Susie and Julius both suffered the loss of their family and home at a young age and were taken in by the Hecker family. How did their responses to their childhood trauma change as they grew from children into adulthood? What are the similarities and differences in the ways they handled it?
How have the events in Susie’s life shaped her identity? What are the events that have shaped your identity?
What do you think drove Georg to take such risks in joining the Resistance and helping Russian POWs and child flak helpers escape from the Nazis? His marriage to Elya was the primary source of protection for his family. What kind of man do you think he was?
Leo has mixed heritage: Jewish, Russian and German. What do you think Leo’s sense of identity would have been in his childhood, and how would it have changed through the Nazi era of the 1930s, during the war, and after the war with the Soviet occupation? How may this have changed again as he spent decades living away from his homeland? How do you think he felt when he returned to Germany as an old man?
How would the events in Leo’s life, especially the persecution he suffered as a result of his Jewish heritage and the loss of his family estate have changed him as a person and have shaped his attitudes?
What do you think is the legacy left behind by Leo and Susie?
More from the Author
Suitcase of Dreams
The Girl from Munich
About the author
Tania Blanchard was inspired to write by the fascinating stories her German grandmother told her as a child. Coming from a family with a rich cultural heritage, stories have always been in her blood. Her first novel published by Simon & Schuster Australia, The Girl from Munich, was a runaway bestseller, as was the sequel, Suitcase of Dreams. Tania lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
SimonandSchuster.com.au/Authors/Tania-Blanchard
SIMON & SCHUSTER
simonandschuster.com.au
Also by Tania Blanchard
The Girl from Munich
Suitcase of Dreams
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LETTERS FROM BERLIN
First published in Australia in 2020 by
Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited
Suite 19A, Level 1, Building C, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062
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Visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.au
© Tania Blanchard 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any me
ans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
Cover design: Christa Moffitt
Cover images: © Everett Collection/Shutterstock