Last Letters

by Helmuth Caspar von Moltke

  Now a few things about the activities. Carl Viggo has now gone to see Hercher and Lautz: Hercher, in order to know more about the case, and Lautz, to discuss the prospects for clemency. Schulze was in court. I’ll go to see him again. Lautz, I’m told, was very standoffish at first, but eventually he really warmed up. Carl Viggo clearly went to great lengths and invested enormous effort. He talked about you, about Mami and Daddy, about me, and fervently on your behalf. He says that Lautz was fully engaged and even convinced him to stay longer, but didn’t give him much cause for hope. He told him: If some external action occurs, then something will happen immediately, but the minister of justice will do nothing of his own accord, and there’s no use in paying him a visit. So essentially it comes down to Kaltenbrunner, Müller, and Himmler, as we already know. Steengracht has promised me to go see Kaltenbrunner right away once he’s back, which ought to be soon. Müller won’t be back here until Monday or Tuesday either. I’ve tried to speak to him and only ran into Huppenkothen who has now become “staff leader.” But he had nothing to say, of course. I naturally assume that Müller will grant me a meeting soon, in accordance with his promise—that will then be the last thing I can do, unless you give me some other new task, my dear love.—What do you think about a face-to-face meeting? Do you want to see me? Are you inclined to meet, or would you rather not? Don’t arrange it if it seems too difficult for you, but I essentially think that this, too, would be unproblematic for us if it works out technically. I think Schulze is now in charge again. Hercher was amazed by how “lackluster” Schulze’s closing argument was. Might this be starting to get to him? That would speak in his favor.

  I’d also like you to let me know which agronomist I should take “against” Zeumer:3 Meier, Werkshagen, or perhaps Penke from Gütermannsdorf? I think Werkshagen isn’t actually strong enough. Give this question some more careful thought, and advise me on whom I ought to talk to. That would also be a subject for the face-to-face meeting!

  I’ll have your arrest warrant and the notification of your death, if it comes to that, translated into Russian. That could come in handy for me at some point.

  Other than that, my love, I have no worries, not even about you, no, not at all. I’m firmly convinced that God is near and with you, and even if you should have to take that last walk, it will not be as difficult as you think. I’m quite sure of that, my love. You, too, must now go on living calmly and normally, and not wait for your death. The hymn is quite right in saying that you are ready to die if you cling to Him while living. You will surely do that, so it won’t be anything special if they come to get you some day. I will be with you even if I am utterly unaware of that, because I’m always with you. It is a given that I will remain as close to you as possible = here much of the time, of course. –

  I’m just as happy about Reisert and Eugen [Gerstenmaier] as you. I was overjoyed.—Now Harald is coming and wants the letter. Farewell, my dearly beloved! P.

  1. See Helmuth’s letter of November 14, 1944.

  2. This feeling remained with Freya for the next sixty-five years. When she died in January 2010, Helmuth’s last letter was in her bedside table.

  3. Freya needed an agricultural consultant to be an interlocutor with whom she could discuss Zeumer’s agricultural decisions when she considered that necessary.

  HELMUTH JAMES TO FREYA, JANUARY 13, 1945

  Tegel, 13 Jan 45

  My dear, yes, I understood everything very well and maybe already answered it in part this morning. That is how it is when you’re not positioned correctly, and even the most beautiful sayings won’t tide you over. Afterward you first feel quite insecure and timid, but when you notice that everything is back on an even keel it is that much better, and you get more humble and bold.

  It’s now about 3:15. I’m still shackled, but as you see, writing works quite well. Tomorrow, when another official little letter goes out to you, I want to write to the warden and see whether I can get them taken off again. If you go to see Schulze, you can see whether you’re able to get me unshackled; you can say someone told you that people who are sentenced to death are shackled. There is only one rationale, and that is my sciatica, especially at night, and you have to tell him that you’re quite certain that I won’t kill myself.

  Then, my dear, there’s the permission for a face-to-face meeting. Of course I want to see you. No, no, I am absolutely not attuned to the beyond, and I have no fear whatsoever of seeing you. Just come soon, because from a human perspective, the execution can be ordered at any moment. Also, if you come soon, maybe there’s a chance for a second time to work out. Yes, Schulze is probably in charge of that.

  I didn’t discuss the issue of clemency with Poelchau. I think that only three men are of interest: Müller, Kaltenbrunner, Himmler. While we are trying to influence them, we also need to tend to the Ministry of Justice so that they don’t get miffed. I’d say that’s the general approach.

  The second major point, as I see it, is that Jowo [von Moltke] and Carl Viggo [von Moltke] have to act and you as little as possible, so I’m not at all sure whether your visit to Müller would be the right thing now. What Müller promised you was a consultation “when it’s all over,” that is, when I’m dead.

  Third, I think it’s right for Hercher to write to Kaltenbrunner. If he writes this sort of letter, it would have to be sent in a way that ensures that Kaltenbrunner actually reads it. I’m convinced that Müller will throw it into the wastebasket.

  Overall I’d encourage all of you to do everything slowly and carefully. They won’t hang me as long as they know that there are considerations of clemency afloat. Besides, you should of course get clarity on what has become of Carl Viggo’s old petition. You will be able to do all that peacefully, my love. I think I am well beyond those phases in which I suddenly panic, and I hope that the Lord won’t push me back in there again. Enough for today, my dear, dear love. Keep up your beating; make it strong and steady. May the Lord watch over you and us. J.

  HELMUTH JAMES TO FREYA, JANUARY 14, 1945

  14 Jan 45

  Good morning, my dear love. Are you feeling all better again? I quickly want to read your letter through once again. Yes, my love, I understood it all well. It is nothing new, but the certainty now rests more deeply by one more rotation of the screw.1 These rotations are just painful; that is clear. How good that I wasn’t put to death on Thursday, because it would have been sad for you to have been out of step with me on the last day. Yes, my love, that was the first time in all these months that we were not totally aligned. Your letter on Saturday also had a mistake in it: You wrote that going to Plötzensee would surely not be as difficult for me as I was picturing it. At the moment—and with God’s help in the future as well—I am totally past that. When I left the courtroom after the sentencing, I thought I’d be going straight to Plötzensee and was very cheerful about it, and quite lighthearted. At the moment, I think it would be a matter of indifference—that word is not the right one, but you’ll understand what I mean—to me if the door were to open and I were taken away. If I think about the anxiety I used to have, especially in November, when the telephone rang in the main office and Herr Claus was summoned, I can only be filled with gratitude as I try to fathom the grace that has been granted to me.

  Today, though, is a gray day. But even this gray essentially colors only the surface, and underneath it’s as usual. I slept poorly; because I’m shackled, I go back to bed at 6 and then lie there for several hours and doze, hazily, by which I mean that the thoughts I’m able to come up with then are so hazy that much appears gray to me. And there’s been a new change, evidently for all prisons: The outdoor walk is canceled if the temperature falls below 0° Celsius because there is no additional clothing for the prisoners to put on. Claus said that most of them have only a shirt and pants, and even those are often in tatters. We have to suffer under this rule too, which means, for instance, that I won’t see Eugen [Gerstenmaier] again, since it won’t get warmer than 0° befo
re he goes to Brandenburg.2 This lack of any fresh air is unpleasant. I’ve already been through this in Ravensbrück for a week or two, of course, but it was warm outside, so I could keep the window open all the time. I’ll try to cozy up to Mittelstädt again; maybe I can continue with my light baths and thus have a little walk every day. But the thing I miss most is the daily conversation with Eugen.—Still, those are trifles, and as I said before, that gray isn’t running deep, and with God’s help it never will. Besides, it looks as though the sun could shine in the afternoon.

  The courtyard of Tegel prison in 1969

  My love, the trial is over; I don’t have to deal with my defense anymore, and the clemency initiatives will make demands on all of you and not on me, which means there is now room in my brain and in my time, as I can’t engage with anything but the Bible and hymnal the whole day long. I may have only a short time to live, and in all human likelihood I won’t survive until the end of this month, but I still want to live as though I’m to remain alive; anything else is nonsense. I’m not happy with the idea of “just reading”; instead, I’d like something to sink my teeth into, as it were. You really have to see—please—what you can get for me. I could, of course, continue with the Kant, but I’d rather like to begin learning Russian. I’m not gifted in languages, but maybe I can learn enough to be able at least to read it.

  I guess you’ll be going to slaughter your pig in the course of the week. Greet everyone for me and tell Ulla [Oldenbourg] to keep on working hard. Discuss everything in detail with her. My love, we will keep on going from one day to the next until we are reunited, in this world or the one beyond. J.

  1. See Helmuth’s letter of November 19, 1944.

  2. To Brandenburg-Görden prison now that he was no longer facing execution.

  HELMUTH JAMES TO FREYA, JANUARY 15, 1945

  Tegel, 15 Jan 45

  My dear, today is the beginning of the week that will bring you, my dear, a great deal of trouble, and surely heartache and disappointment as well, because nothing ever goes as we wish and imagine it should. I have now given more thought to the whole campaign for clemency and have the following to say:

  1. The petition for clemency that went to Keitel now has to be rerouted to Himmler so that it doesn’t somehow get to Hitler and is rejected by him. Maybe Haus can look into this again.

  2. An offensive toward Himmler himself can work only in a roundabout way, not directly from Jowo [von Moltke] or Carl Viggo [von Moltke]. That is a question I can’t assess for myself. I basically expect very little from Müller unless I’m able to soften him up a bit in regard to the case itself, which can actually happen only if he has me come to him again. Even so, your visit to him is right and important, because it cannot lead to a harsher stance. The way I see it, you can present three requests: a. that he might work toward a pardon for me; b. that he might listen to what Jowo and Carl Viggo have to say or facilitate their visiting Kaltenbrunner; c. that he grant me an audience. The way I see it, Jowo and Carl Viggo should visit Kaltenbrunner and not you. Basically, you’re co-convicted, so to speak.

  3. In my view, there is only one objective rationale for clemency, and that is the family, the many cousins for whom Kreisau is a gathering place of sorts, and several of whom were killed in the war, etc. So basically what we wrote in the letter to Himmler.

  4. But there are other reasons that need to be brought in to soften the current position:

  a. what is said about me in Carl Viggo’s petition for clemency;

  b. my written pleading of November 12, which I opted not to present in accordance with the wishes of the Gestapo;

  c. my opposition to any inclination to stage a coup, as was established during the trial.

  You can broach these three subjects, particularly b., to Müller, but Carl Viggo in particular also needs to present these matters, because he can also assess the legal weight of the clemency plea dated November 12. The way I see it, he can justifiably claim that once this defense had been cut off from me for political reasons at the trial, and I complied, even though the outcome was clear to me, it would be only right and proper to take these things into account in the clemency process, particularly because, as far as he’s heard, it is indisputable that my military superior in charge of these things, namely Canaris, knew about it, and I could have assumed that he would arrange for the necessary steps to be taken.

  5. I imagine you discussed what needs to happen with the Ministry of Justice. If Carl Dietrich [von Trotha] is willing, he will explain it satisfactorily. In my view, they need only be informed and leave us enough time to do everything in an unhurried manner.

  So, that’s what I have to say about this. My dear love, the brunt of this business—by which I don’t mean the main activity but the main emotional burden—falls upon you. And I can only pray that the Lord grants you a very confident, tranquil heart, which cannot be troubled by anything, even if everything categorically fails. Confident and joyful is the motto for these tasks; joyful even if I’m hanged.

  I’m not balking at the prospect of going to Plötzensee; the greater danger is the passage of time up to a decision. My love, I am carrying you within me, with me, near me, next to me. You are going with me to Plötzensee, if that must come to pass, and you will be coming with me to our Father as well. I’m certain of that.

  May the Lord watch over you, my love, and us. J.

  FREYA TO HELMUTH JAMES, JANUARY 15, 1945

  Monday morning

  My dear, yes, I’m well again, and have been since Saturday morning, when I wrote you that. You’re surely right that it was a rotation of the old screw, surely, but it was an important rotation. I was happy that you took this up with such love and understanding and told me all kinds of things that I had just said to myself in a similar form.

  No, I wasn’t asking about a face-to-face meeting because I think you’re over on the other side but because I thought it could be stressful for you, yet it’s true that both of those ideas are nonsensical. As for the fear of death, I didn’t misunderstand you there either, as you believe. Actually, I am quite certain that this won’t be difficult for you, I’ve always been quite sure of that, but you wrote about it as though it was the only thing that remained as a burden and I don’t believe in this burden either when the moment arrives. To that extent it was not an inner but a technical misunderstanding, because you most likely weren’t meaning to say that at all.

  Still, my love, there are all kinds of distressing and irksome minor things to complain about: in particular the shackles, which I hate so terribly, and then the lack of time outdoors. According to Poelchau, Eugen [Gerstenmaier] could easily stay in Tegel for another three months; it doesn’t go so quickly. Maybe something can also be done about the issue of taking your walks, and in any case you need to keep having lots of attacks of sciatica, even if it should be better. Discuss your schedule again with Poelchau. We wondered whether Greek wouldn’t be easier and lead to more. Think it over. In addition, he should bring you a book by Lilje.1

  I’m in the best of hands and carry you within me and keep you warm with all my strength, warm you in your state of grayness, my dear love. I am and remain your P.

  1. Hanns Lilje, Das letzte Buch der Bibel: Eine Einführung in die Offenbarung Johannes (Berlin: Furche Verlag, 1940); it appeared in English as The Last Book of the Bible, translated by Olive Wyon (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957).

  FREYA TO HELMUTH JAMES, JANUARY 15, 1945

  Monday afternoon

  My dear love, I love you, so, so much, and tomorrow I’m coming to visit you. That is so very wonderful!

  The day was not particularly pleasant: as you’ve said so often, I have to live with the ups and downs of hoping and abandoning hope, and this final stage is the most taxing of all. It would be utterly unbearable if I didn’t keep reminding myself from time to time that it is the good Lord we belong to, that He decides, and if He makes use of my stupidity when our endeavors go awry, that is also His will. You won’t die ba
dly if you die this way; on the whole, all is well, but it remains to be seen what His will is. So I’m still doing well now, too, which you are sure to have noticed from the very first word. First, I went to the People’s Court. It suffered slight damage from the bombs, windows smashed and rubble everywhere. During the break, Schulze emerged from the session—at that time I had no idea about what I have just learned, namely that Haubach, Steltzer, Gross are up today, and then Schulze came out. He was reserved, somewhat restrained in dealing with me, but stern, matter-of-fact. He named for me the officers in charge of clemency in the Ministry of Justice who also decide, at the same time, about the “when.” He said that the order to unshackle had to come from the doctor, then it would be effective right away, although only after being presented to Lautz. He gave me permission for two face-to-face meetings. I’m only getting two because I said that I now have the full responsibility for Kreisau, and I have to go right back there after a short trip home. But I assume that I may be able to get more from the Gestapo. Müller hasn’t been to Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse yet; I’m told to ask again on Wednesday. Then I went to the Ministry of Justice. First I wanted to see Dr. Pippert, who was also at the trial, but of course he was with Haubach, etc. Then I went to see Franke, whom Carl Viggo [von Moltke] had already seen. He is a very unpleasant man, SS on his buttonhole, but he reports to the minister and will discuss it with him just a few days after he has the grounds for the judgment in writing, and then the minister decides, his verdict goes to the chief Reich prosecutor, and he issues the execution order. I said we needed more time, and he said we would certainly get this week, and then he would report to the minister. At first he was very uncommunicative and aggressive, but as time went on he opened up, admitting that your case had virtually nothing to do with July 20th, and he was certainly interested, too, in what the Gestapo knew. I had to tell him something beyond what he already knew from the petition for clemency in order to motivate the push for more time. Rest assured that I was cautious, but I had to say something objective. When I started saying at one point, “You will admit that . . .” he replied to me, “I will admit nothing of the kind, because I am not an adversary, but all of this is very important to me, and the Moltke case is certainly on our minds.” All I can take away from the conversation is this: 1. I don’t think he tricked me. 2. He was interested and has pondered the case. 3. He had some degree of respect for me, and sent me on my way in keeping with that respect. 4. He’s not crucial to the case, but he will be discussing it with the minister. 5. Since Carl Viggo had already been there, it wasn’t wrong of me to go there alone again. 6. Needless to say, he didn’t give me any concrete hope. Afterward I went to see Eggensberger, the undersecretary Harald [Poelchau] said that Carl Viggo had to go see. I wanted to announce Carl Viggo’s visit, but found out that although he is responsible for the enforcement of the sentence, it is only for the prisons, thus for Eugen [Gerstenmaier]. That’s when I really noticed how nasty Herr Franke was, because Herr Eggensberger was a decent human being. He almost felt bad about not being able to do anything at all for me. I was glad to have encountered a human being again. Then I went to eat and to see Haus. There was nothing new over there, but the atmosphere was quite warm, with everyone sending their greetings and expressing real concern for you. Dr. Friede, Haus told me, knows a man who worked on your case and also attended the trial: he reported that you made a very good impression, you’re essentially out of the whole Goerdeler business, but you yourself did quite a lot, and you had some sort of key role of your own! That’s what Haus says. So, my love, I’m now heading to your vicinity again. Tomorrow Herr Wickenberg wants to review your situation and, I hope, once again arrange for you to be unshackled. I truly wish for you to be freed of them once more. It’s horrible for me to picture you shackled in your bed. Maybe you can also have more light baths to distract you. Go ahead and make yourself look really bent over, even when I’m there.