大象传媒

The von Thadden family in Pomerania (PART TWO)

Memorial Address for Elizabeth-von Thadden
By Ehrengard Schramm-von Thadden (Step sister to Barbara)
Wieblingen, 9 September 1947
(Translated by Barbara Fox -von Thadden)
BEFORE WW2

鈥淚 myself was a founder member of the school until the take-over by the state. But still I would not be able to draw a completely satisfactory picture of my sister鈥�
鈥淪ome of you will barely have a clear memory of the time of National Socialism. Legends arise easily in one or other direction, and soon the picture of a person is distorted and blurred. So let me try today and quite simply to describe for you how it all happened that Elizabeth-von Thadden (founder and head of the school at Wieblingen, Germany) was led from the heights of her public work to her dreadful death.鈥�

鈥淗ere let me say at once that Elizabeth von Thadden was not the predestined, undeterred martyr of the Third Reich. Apart from those who were persecuted because of their race, I believe that hardly any German has been one of these, although many would like you to believe that today. She was an infinitely vivacious, happy and active woman, who by nature and on principle disliked anything negative. In 1933 she was at the height of her life. She had created a school, which flourished and grew after only six years. People trusted her; young girls came to her in ever growing numbers from here and from abroad. Her warm maternal nature could offer help to these children who needed that warmth, for there were many without parents. The countrywoman in her had found a beautiful, fertile piece of land, which could be further, enhanced and which repaid all the care quickly and abundantly. All this did not change at all when the Nazis came to power.鈥�

鈥淎dmittedly, not one of her many friends belonged to the new masters, they belonged to the Christian conservative or democratic camps. Her instinct reacted with strong disapproval to the news of the first appalling deeds like the burning of the Reichstag, but it did not lead her at all to an active opposition. There is a great deal of loyalty in us East Germans towards those who govern us. Centuries of being brought up on Luther鈥檚 teaching and in the Prussian state made it seem natural for us to say at the beginning let them try and show us what they can do. My sister particularly was inclined to cooperate and to help when it seemed to her that apparently good work was initiated. She was delighted to see her children give performances in aid of public charities. For instance when the Thingplatz was inaugurated on the Heiligenberg, she went with the girls to attend and to have a look. This attitude was made easy for her because she lived in the state of Baden. Here things have always shown a gentler face than the rest of the Reich. Very often you could talk things over with the local Party officials, who were generally quite satisfied if they saw good will. What people really thought, and particularly what religious convictions they had, did not interest the authorities very much at first. In any case the school was greatly valued. One was so proud that so many prominent people from other countries kept on sending their daughters to Wieblingen, a fact that became very rare and finally stopped in other schools in the Reich. Thus the Christian and conservative look of the school was tolerated, even at the time when the Kirchenkampf got going and one might have become concerned and suspicious because members of Elizabeth von Thadden鈥檚 family were arrested.鈥�

鈥淚n fact she really had not been much troubled until the outbreak of the war. That she did suffer inwardly is another matter. With every passing day it became more apparent where all this was leading. Did she not have enough friends who were persecuted because of their Jewish blood? With all her energies she tried to help, and for some of them she found ways and means to help them cross the border. But she was unable to offer help for so many more!鈥�

鈥淥f course she had come into contact with the resistance in the Bekennende Kirche 鈥楥onfessing Church鈥�) because her brother Reinold was a member of the leadership right from the start. Piarrer Mass in Heidelberg was a friend of hers. Therefore she witnessed the Kirchenkampf at close quarters and knew exactly that this was not a matter of restrictions only, but [that the aim of the Nazis was] complete destruction [of the Christian Church and Christian values]. She saw how the army with all its good qualities of old German traditions were handed over to the Party, and how the judiciary was gradually turned into a farce. How many conversations did I listen to in Wieblingen, and how terrified I was least they should be overheard! But the Gestapo apparently were not up to scratch. Nothing happened.鈥�

WAR STARTED

鈥淔rom one day to the next Heidelberg was barely 15 minutes by plane from the [western] front. In those first weeks it all looked much more serious than it did a year later. In those early weeks nobody was prepared for the quick succession of victorious campaigns. Because of the expected dangers, Elizabeth von Thadden moved the school to Bavaria, to Yuyzing in the Starnberg Lake, where she thought she would be safe. That was to her undoing. She never got a foothold in Bavaria, and neither with the country nor with the village was she able to make friends. That had been so easy in Heidelberg. One saw in her the Prussian who had no business in Bavaria. Many people showed her their antipathy, which they immediately used to gain favours with the Party by hinting at political suspicions. For the first time the school had a real spy.鈥�

Sometimes in the past one or the other girl would have aired her anger in letters home, saying that the school was too 鈥榬eactionary鈥�. But that had not been so bad. Here a child, a daygirl from Tutzing, was
instructed by her mother, who was in charge of the local women鈥檚 section of the Party, to watch out all the time and report back on any signs of insufficient enthusiasm for the 鈥楴azis鈥� views. An example, when the campaign in France ended in victory and the ardent hope went through Germany that the war might soon be over, my sister arranged a celebration in the school. She read psalm 103 鈥楤less the Lord, Oh my soul鈥�. This the little spy reported to her mother. In Heidelberg this would have gone unnoticed. Here in Tutzing it was not important that there was a celebration, only how it was done. A Christian celebration was obviously a hostile act against the Third Reich. Another example; in the English lesson the teacher asked the class to learn 鈥楻ule Britannia鈥� by heart. The spy reported, the Gestapo noted: a national disgrace. A Jewish friend, who had been left in peace by Goebbels for his own reasons, visited my sister on her fiftieths birthday. That was the last straw. Gestapo officials came and shouted about 鈥榰nheard of condition鈥�. No Hitler pictures could be found in the whole school! That was sufficient evidence to show what sort of spirit prevailed here. The interrogation took many hours and went as far as covering questions about religion.鈥�

鈥淢y sister, who told me about it all, soon afterwards, was utterly shaken by the ice-cold predatory hostility with which the men had confronted her. What was going on here? An entirely typical occurrence 鈥� the attack by the Hitler state on the free personality who was true to herself, but who had withdrawn from the laws of totalitarism 鈥� and who had to be removed from all the places where young people could be influenced鈥�.

鈥淭here could be no doubt that this was a very serious threat indeed. What was to be done? This was the hard question, which confronted every German at sometime or other. On the one hand there was one鈥檚 life鈥檚 work, and to be true to oneself on the other hand. Apart from those people who right at the beginning were taken to concentration camps who were driven across the border, there can hardly have been one single German who did not attempt to compromise, at least for a while. But here there was no longer anything that could be achieved by giving way. What had been possible had been done. Beyond that point one would have betrayed one鈥檚 self, one鈥檚 own convictions, and the Christian character of the school. For Elizabeth von Thadden this was impossible鈥�.

鈥淵et one way seemed still to be left open. It was obvious that she could no longer stay in Bavaria. So she moved the school back to Wieblingen {in the Easter holidays 1941) where she had always been treated with good will. Here, so she believed, everything would be all right again. But she was wrong. Because in the meantime the central authorities in Berlin had noticed her. In any case, one by one the private boarding schools were taken over by the state鈥�.

鈥淎mazed, officials asked themselves why they had put up for such a long time with this openly Christian school, this obvious blot! Probably the officials in Karlsruhe had already been reprimanded for their compliance. It was wartime, one no longer shilly- shallied. The order arrived for the take-over by the state (June 1941), which firstly and above everything else meant the removal of Elizabeth von Thadden. Once more many good friends in Berlin tried to use their influence. A bitter fight ensued. But nothing helped. When on that last day we all went into the chapel in Wieblingen, we were no longer able to have a parson present, so we read verses from John 15 and 16. The last words were (Chapter 16, verse 33) 鈥楾hese things I have spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace.' In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.鈥� (Luther translates 鈥榯ribulation鈥� with 鈥楢ng=fear鈥�) Elizabeth von Thadden had not yet learnt to fear fear. She was strong, capable and self-confident鈥�.
鈥淪he believed that difficulties were there to be overcome; you just had to do it in the right way. I hardly think that she took in these words from St. John鈥檚 Gospel 鈥� not on that day. She lived as in a daze, and one day she woke up again. When she woke up she found herself in Berlin, in that tiny basement flat in the house of her old friend Anna von Gierke. This awakening was very painful. The rooms were so small one could barely move, there was domestic help and soon the first bombs fell on Berlin (summer 1941). But that was not the worst. For her, this infinitely active woman, it was really hard to have no work, no field of activity suitable to her ability and strength. At first it seemed as if something could be done with this situation. Many old wieblingen 鈥榗hildren鈥� lived and worked in Berlin and there were many who were not comfortable in their job. One after another they found their way to the basement flat in the Carmer Strasse where they could talk and where they looked for advice and help when needed. The experienced pedagogue took on the care of these many young people with her old single-mindedness. Her great loving heart did so much good in such a quiet way, and yet, she knew clearly and instinctively that this was not a real job, that all this was rather makeshift, not sufficient for her energy.鈥�

鈥淪he therefore tried to find work with the Red Cross. At first it looked as if she might be successful, as though one might be offering her the management of establishments where wounded soldiers recuperated, but very soon it became apparent that the Party had no intention to give her such a responsible job. She was kept going with great promises, and was at first given lowly jobs in the Central Offices in Babelsberg. Hoping for better things she did the work willingly enough. She was also conscious of the fact that she had the chance to see and hear a great deal. For the first time she came face to face with the nastiness committed by the regime. She saw that the Red Cross was forced to destroy letters which had succeeded in arriving from German prisoners of war in prison camps in Russia. Hitler said that such letters would diminish the morale at the front. For the first time she came into contact with people who had been driven into the Resistance because of what they had experienced. She herself had not got to that point, not even then, but she suffered profoundly because her powerless anger could not be outweighed by useful work. The many, many people who visited her in her small flat unburdened themselves of their worries, fears and despair, but ultimately she too was unable to help鈥�.

鈥淭he Red Cross finally declared that they would offer her the running of one of the hospitals for recuperating soldiers in France, but unfortunately there would have to be a precondition; she would have to work in such a home first as a simple helper. That really was quite a cheek to ask of a woman aged fifty, who had been in charge of a large institution. My sister bowed to this demand, hoping that it would not be for long, while the Red Cross intended to push this troublesome person onto a dead end track. She arrived at a place, which was managed by a young girl in her twenties, not given to a lot of tact. She apparently relished the situation in which she could humiliate the former headmistress by giving her silly servant鈥檚 jobs. My sister wrote to me at that time saying that she believed God was sending her all this because perhaps she herself had not always been tactful enough with the adult employees in her charge. Now she would have to learn herself what this felt like.鈥�

鈥淵ou see how this strong woman reacted to all the problems that confronted her. She learnt to see God鈥檚 will in everything and to accept it but still she was doing it in the hope that this was an interim stage and that later she would be able to make good use of her present experiences. This was now the time after the fall of Stalingrad (1943). There could no longer be any doubt for anybody who wanted to see that the war was lost. It meant therefore that one had to keep going, that it was only a question of time, and then all would end well 鈥� at least for one鈥檚 own personal life.鈥�

The story continues in part three.

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