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The Other Side of the Coin - Part Two

Gunter Freundlich and Maria Davies

Gunter wrote three letters to Maria in 1941.She received another one in January 1942; there was then a gap of nine months before she received the next letter. This letter came from :

Assistance Protestante (YMCA)
Les Eaux Bonnes
BP France

(see below)

Gunter explained that he was working for the Assistance Protestante YMCA in a mountain centre near the Camp De Gurs. He now had a degree of freedom being able to travel within a radius of 15 to 20 miles of the camp.

8
L M Davies G Finlay Freundlich
41 Cambridge Road Assitance Protestante (YMCA)
Hove Les Eaux Bonnes
Sussex BP France
Angleterre

October 1942

My Darling,

It is no use making excuses for not writing. There aren't any. For weeks and weeks I had tried to make myself sit down and write. In vain. At last I have pulled myself together. Maybe it's because I dreamt so vividly of you and the kids last night. I have forgotten most of that dream. All I remember is that Laurence was very tiny-not taller than one foot-that he was wearing a woman's hat three times the size of his whole body and that he kept on running about like mad. I nearly died with laughter-in my dream.
Every day I hope for another telegram from you. I don't know how many times I read the last one. It conveyed to me as much as a long letter. There is not very much to tell about my present life. Since May I’ve working for the Assistance Protestante YMCA, until last week in the camp, since then here in this little mountain holiday resort where a few hundred people, mostly previously in the camp, have been concentrated. I have quite a lot of freedom ever since I started this job, I can move about freely within a radius about 15 to 20 miles. Altogether I am quite happily. The people I live and work with are very very nice, intelligent, full of sense of humour, in short very cultivated.
While in the camp I used to do all the shopping which meant that I have been riding about on an old bicycle practically every day. Never before have I led such a healthy life. Since August I did the cooking as well. Here we are going to open a new foyer. My duties he will be somewhat different from those in the camp. Probably I shall have to look after the library. But all same I shall again have to do all the cooking as well.
Darling, did I write to you that I've had my first appearance on stage as an actor? I don't think I did so badly, of course mostly on account of the most marvellous directing.
Baby there is so much I have to tell you- letters are no good the moment I have written down a sentence it seems stale and meaningless Had I written this letter some weeks ago it might have been a birthday letter for you and Kimikins .But now I don't even think you’ll get it before Christmas. We celebrated Laurence’s birthday with our meagre means and will celebrate yours and Chintah’s also.
Until very recently I couldn't think back, it hurt too much, but now, I can, now that one has for the first time the firm belief that it will be over soon. To think that it is two-and-a-half-year since I left you in the kitchen at 40 Wesenbeke Straat, Antwerp. Thank God we didn't know that it would last that long. Or maybe ring your alright, but we didn't dare to think it openly. And still, in some way, it was surely for the good. I have learnt a lot, things I would never have seen otherwise. It was and still is a trial. But now, it has lasted long enough. I’m getting very impatient. The dreary march of time dulls my senses. So many times I've had tried to imagine a day when we’d be together again, when it would be all over will be all over and long, free future would be before us.

Gunter

As the war became more protracted the gap between letters increased. The next one Maria received was dated Sunday July 9th 1944. It came from a camp in Spain. Amongst my mother’s archive I found a typed note from Gunter which explained that he had made a break from the Camp De Gurs and fled to Spain. He said that he did this to avoid capture by the Gestapo. Here are the next two letters that Maria received :-

Miss Laura M Davies G F Freundlich
Ebbw Vale Pabellon 22
Monmouth Campo de Concentracion
Angleterre Miranda de Ebro

Sunday July 9th 1944

My Darling,

There doesn't seem much chance to get in touch with you this way, it is my last chance. A few days after my arrival in this country I wrote to you, (beginning of February), but that letter came back. You had apparently moved from your address in Hove. At the same time I had written to Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Herbert. A few days ago I had a letter from Kati telling me there Uncle Herbert had died three years ago. From Aunt Elizabeth no news until today. With this letter I shall send one to her too. My dear, how I hope that this will reach you. Please, let me have a few lines by return of post. I must know how you are and Chintah and Laurence,where you are, what you are doing. At the back of my mind I have kept through all these years that one little phrase of yours, ‘keep safe’.
Sometimes I can't believe it that I have succeeded. It seemed so hopeless sometimes. It is no good trying to tell your how I spend the last years. I can only I am very well and fitter than ever, well looked after. I have quite a lot of work, playing the piano, quite a decent one, and even a spot of saxophone. Darling, soon it would be all over. I don't know if it will be possible for me to come to England after the war. Can you perhaps make some inquiries? Please write at once.
Darling, I shall be with you soon.

Gunter

10
Miss Laura M Davies G F Freundlich
Rockhill Pabellon 22
Carperby Campo de Concentracion
Leyburn Miranda de Ebro
Yorkshire
Angleterre

My Little Juliet,

I was not yet quite awake when somebody gave me your letter yesterday. I hardly dared to look at it. I was so afraid it might have melted away, resolve itself into a (??). It is so strange, only about a fornight ago , about the time when you wrote to me, I read the very same passage of Romeo and Juliet and re-read it several times and thought of , and I remembered the day when we went see the film of Romeo and Juliet in Antwerp. My Darling, every time I feel a bit down I get hold of William (Shakespeare) and recover instantly.
These last days are so trying. Like waiting for a train on a cold, stormy night in some way off station. And the train doesn't come. But it will come soon now.
Don't worry! I haven't lost my courage.I get hardened to this life and there are many, fine friends.
Some time ago we changed our abode in the camp and there is no piano now. But I play a bit of alto sax which passes the time well. There is a french boy who plays a nice dirty (??????), somewhere near to Johnn's style, and another who plays guitar. I have written a few things for our trio and we play almost everyday out in the yard in a tent. (Most of us sleep outside in improvised tents.) There is room enough indoors but one's got so used to sleeping in the fresh open air that I can't imagine what it is like to sleep in a four walled room.
Angel, I would so much like to know what you are doing. Are the kids with you? What has happened to Aunt Elizabeth and Kiwi? I wrote two letters to her but had no answers so far. I had news that Kiwi knows my address, but he doesn't write. I think I know why. But now, I don't care, now that I have your address.

After all I have passed through these years I feel so strong now. Be strong, too, my Darling. This separation will last quite a while yet. It's better to face the facts. We've got through the worst wnd we'll get through the rest. Weakness and strength are so relative, depend so much on the circumstances. In ordinary life we were so helpless, and suddenly amidst the chaos, we are strong, we love.
I hope this letter will get to you in the time of your and Chintah's birthday. In a few days it will be Laurence's. I count already the days when I can expect an answer from you.I can't grasp it yet, now I can write to you when I want to. From now on there will be something in the mail from me. Until now, all days were alike, an endless chain of routine life, sleeping, eating, a bit of music, swimming, (we have a lovely swimming pool here), reading, a bit of card playing.
But now I have something to wait for. These last months will be dark days.

At the moment, I don't think it's any use trying to get to England. Still, if you have the chance make some inquiries. In any case, darling, what ever happens, once this is over, I'll come to you and you'll come to me. And there is no difference between the two. We shall be happy whenever we shall live.
Yoy know what I am reading at the moment? Gulliver's Travels. And I like it. It could have been written in our days. Have you ever read any of Ethel Mannins's books? Some time ago I read one, (?????????), I think you'd like it. Some passages in the book made one feel awful. I must have been so terrible to you sometimes, so selfish. There was incident some time ago, I refused to play at the last minute from a music hall performance here in the camp because I - and several other artists- had been continuously exploited. That day I thought so much of you, my Darling. And that day perhaps for the first time I realised my worth. How many times I should have gone on strike.
Darling, write to me many of those lovely letters of yours.
A little patience.

All my love,
Gunter

PS
Tell Laurence and Chintah that I am always thinking of them. So soon, we shall be all together.

What are Lola, Wendy, Rene and Molly doing? Have you heard of Kenny and Diana? I think of Ken so often. My friends here are so much like him.

The letters continued until 1947 when Gunter was in 23, AMG Evacuation Camp, Belgano, Italy.

For much of the last year or so he had been talking about his return to Maria in England, asking Maria to do what she could to get the Home Office to allow him into the country. Eventually he wrote to Maria to tell her that he had got married. I believe he met Helga in the camp in Italy. She was German but had links with Italy.

Naturally, this news was a great shock to Maria. She had waited for him to return despite the attentions of a number of suitors. My mother’s archive material included quite a number of letters from these admirers.

I have had these letters since my mother’s death in 1975, but I have only started to type them up recently and so I am finding out a great deal about them both. I still have over thirty letters to work through. Fortunately, Gunter spoke and wrote very good English and the letters are in good condition. It seems that Gunter did not keep Maria’s letters or if he did they were not to be found amongst his possessions after his death. Maria had always been one to keep letters.

POST SCRIPT

After the war Gunter remained in touch with Maria. He did what he could to send her money, mainly from the royalties from music he had written before the war. My sister wrote to him and eventually she met him in Italy where he was on holiday with Helga. As a result of her efforts I was able to meet Gunter for the first time in 1973. It was quite a strange moment standing on the platform at Victoria Station waiting for the train which was bearing your ‘unknown’ father.

I was married by then to Judy and we had three children. We got on well although Helga did not speak much English. Gunter said to me that he would like to meet Maria again but, perhaps understandably, she declined to do so.

Gunter and Helga made two further trips to England in 1975 and 1977. He died in Mainz in August 1985.

Since 1993 Judy and I have made regular trips to Wiesbaden to stay with my cousin Marion Schmidt whose mother was Marianne Klee, my father’s sister. She is still alive and living in a nursing home in Wiesbaden. She always says that I remind her very much of Gunter.

Laurence Davies
December 2005

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