No strength to write
A father's despair leaves him unable to keep a journal
-
“Helen has become a big girl. In the last few months, there would have been more to write than ever, but the times are so serious that I have neither the strength nor the leisure to write."
Hamburg
Ruth and Wilhelm Hesse, residents of Hamburg, had two little girls, Helen (b. 1933) and Eva (b. 1936). Wilhelm kept diaries for both girls. Between the May 3 and August 2 entries, there is a long gap (a very brief notice regarding Helen’s birthday on June 30 seems to have been added later). As Wilhelm writes, the seriousness of the times made it hard to write, so much so that 5-year-old Helen, who had been in a children’s home in Wohldorf-Duvenstedt since the middle of May, complained that she was not receiving any letters from her parents. While Wilhelm is generally pleased with his daughter’s development, he mentions that Helen and three of her little friends had taken a beating for picking 20 unripe peaches from a tree and biting into them. Perhaps the children’s blissful lack of awareness of what was brewing around them and their innocent transgression provided the young father with a minimal sense of normalcy.
SHARE
SOURCE
Institution:
Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin
Collection:
Helen and Eva Hesse Family Collection, AR 25327
Original:
Box 1, folder 3
