Chapter 11
Franze Levy lived for her children, books and music.
Franze, Henner, Ruth, Lore, Lotte and Renata
Lotte said:
“Under the guidance of our mother, we played a lot of music together. She also taught us the importance of reading, and often said:
‘Tell me what you read, and I shall know what you are.’
Her snug - her holy room - was filled with books with personal inscriptions to her.”
Franze in her snug
An artist friend made Franze a lino cut, showing her, with her five children, being carried by Archangel Michael. She put a copy on the inside of her book covers, and her desk.
Franze had attended Altenburg’s Christian schools, and remained close to school friends, some who became teachers and one, a doctor. They visited her sitting room to discuss literature, religion and ideas. Her salon set was well established, with connections throughout Germany and beyond. She often received visitors from Berlin, and was friends with authors like Stephan Zweig, who was known for his novellas.
Another member of her salon set was Dr Kuno Fiedler. Fiedler was a theologian, who gained a PhD in Leipzig, later to become a religious teacher at an Altenburg school. He was friends with the author, Thomas Mann, whose fifth child he baptised. Mann won the Nobel prize for literature in 1929. Through Fiedler, Franze developed a friendship with Thomas Mann, and the two became regular correspondents.
In 1930, Thuringia’s regional government was one of the first to become Nazi. In 1932, Fiedler refused to carry out the propaganda prescribed by Fritz Sauckel, the Thuringian interior minister, in class. He left to become a journalist.
When Hitler became chancellor early in 1933, Mann and his wife, were on holiday in Switzerland. Their son and daughter in Munich warned them not to return.
During the spring of 1933, Nazi university student organizations, professors, and librarians put together long lists of books they considered un-German. These lists included books by Jewish authors, as well as those with non-Jewish authors, whose ideas conflicted with the Nazi ideals.
On the night of May 10, 1933, Nazis held book burnings. They marched by torchlight in night-time parades, singing chants, and throwing books into huge bonfires. On that night more than 25,000 books were burned.
At this time, Thomas Mann’s political writings were blacklisted and burned, but after he declared solidarity with other exiled writers, the Nazis stripped him of his citizenship and rescinded his academic honors. Mann’s exile from Germany became permanent.
Fiedler visited Mann twice in Switzerland, in Kuesnacht, but was then arrested in Germany in September, 1936, without being given any reason. It transpired, the Gestapo were watching him, as they thought he was an agent in a spy ring with Thomas Mann.
Fiedler was held in the political department of the Wurzburg regional court prison, on the charge of high treason.
Cover of Gestapo records relating to Fiedler (1)
This was punishable by death, through beheading or life imprisonment. Before Hitler came to power, there had been few beheadings, but in 1933, Hitler ordered the building of 20 new guillotines.
Fiedler managed to escape prison after three weeks, and crossed the border into Switzerland, by boat across Lake Constance. Mann helped secure him a position as a pastor in St Antoenien.
Meanwhile in Germany, the Gestapo intercepted a postcard from Fiedler to Franze. They visited her apartment to search her possessions. They were particularly interested in her books, which they tore apart and flung across the room, hitting Franze’s girls. Her treasured signed editions were ripped to shreds, along with her lino cuts. The Gestapo seized Franze’s correspondence with Mann and Fiedler.
A few days later she was taken for interrogation. The Gestapo insisted that her salon set was a subversive organisation, with a Jewish Marxist purpose. They also made libellous claims about Franze’s supposed behaviour, as was their want.
One of many pages in the Gestapo records, linking Franze to Mann and Fiedler.
The Gestapo charged Franze with high treason, and she was held in the local jail, while plans were made for her transfer and trial.
Albert did not waste time. His former standing must have helped in persuading the local police to let Franze out for the weekend.
At the same time, Albert’s cousin Jac sent a car from Amsterdam to collect Franze. As soon as she was released, Franze was driven to the border, and illegally smuggled into Holland. She would spend the next year apart from her husband and children, living in the home of Albert’s cousin.
Mann and Fiedler continued corresponding up until Mann’s death in 1955. It is said, “the most important statements about religion and religiosity” available from Thomas Mann, can be found in his correspondence with Fiedler.
Albert remained in Altenburg with his four daughters, and in-laws, but that would not be for long.
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Continued next week……
Notes
(1) A copy of the Gestapo records came from the Munich Nazi archives in 2009.