March 7 & 13, 1942: Open House Engineering

Diary Entry from Herb Michael, Opa's Roommate

Transcription:

Saturday, March 7, 1942

66th Day - 299 Day to Follow

This afternoon's work on Open House was quite satisfactory to me. We had a slow start because Blum wasn't around to get supplies, and nails were hard to find.

Small was there, and Hewson, and Tom. Tom got an oil pump for an irrigation system. Hewson about finished our power plant building.

I'm beginning to get enthusiastic again.

Diary Entry from Herb Michael, Opa's Roommate

Transcription:

Friday, March 13, 1942

72nd Day - 293 Days to Follow

Bed looks so good. From 8:30 this morning until 11:00 tonight I've been at the Engine building working or looking at Open House.

We wired our farm and power plant, put up our apparent transmission line, finished our power house and transformers, rigged up our pump system.

Tom, Kenney Johnson, and I were putting on the last touches when the opening whistle blew. It's quite a thrill.

Well this is adorable. I'm guessing what we're seeing here is some sort of giant model/construction project for the engineering students. It's a team effort and there is a whistle at the end, signaling that the time to build is done! What a brilliant way to create a fun learning environment that also stimulates some of the real-world realities of timelines and functioning in a group to accomplish a task. 

I hope their Open House was a success! It's nice to see Opa get to learn some of the engineering skills that he wanted to go to school for in the first place. This skill set will set the stage for his future opportunities, and it seems that Kansas State was a good choice.

March 6, 1942: English and German Lessons

Diary Entry from Herb Michael (Opa's roommate)

Transcription:

Friday, March 6, 1942

65th Day - 300 Days to Follow

Tom has been teaching me a little German, at meal times, or when we do dishes.

Dish - schussel 

Halt - halt

spoon - louffel

I love you.

Ich Liebe dich.

The girl - nominative (subject) - das madchen.

Of the girl - genitive (possession) - das madchen.

To the girl - dative (indirect object) - den madchen.

The girl - accusative (direct object) - das madchen.

So I learned something from this diary entry. And surprisingly it wasn't German. Had you heard of "genitive" or "dative" or any of those other grammatical cases? I googled them. Let's just say that I am not as much of a grammar nerd as I thought I was. I KNOW that Opa knew these things because he perfected his English and one of his favorite things to do was edit. I'm still jealous that this language skill that seems to be rampant in the Doeppner family did not trickle down to my generation (or my father's for that matter).

I'm also a little surprised that Opa is teaching German. He seemed to have worked so hard to distance himself from his German heritage (my perspective as his granddaughter), but here he is still hanging on to it a little.

February 22, 1942: Frozen Peas

Diary Entry of Herb Michael (Opa's roommate)

Transcription:

Aileen Roberts had Tom and I, and also Miss Derby (one of the librarians) at her place for dinner today. It was excellent, browned chicken, frozen peas, olives, hot rolls, cake and Bavarian creme.

We had a nice time talking about poetry, telling riddles.

Tom and I took a dozen sweet peas for her, which seemed to please her. It was a very nice afternoon.

Eileen Roberts (as Opa referred to her) was the librarian that he worked for at Kansas State. She remained a friend for many years, they kept in touch until she died. I think she became a sort of mentor and trusted friend for him. 

Here she has Opa and Herb over for dinner, which I think in Kansas-speak, might be lunch. I may be wrong. I absolutely love that frozen peas are on the menu as excellent. I bet they are fresh from the farm and not actually what we think when we think of frozen peas, haha. I'm guessing when Tom and  Herb took the peas for her, she was giving them some produce from her garden. 

Their conversation consisted of poetry and riddles. How absolutely lovely is that? People like Eileen Roberts were part of how Opa made it through these tough years in his exile from all things home. They made him feel at home here in the middle of Kansas, with frozen peas.

Spotlight: The Wannsee Conference

January 20, 1942.

That's the date that we have been leading up to in this blog when we know (as historians) that the heartbeat of every single Jew in Europe is in danger.

This day is when the Nazis made a plan to kill the Jews. 

This article by the Holocaust Museum in D.C. does a good job of explaining the day's events in a concise way. Please read it. We forget that up to this point, in Western Europe, deportation and execution of Jews was peripheral. 

All of that is about to change.

January 1, February 4, 1942: Red Cross Postcards

Red Cross Postcard from Ella to Opa, January 1, 1942

Translation:

1 January 1942

Beloved boy, 

Heartfelt wishes for the new year! Are you able to keep studying? Are you healthy? Write Patti often. Am healthy, have work.

Kisses!

Mama

Red Cross Postcard from Ella to Opa, February 4, 1942

Translation:

4 February 1942

Beloved boy,

How are you? Are you able to keep studying? Keep in frequent contact with Patti. You all be good! Greet and thank the Shelleys! We are healthy. Kisses!

Mama

So it begins. Red Cross postcards are now the only allowed method of communication between Opa and Ella. He no longer has pages of his mother's guilt trips, detailed questions of his health, and advice on dating. I bet he misses it. 

Red Cross provides this service in war time, with the cooperation (and likely censorship) of both sides at war. It is a blessing that Ella gets to continue any correspondence at all. 

You will notice we are now in 1942, and already in February. These two notes are all we have from Ella the first two months of 1942. Just Ella' notes to say she is still OK, has work, and that she still can fit a guilt trip and health question into what is essentially the shortest letter allowed.

Opa now must be focused on school and friends, anything to keep him busy and occupied. Anything to keep the pace of life going until he hears that his mother is OK. Has Patti written? Are we missing letters or did they stop writing? We haven't heard from August directly since the invasion of Holland in May of 1940. Almost two years of silence from Dad. Ella, the most vulnerable of the lot, is the one still writing. 

Does Opa's heart leap every time he sees the Red Cross postcard? Does he think "She's alive!" Does he know to doubt it? 

December 25, 1941: Nice, Lazy Christmas

Diary Entry from Herb Michael's diary (Opa's roommate)

Transcription:

Thursday, December 25, 1941
359th Day - 6 Days to Follow

Christmas Day

What a nice, lazy day. After morning chores were done, a nice breakfast, and then we opened packages.

There was a table cloth from me from Tom, and a shirt and two pair of socks from Dad and Mom, that beside the typewriter they are getting me, but which hasn't come yet.

Dad and I went hunting and shot a cottontail apiece, Dinner was grand.

Radio programs of Dicken's Christmas Carol, and the Rochester Civic Orchestra were excellent.

There is so much good in this short little diary entry. I absolutely love the simplicity of this Christmas. A lazy day that started with chores (because even Christmas Day has chores). 

I'm so pleased that Opa thought to give his roommate a gift. I thought perhaps he was with them, but I think Herb would have said that explicitly- or at least taken him hunting with him. If Opa is not there, where is he? Opa has always made it a point to be with people on special holidays, nearly always he seems to have an invitation to someone's home. Is he back with the Shelley's? Is he with his friend Winton that he told Gisela about? I wonder. Is he having a nice enough time to distract him from the fact that he isn't with his family... that he hasn't heard from any of them in a while? 

I love that Christmas gifts are shirts, socks, and a typewriter. I won't go on a rage about the rampant consumerism of Christmas now. This is a nice lazy Christmas, and I'm glad to get a glimpse into it.

December 22, 1941: Could Not Get Out

Letter from Annelise Thieman of AFSC to Opa

Transcription:

December 22, 1941

Mr. Thomas Doeppner,

1119 Kearny

Manhattan, Kansas.

Dear Thomas Doeppner:-

We were very glad to have your letter of December 4th and to learn that your student visa has been extended. We think that the present situation makes it impossible to proceed further with the change of status matters, but we shall keep your informed in case against all expectations, the change of status still would be possible for persons of German nationality.

A sad as it is that your mother could not get out of Germany in time, I am glad that you did not take a loan for the Cuban visa, because Cuba now has closed her doors and those people who paid for Cuban visae are going to lose a lot of money. How hard that is, in particular if this money was borrowed and will take years to be repaid, I do not need to tell you.

It has not been possible for anybody to get out of Germany since approximately November 6th, as far as we know. Immigration now has of course stopped and Spain and Portugal are refusing transit visae and in doing so they are making immigration very difficult for people who are in unoccupied France, etc. It seems, however, that in Germany matters are now developing in favor of the German Army rather than the Nazi party, which would mean that there is some hope that further anti-Semitic measures such as deportation to Poland will not be continued. Since, however, one gets very little information out of Germany these days, it is of course not possible to make any definite statements.

I hope you have a good Christmas. With best wishes for 1942.

Sincerely yours,

Annelise Thieman.

I'm going to go out on an emotional limb and say that this is a craptastic letter from Annelise. She has bad news and couches it with how the news could be worse for others, and might not be as bad for his mother, except we don't actually know anything.

If I were Opa, I'd ask her to save her speech about how sad it is for people who took out loans for Cuba. It IS sad, but my gosh- let Opa be upset about his Mom without bringing some other story into it. I'm glad he didn't take out a loan either, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the focus right now. 

Now all the hope, even the teeniest shred of hope that he knew he shouldn't hold on to- it's gone. It's a done deal. The door is not only shut, it's sealed, locked, and nothing but the end of the war has the key. 

Then Annelise tells Opa that since the focus is on the Army rather than the Nazi party - the anti-semitic actions might slow down (which I think may be a bit of ignorance into how monolithic Hitler's regime was- the Army WAS the Nazi Party by then). I get it though- because everyone thought this. Once Germany had to decide what to focus on for success, they would focus on the literal war rather than their anti-semitic fancies. But this assumption by everyone completely underestimated just how successful the anti-semitic scapegoating had become. To annihilate or banish the Jews WAS to win the war. The whole purpose of the war was to establish a powerful German (Aryan) state. Jews simply could not be in that picture. It was likely their downfall in terms of winning the military war, but the Germans (Nazis) did not back down in their war against the Jews, rather, they stepped it up. They had three fronts: the West, East, and the Jews. The Wansee conference, where they decided on the Final Solution as a government and wartime policy- happened in January of 1942- just a short month from this letter.

Annelise said this sort of weak argument and then follows it with the acknowledgement that they don't really hear much from Germany, so it's hard to make any definite statement. I wanted to yell: THEN DON'T!!

Her false hopes, added sob story, and meager happy Christmas at then end just all made me an angry mess. I don't know how Opa felt reading this letter. He already knew the facts. He already knew that his mother wasn't getting out. He didn't need Annelise to tell him. But I will say, there is something desperately final about hearing the effort in past tense: "your mother could not get out of Germany in time."