October 23, 1939: A Little Note from Amsterdam

     The Amsterdam Bureau is very glad that it has been able to aid a boy like Thomas Doppner reach Amerika, an ardent member of the Young Friends Group in Holland. He has contributed much to the Quaker Bureau. In actual hard work, he has given a great deal, but it has been his enthusiasm which has ment most to us. That has helped to bring the Young Friends' support solidly behind the Bureau and arouse their sense of responsibility towards the refugee problem. 
     Thomas will certainly gain much from his year's study in United States because he knows how to make the most of his advantages.
     We believe his intelligence and enthusiasm will benefit Americans as much as they have the Dutch.

Sylvia Perry

I feel like I’m reading the comments box on my child’s report card. I’m so proud of Opa. I’m proud to be his granddaughter, I’m proud to have his life as model for my own. He planted himself in Amsterdam, and instead of twiddling his thumbs and waiting for fate- he knocked on every door. He engaged himself in the Quaker group in Amsterdam, becoming a full and enthusiastic participant. As a child of a military parent, I was taught to “bloom where I’m planted” in such a way that also allowed for repotting several times. It took me a long time to learn how to plant myself the way Opa has- engaging in my community as wholly as I can no matter how long I’m promised to be there. I think I likely missed some opportunities and friendships by holding myself back and waiting to be repotted somewhere else.

The most important thing I have learned in this research project is this: we have the ability to effect change by the decisions we make and the actions we take. Our lives are all interconnected in ways even we cannot fathom. A life well-lived is one that stretches out to touch that web wherever we are, and endeavors to strengthen it. Opa has strengthened the web in Berlin, in Holland, and now he is on his way to America.

I wish his mother could have seen these letters. It’s too bad the American schools and the American Friends Service Committee were the only ones on the receiving end of all these accolades. I imagine Ella would have beamed with pride seeing these letters, and the difficulty of her separation from her son lessened a bit. It’s been months since she has been able to see him or communicate directly with him, for fear of what the Nazi censors would do to her when they found out her son had dodged the draft and left the country illegally.

October 16, 1939: Delayed!!

 Original Letter from Opa to Gisela

Translation:

Dear Gis,      Amstelveen Oct. 16th, 1939

Now my departure date has been postponed again. The steamboat has been stopped by the English military authorities on its way back from America. It was brought into an English harbor, where its built will be examined. Nobody knows how long it will have to stay there. I count every day that it will be released, but even then will it be a few days before it can leave from Antwerp.

Opa is delayed. He is so close, and yet he is still at risk to miss the boat completely. His frustration is showing. He knows that time is everything right now. Kristallnacht was almost a year ago as of this writing, war was declared by Britain in 1939, and now everyone is either getting out of dodge or standing by the cannon with a lit match. Opa is not the only one itching to leave.  He knows that time is not on his side.

Here is an excerpt from his autobiography that details this moment from his memory:

I finally got passage on a ship that was supposed to leave early October (that is October 1939; I had left Germany in July 1938; World War II had started in September 1939, while I was in Holland). But because of a storm in the British Channel, my ship, returning from New York, was diverted to Italy, and all other ships scheduled to leave from Holland were sold out.

I’m not sure if Opa’s memory is absolutely correct, but I suppose it could be combined with what this letter says. Perhaps the ship was diverted by the British officials who needed to assess any damage? Either way, the ship did not come.

I cannot get used to the thought of 'war', everything still goes along as usual here, regardless of all the mobilization and everything else that connects with it. War psychosis doesn't happen here, probably because of fear of it. Even though we would have to feel 'as friends' with all those wrongly fighting. But we also keep a certain distance in a convulsive sort of way. We build a wall between ourselves and reality, which we don't dare to look over, because we know that it would have to crash down. Surely this is a wrong attitude, but it is only human, and maybe even necessary in order to work at all.

I love Opa’s open-eyed account of how we are able to ignore war even when it is at our doorstep. It’s a method of self-preservation to keep war at bay so that we can continue doing the work of everyday life. How strange it must have been to be where Opa was, waiting for his exit strategy to arrive and watching people function as if nothing had changed. I just watched some film footage of Berlin in July 1945, with people milling around, biking and walking up and down the streets that used to be pristine and cloaked in the shadows of large buildings. Instead, these folks were promenading down dusty streets, flanked by brick and concrete shells, buildings that if not gutted were pitted by machine gun-fire. There were no idle eyes or gawking neighbors. Every person was moving, acting, participating in the work to make daily routine normal again. It was astonishing to watch this. I imagine Opa sitting outside his father’s two-story bungalow in Amstelveen, October 1939, looking at the leaves falling, watching kids play, business conducted, and newspapers deliver cataclysmic news to smiling recipients.

Yes you are right: The circle which we have to reach round is very, very big. But it is big enough to reach beyond time, so that we are able to speak of overcoming the time. We live and speak all too much in the time as that we could overcome it. Maybe our strengths last to fulfill the time, the task that lies within the time. Even that is very difficult for us. I at least don't see the path today, not even the task. And this is the time given, we don't want to imagine that it will be more difficult, is more difficult than any other. We are to find the way, and not to go around it, and it seems to me that we stand at a very decisive juncture, with lots of possibilities and good opportunities, which we have to perceive. We have to fulfill within the time and not overcome past the time. Of course that is truly seen too politically, the basis and requirements are still personal and there we have to wait for the fulfillment of the fairy tale. We have to reserve within ourselves the longing, and if it becomes weak, kindle it anew. Because even if all exterior fails, a human being who has the longing can never be unhappy, can never drown and always stays strong! And why shouldn't fairy tales come to pass? I believe everything will come to pass, when we have earned it, and have fulfilled a task efficiently. Through our work it is already available. Yes, and now it goes to America. I don't know how suddenly everything worked out in the end. I don't have to bid farewell, one is not further apart when one lives in America or Berlin, or lives in different houses in the same city when one doesn't see the other anyways. Personal distances are not caused by spaces. And we are not apart, should the whole earth separate us!

With hearty greetings. Tom

P.S: I am sending you another report of the congress that comes from a friend. I am sure you will receive it alright. It is by far not as good as the one I sent the last time. What shall happen with the book that I still have from you? Should I send it to you?

This last part has me wishing I could read German. I feel like there are nuances I’m missing. I don’t want to read too much into this, but isn’t this kind of like a “love will find a way” type note? He’s leaving for America, they will soon be separated even further, and for an indefinite amount of time. It’s almost as if it has hit the both of them that this really is a goodbye, that there is no telling what will happen, or even if they will be in touch at all. Opa speaks of accomplishing a task in the time given. I think he’s sort of naming the fact that they each have their own separate paths. Each have their own destiny of sorts, and that there is an undetermined time frame in which they have to do it (the war). I think there was this pact being made here that no matter what- they would remember each other. They would remember this friendship, this time, and that memory would be sustaining.

October 2, 1939: Climate Change

October 2, 1939.

Phil Myers
1722 E. Gordon Street.
McPherson, Kansas.

Re. Thomas Doeppner

Dear Phil Myers:

      I don't know just when the "Volendam" will arrive in New York, but I know that Thomas Doeppner will want to come out to McPherson immediately.
      I have sent a letter to him at Ellis Island and I will ask him further to let you know the time of his arrival in McPherson.
     I have not any worth while suggestions about the courses for him to take. I think that will have to be worked out after he comes. I suggest that he ought not to try to carry too heavy a load. I think he should take an American History course if it can be worked in at all, and of course, English. My only other suggestion would be to remember always how strange everything here will be to him at first. It is hard to realize just how strange our customs and ways of doing things are to an European. It will probably take a little while for him to get adjusted to our climate and food, to say nothing of our strange customs. I am afraid I won't meet him before he goes West but I will be eager to hear how he gets along. 

Sincerely,

Charlotte S. Salmon
Placement Worker

I love Charlotte. She writes Phil Myers back an honest response to his last letter asking about how they can best welcome and ease Opa’s transition to College, Kansas, the USA.

Charlotte responds to his request for further details on Opa’s arrival time- to put it simply: Who Knows? Charlotte knows better than most just how chaotic that arrival can be, and how plans can change with the smallest obstacle. She tries to give Phil a taste of this and encourages him with her insistence that Opa will try to get to McPherson as soon as possible.

Then, with compassion, she encourages Phil to wait until Opa arrives to make final plans for his class schedule, except that it would be best to keep it light and include English and American History. These classes are of course to help Opa adjust to the language and culture of America. I love how Charlotte reminds Phil how this boy will be adjusting to his new home. It will be a total immersion into all things unfamiliar: food, customs, language, climate, etc. She seems genuinely disappointed that she won’t be able to meet Opa before he travels to Kansas. She will definitely be checking in.

I’m thinking about my trip to Germany and my trip to Kansas. I know that my brief visits to both places are not the same as growing up in either place and then being transplanted in the other. However, I will say that of all places for Opa to go, Kansas was probably one of the better fits. The folks in the south would have been overwhelmingly emotive and touchy-feely and loud. The folks up North perhaps also too loud, but in a different way. Kansas folks have a reserved sense about them that may have felt familiar to Opa, from stoic Germany. Kansas folks work hard and are determined. These were pioneers who staked a claim on wasteland and made it a farm, then stuck it out when that farm turned to dust. Opa was entering into the tail end of the Dust Bowl. He was about to meet some of the toughest Americans there were. These were no wealthy aristocrats. I think Opa’s hardship was very different, but there was some common survival instinct here. At this juncture, I think that Opa and the Kansas farmers will actually get along just fine.

The biggest adjustment I imagine, funnily enough: the weather and landscape. Oh, I know that all the other stuff is a big deal, but I’m just imagining that first glance at the western frontier with Amsterdam and Berlin in his mind. I can just imagine Opa’s thoughts: “Where are all the buildings? I can see for miles! Where are the hills?!” The violent storms, the parched ground, the endless horizon of dirt and wheat. I can’t imagine the shock of change. 

a panoramic picture I snapped outside our trailer in Kansas August 2014- endless sky

So Charlotte has it right- everything will be strange to him at first, and if nothing else, it will do well to remember that what Phil and his friends at McPherson know to be everyday life, will be as foreign to this young student as he will be to them.

September 29, 1939: Reliable Reporting

e

Transcription:

Doeppner To Come To McPherson Soon

Refugee Student Finally Secures Visa For Trip From European Officials

   Thomas Doeppner, McPherson college's non-Aryan refugee student from Berlin, has obtained a passport in Holland, a letter from Refugee Section of the American Friends Committee assures, and he will arrive here the middle of October.
   Doeppner's cable to the committee said he got the visa and would leave October the seventh on the Volendam. The committee will see that he is met at the boat and will get him to Kansas immediately.
   The month and a half of back studies will keep him busy for awhile.
   Charlotte S. Salmon, placement worker for the committee, said in the letter. "We surely appreciate your patience and your cooperation in putting this thing through".

I love the Spectator, McPherson College’s newspaper. I want the Spectator to report on all news. They are short, to the point, and accurate. It’s impressive. I don’t even have a lot to say about this- everything is accurate and well-said. I love that they update the students in as real-time as possible, and that everyone is still so invested in Opa’s safe arrival.

So much love for McPherson College. I made a sort of pilgrimage to McPherson College last summer to trace Opa's path and also my Grandmother's Kansas roots, and I felt very welcomed by them then. Look- here’s a sign that was there when I arrived:

September 29, 1939: Safety Net

 

Original Letter from Alice Palmer of Protestant Episcopal City Mission Society to Charlotte Salmon of American Friends Service Committee 

Transcription:

Miss Charlotte S. Salmon

Placement Worker

American Friends Service Committee

20 South Twelfth Street

Philadelphia, Penna.

My dear Miss Salmon:

I have your letter of September 26th, in reference to Thomas Doeppner, a refugee student, who sails from Holland on the Volendam on October 7th.

We will be very glad to meet him and do everything in our power to facilitate his entry.

If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to call upon us.

Very sincerely,

Alice G. Palmer

Social Worker

 

 Original letter from Charlotte S Salmon of AFSC to Thomas Doeppner (Opa)

Transcription:

September 29, 1939

Thomas Doeppner

c/o Mrs. Allison Palmer

Protestant Episcopal City Mission

Ellis Island, New York City

Dear Thomas Doeppner:

I have asked Mrs. Palmer to help you through the examination at Ellis Island so that you won't lose any more time there than is necessary. She has been working at Ellis Island doing just this sort of work for several years so can be more helpful to you than anybody else.

If you need help of any kind in New York City, the American Friends Service Committee has an office at 165 West 46th Street. Miss Louise Clancy is the representative in charge there. She will be glad to give you information or advice, or to help you in any way.

We have a hostel in Bryn Mawr, very near Philadelphia, where we have transient guests. It is in care of Mrs. Solmitz, 11 Elliot Avenue, Bryn Mawr. We should be glad to have you stay there overnight if there is any reason why you need to come to Philadelphia. However, I expect you will want to get on out to McPherson as soon as you can.

Since I probably won't see you before you go to Kansas let me tell you how glad I am that you are safely here. I hope that you will have a pleasant and profitable year at McPherson, and will be interested in hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Charlotte S. Salmon

Placement Worker

These two letters continue the line of support for Opa as he makes his final plans to arrive in America. Mrs. Palmer from the Protestant City Mission agrees immediately to assist Opa upon his arrival and help in any way she can. She is a thread in the safety net that grows stronger for Opa.

Charlotte Salmon sends Opa a letter through Mrs. Palmer to tell him who this helpful person is, and how very glad she is that he has arrived safely to the United States. Of course, she is writing this before confirmation of his arrival, but as of the 29th, it is too late for her to send a letter to him. His ship is set to sail on October 7th, just a little over a week away. Can you imagine stepping off the ship and having a stranger holding this letter out to you? I bet it was a relief.

Charlotte gives Opa a set of contacts and an address or two in case he needs to linger before he goes to McPherson.

The thought occurred to me: Opa is about to step onto a large boat for the first time in his life. This boat will carry him and hundreds of strangers across an ocean he has never seen, to a land he has only heard of. When he arrives at this new place, he has no idea what to expect. He has only the hope and trust that his Friends in America will be there if he needs them. That his safety net he has grown to depend on, will be there. 

His ultimate goal is to then make the trip from New York City to McPherson, Kansas… a town few have heard of even today. And even there, he will be an urban stranger plopped into a rural farmland.

That’s incredibly brave. Opa just had to trust that things would work out and that moving forward was better than staying still. It makes me want to be braver about uncharted territory. What am I holding myself back from because I’ve never been there? Who am I not trusting that has shown themselves to be trustworthy? Where is the line of support in our lives leading us? What safety nets are woven beneath us that we haven't noticed or been brave enough to trust?

September 27, 1939: Hospitality

 Letter from Phil Myers at McPherson College to Charlotte Salmon at AFSC

Transcription:

Charlotte Salmon

American Friends Service Committee

Philadelphia, Penns.

Dear Miss Salmon:

I have at hand your letter of September 25, stating that Thomas Doeppner has obtained his passport. This is certainly good news for him and for us and I am sure that we both thank you for your diligent efforts in his behalf.

I am not certain about my time schedule but if he leaves there the 7th he should be here about the 18th or 19th, should he not? I presume that since it is so late he will come to McPherson immediately. If you would communicate to me the time and place of his arrival in McPherson- I will be very happy to meet him or to make arrangements for someone else to meet him.

We have arrangements all completed for his boarding place etc. He is to room with the President of the Student Christian Movement in the boys dormitory. Coming late as he is, what or rather how much of a academic load would you suggest that he take? If you have any other suggestions or ideas that might make his adjustment easier and his stay more pleasant we would appreciate knowing them.

Thanking you again for your continued efforts, I am

Sincerely yours,

Phil Myers

Phil Myers is the kind of guy I would want greeting me if I stepped off a bus, plane, or train into an unfamiliar place. His letter communicates one thing: we are ready to welcome Tom. The focus never strays too far from the ultimate reason for this whole shindig- to bring a refugee safely out of harm’s way. Sure, he’ll attend school. Sure, he’ll be an asset to the college with his European perspective and experiences. But ultimately, the goal is to help this boy have a chance at freedom.

The other day while my Dad and I were discussing this project, he told me about three themes he noticed that kept showing up in everything we read and learned, three themes that were consistent in my Grandparent’s values: 1) the value of hard work, 2) the value of education, and 3) the value of freedom.

Phil Myers and the hospitable McPherson College were confident that Opa would work hard and pursue his education. Their responsibility was to ensure his freedom, and I deeply appreciate their commitment to doing everything in their power to give him that.

I think about how simple hospitality is. How kind and healing it can be. There is hospitality in Phil's kind question about what kind of course load would be most appropriate for Opa, who would be arriving late and likely in a bit of culture shock. He wants Opa to feel comfortable, to succeed, to adjust easily. 

What would my life look like if I gave this kind of hospitality freely? What would it be like if I accepted it from others? I know that Opa was grateful, but I wonder if he ever knew the amount of preparation and effort that went into this moment of welcome.

September 26, 1939: See you at Ellis Island!

 

Thomas Doppner    

Amstelveen, September 26, 1939

Emmakade 8

Holland

Dear President Schwalm,

     Thank you very much for your kind letter of August 17, in which you tell me that I have been admitted to your college. I appreciate all the help you have given me in this connection, and the personal interest you have taken. I should have liked to reply sooner, but thought it would be better to wait until I had my papers arranged and I could tell you what time I could be expected. There have been some difficulties in obtaining the visa; it was refused the first time I tried to obtain it, although only by word of mouth, then there were the difficulties in obtaining the Dutch identification card, which I had to secure instead of a passport. Now everything seems ready, and I intend to sail on the seventh of October from Antwerp on the "Volendam" of the Holland-America-line. I am very happy that I shall be able to study again, and I am looking forward to the year in your college very much. I know, it will be a stimulating experience. 

    Please give my thanks and sincere greetings to Mr. Phil Myers, who wrote me such a kind letter of welcome. 

With kindest regards, I am faithfully yours

 

Mrs. Allison T. Palmer

Protestant Episcopal City Mission

Ellis Island

New York

Dear Mrs. Palmer:

      I have just learned of a service that you have been giving to new arrivals at Ellis Island, and I should like to ask your help for Thomas Doeppner, a refugee student who plans to sail from Holland on the Volendam on October 7. He has a scholarship at McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas. The students there have raised enough money to take care of his expenses during the school year, and he has been granted free tuition from the college. The American Friends Service Committee feels responsibility for seeing that he is taken care of during his summer vacations or during holidays.

Thomas Doeppner is a refugee from Germany, but his father has established a residence in Holland as European representative for the United Press Association. Therefore, the boy was able to get his student visa in order to take advantage of the scholarship granted him. Because of the War his sailing was delayed so that he will be late arriving at college. McPherson opened about the middle of September. We are hoping that he won't have to delay in New York any longer than is absolutely necessary. We know that in the past some students arriving on student visas have been held at Ellis Island for as long as a week. If there is anything you could do to facilitate Thomas Doeppner's examination there we shall appreciate it very much. If there is any way in which a representative of the Friends Service Committee could help, we would be glad to do it, but I know that you have had long experience and can really do much more to help this boy.

Sincerely yours,

Charlotte S. Salmon

Placement Worker

Opa wrote the president of McPherson College to personally thank him and explain his delay. Now that the swarm of activity had slowed down and he had only to pack and board the ship- he was able to express his sincere appreciation and explain what took him so long.

My favorite part of these selected letters is the very last part of the letter from Charlotte Salmon to the Protestant Episcopal City Mission in Ellis Island. The part when Charlotte asks for help and recognizes that this mission has more experience with helping refugees at Ellis Island. Apparently it is common for refugees to get held up for as long as a week. This seems pretty ridiculous considering the incredibly tedious process that is required before they even arrive. I certainly would be a grumpy girl if I faced more questions and red-tape after getting off a ship that had been across the Atlantic. The refugees were used to roadblocks, but in this tenuous time with so much fear lingering from the places they’ve been, it seems cruel that they would have to jump yet another series of hurdles when they arrived.

Luckily, there were groups like this Protestant Episcopal City Mission who acted as chaplains and social workers to the weary immigrants. We will learn more about that organization and Alice Palmer a bit later. 

I think that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) were able to be as successful as they were because of their ability to delegate and work with other organizations. They didn’t try to do it all or be experts in every part of the process. They facilitated every part of the process, and when they were beyond their abilities, they connected with someone who was able.