No Life Without You: Refugee Love Letters from the 1930s - cover image

Copyright

Franklin Felsenstein

Published On

2024-03-25

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80064-945-3
Hardback978-1-80064-946-0
PDF978-1-80064-947-7
HTML978-1-80064-951-4
EPUB978-1-80064-948-4

Language

  • English

Print Length

644 pages (xxii+622)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 33 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.3" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 45 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.77" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback893g (31.50oz)
Hardback1205g (42.51oz)

Media

Illustrations88

OCLC Number

1428180616

LCCN

2023446242

THEMA

  • NHTB
  • NHWR7
  • JPHX
  • DND
  • DNC

BIC

  • JFSR1
  • JPFQ
  • JFFD
  • BJ
  • BGH

BISAC

  • HIS022000
  • HIS027100
  • POL042030
  • LCO011000
  • BIO037000
  • BIO026000
  • SOC066000

LCC

  • DS134.4

Keywords

  • Personal correspondence
  • Refugees
  • World War 2
  • 1930s Germany
  • Jewish persecution
  • England

No Life Without You

Refugee Love Letters from the 1930s

  • Franklin Felsenstein (editor)
  • Rachel Pistol (introduction by)
The letters and journals of Ernst Moritz and Vera Hirsch Felsenstein, two German Jewish refugees caught in the tumultuous years leading to the Second World War, form the core of this book. Abridged in English from the original German, the correspondence and diaries have been expertly compiled and annotated by their only son who preserves his parents’ love story in their own words. Their letters, written from Germany, England, Russia, and Palestine capture their desperate efforts to save themselves and their family, friends and businesses from the fascist tyranny. The book begins by contextualizing the early lives of Moritz and Vera.

Because the letters are written to each other almost daily, they are incredibly immediate. Most centrally, the letters recount an astonishing love story, sensual in its intimate detail, and full of dramatic pathos in revealing the anxieties of being apart as the Nazi threat unfolds and broadens. It is told through the voices of two exceptionally articulate letter writers.

This volume offers insights into the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by German Jews as a targeted community. It affords a unique appreciation of the impact of historical and socio-political upheavals on the lives of a persecuted minority.

A scholarly introduction by Rachel Pistol draws out the main themes raised by this correspondence, observing its relevance to contemporary debates about migration and political authority.

Additional Resources

[image]Online fig. 1

A photographic portrait of the artist Max Schwimmer (1895-1960).

[image]Online fig. 2

A photograph of Dr Franz Volhard.

[image]Online fig. 3

A photograph of a hatbox and hats designed by Eve Valère.

[image]Online fig. 4

An image of an application form created by the Palästina Treuhand-Stelle (Palestine Trust Company).

[image]Online fig. 5

A grainy photograph of Annelie Herzberg (née Freimann), late 1930s, courtesy of her daughter-in-law, Lisa Herzberg.

[image]Online fig. 6

A photograph of Semy Felsenstein (1883-1978), head partner of Gebrüder Felsenstein.

[blog]“NO LIFE WITHOUT YOU”: REFUGEE LOVE LETTERS FROM THE 1930s
[blog]Unveiling The Human Journey

Contents

Refugees: A Contextual Introduction

(pp. 1–10)
  • Rachel Pistol

One: Familien Hirsch

(pp. 13–22)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Two: Mainly Mope

(pp. 23–32)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Three: Victoriaschule

(pp. 33–38)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Four: “And So What?”

(pp. 39–42)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Five: Heising

(pp. 43–48)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Six: Of Books And Arts (1): Max Schwimmer

(pp. 49–56)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Seven: Of Books And Arts (2): Thomas Mann

(pp. 57–60)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Eight: “I Will Give Up Medicine!!!!!”

(pp. 61–72)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Nine: Under The Swastika

(pp. 73–82)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Ten: “Did I Do The Right Thing?”

(pp. 83–94)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Eleven: Zionism

(pp. 95–102)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twelve: Gretel

(pp. 103–108)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Thirteen: Marks and Mitja

(pp. 109–116)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Fourteen: “I Stole A Kiss From You At The Train Station”

(pp. 119–130)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Fifteen: Mope In Palestine

(pp. 131–138)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Sixteen: Palestine Or Vera?

(pp. 139–148)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Seventeen: Dover

(pp. 149–158)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Eighteen: “Happy And Sad At The Same Time”

(pp. 159–180)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Nineteen: Letters From A Wretched Coffee House Sitter

(pp. 181–196)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty: “More Of A Stranger Here Now”

(pp. 197–204)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-One: “The Letter Writing Last Guest”

(pp. 205–218)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Two: “Human Beings Are Good!”

(pp. 219–234)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Three: “Every Turn Of The Wheel”

(pp. 235–256)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Four: “I Will Come To London Directly”

(pp. 257–284)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Five: “The Alpha And Omega Of My Life”

(pp. 285–306)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Six: “This Ever So Long Time Of Insatiable Longing”

(pp. 307–348)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Seven: “10,108 White Foxes”

(pp. 349–380)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Eight: Visas, Visas, Visas

(pp. 381–416)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Twenty-Nine: “Today, For The First Time In My Life, I Wished I Were A Man!”

(pp. 417–458)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Thirty: “The Little Fruit That Fell From The Tree”

(pp. 459–512)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Thirty-One: “No Life Without You”

(pp. 513–590)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Thirty-Two: Afterword

(pp. 591–600)
  • Frank Felsenstein

Contributors

Franklin Felsenstein

(editor)
Reed D. Voran Honors Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Ball State University
https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/english/connect-with-us/faculty-staff/emeritus-faculty/felsenstein-frank

Franklin Felsenstein (aka Frank Felsenstein) is the only son of Maurice (“Mope”) and Vera Felsenstein. He is the Reed D. Voran Honors Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Ball State University in Indiana. Before that, he was Reader in Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Leeds in England. He has also held appointments at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, Vanderbilt University, Yeshiva College, and Drew University. His publications include Anti-Semitic Stereotypes: A Paradigm of Otherness in English Popular Culture (1995), English Trader, Indian Maid: Representing Gender, Race, and Slavery in the New World (1999), and (with James J. Connolly) What Middletown Read: Print Culture in an American Small City (2015). He has edited works by Tobias Smollett (Travels through France and Italy), Peter Aram (A Practical Treatise of Flowers), and John Thelwall (Incle and Yarico). He and his family moved to the United States in 1998. He and his wife now live in Chicago.

Rachel Pistol

(introduction by)
European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) Project Management Board at King's College London
National Coordinator of the UK Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI-UK) at University of Southampton

Rachel Pistol is a historian, author, and leading authority on World War II refugees from Nazi oppression and internment during the Second World War. She joined the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London in 2018 to work on the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), where she is part of the Project Management Board. Rachel is the National Coordinator of the UK Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI-UK), for which she is based at the Parkes Institute at the University of Southampton. She is also Historical Advisor to World Jewish Relief, formerly the Central British Fund, the charity which helped German and Austrian refugees escape to the UK including the Kindertransport and Kitchener Camp rescues.