Chapter 2. And Fritz Traugott wishes you a very upset stomach

Erna Stahl, Fritz’s teacher at the Lichtwark School, is transferred to another school in 1935. She stays in contact with many of her former pupils. Two weeks after arriving in New York, Fritz writes Erna Stahl a long letter. It testifies to the deep connection that many Lichtwark students have with Erna Stahl. A later correspondence between Fritz’s best friend, Herbert Meinke, and Erna Stahl shows that Erna Stahl is well informed about the murder of Jews in Kiev and the ghettos in occupied Poland. She also comments on the deportation of the Hamburg Jews. Erna Stahl is arrested by the Gestapo on 4 December 1943 and sent to various detention centers. Her trial in Bayreuth for charges including “preparation of high treason” and “contamination of youth” is scheduled for 17 April 1945. However, just days before, on 14 April 1945, she is liberated by American troops. She then returns to Hamburg, where she resumes her work as a teacher.

New York, May 19, 1938.

Dear Miss Stahl, I've been here for 16 days now and I don’t know whether to say “already” or “only” because I've experienced so much and had so many impressions in this short time that it feels like I have been here much longer. On the other hand, the few days don’t really matter when you consider that I will probably spend decades here in the States. But my first impressions are so vast that they stretch the time, as one doesn’t normally experience as much as I have in the two weeks I have been here. There are the first impressions of many things that are “different” from what one is used to, but which become normal after a few days.

Here, for example, you don’t buy a ticket when you start your journey on an underground train. Instead, you throw the fare coins into a box at the barrier before entering the platform. A man sits by this box and - no, he’s not watching to make sure no one cheats society – this is not Germany – he reads his newspaper or chews gum while staring off in some direction, but he is not really looking at the coins. No New Yorker would ever think of throwing in too little, even if there were no minder there at all. In small things, the people here are quite honest, quite different from what one has heard from stories, etc., over there. The underground railway is its own story. First of all, they travel at a speed that even the “fliegende Hamburger” over there can’t match. Incidentally, not too long ago, I proudly told someone about this train and translated the name as “flying hamburger” and was very surprised when everyone began to laugh. They explained to me that here a “hamburger” is what we call “German beefsteak” over there and those listening found the idea of a flying piece of meat just too funny. [...]

Erna Stahl is appointed head of the secondary school for girls in AlstertalI in September 1945. At this time, however, the school building is being used by the British occupying forces. Erna Stahl asks the military government to vacate the building, but her request is rejected by the military government. The letter once again illustrates Erna Stahl’s social commitment and her belief in education as a way to support the new democratic state.

Hamburg, 8. 10. 45

Sir,

I beg your pardon for applying to you personally – I know well that it is a somewhat unusual way, but I do so from sheer desperation. Listen to me, please. I am the headmistress of a Girl’s Secondary School, which cannot begin, because your soldiers still occupy the building. This is not a singular case but, as it is, especially grievous. Two years ago I was arrested by the Gestapo because I was accused of high treason and of poisoning youth with anti-Nazi ideas. [...] At the time of my arrest I was a teacher at this school, whose headmistress I now have become. [...] Because of this special fate I now should have great possibilities of influencing large circles. Especially now, in this [sic] times of transition, it would be so important to exercise such an influence. And how I long to do some positive work after those dreadful years in the KZ! I can well imagine that our German affairs are rather remote and unimportant to you. [...] I quite agree with you that your soldiers must be well lodged, but on the other hand the quartering, teaching and influencing of more than 1500 children is at stake and further more the influencing of the whole population of Fuhlsbüttel. […] 

Yours respectfully Erna Stahl

From: “Erna Stahl: Zeugnisse ihres Wirkens im Hamburger Schulwesen nach 1945 und Betrachtungen aus ihrer späteren Lebenszeit : mit einem Beitrag: Erna Stahls Haltung in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus”, Ursula Meier (Hg.)