Diaries written by children during the War

[burlington]

Here in the UK recently we have heard a lot about Anne Frank, via a TV series, and another child diarist whose name I can't remember. Both of whom tragically perished.

That was WW2. As for WW1 the only diarist I can find is Piete Kuhr who was a young German girl living in Prussia, now part of Poland. Schneidemuhl now called Pila (sorry about not being able to use the relevant accents).

Piete was 12 when she started her diary in 1914 and she is quite honest in what she says in her diary, her desire for peace, and the type of community based activities she undertook as well as the deteriorating situation in Germany towards 1918. To quote: '..conveys a vivid picture of school and family life amid the changing fortunes of war'

The diary was forgotten about until years later and it was published in Germany in 1982, and then translated in to English and published in 1998. Title: 'There we'll meet again' ISBN 0 99532633 0 4 but now seems to be out of print. I only got my copy thanks to the kindness of Forum Pal Tom Morgan.

A tremendous read and very difficult to put down.

Question: Were there any other children's diaries of WW1 era published?

Martin

[Pighills]

Martin I knew nothing of this diary until you mention it now.

That being so, I have googled for it and found the following website giving details of the diary and how to get hold of it (should anyone be interested!) Click Here - it's not a commercial site and I would certainly telephone beforehand to ensure it is indeed in stock.

I myself shall enquire on Monday.

Thank you for sharing this with us, it's little gems like this which adds to and encourages our interest.

[Pighills]

Sorry, just to clarify: when I say it's not a commercial site, I mean it's not Amazon or such like.

[burlington]

Kim

Look at the date on this 'Peace Matters' newsletter. 1998!

I recall seeing this and trying to ring but no success.

Walter Wright is not only the translator, but also seems to have been the publisher. I fear he may have passed away by now.

My overriding impression last year was that the only way to get a copy was 2nd hand via a bookseller. They are now circa £150 on Amazon affiliates (2 copies) and there are none to sell on Ebay or Abebooks.

Martin

[Pighills]

That's a shame Martin.

I wonder if any library holds a copy?

[David Filsell]

A slight word of warning. Piete Kuhr's 'There We'll Meet Again" needs to be regarded with considerable suspicion. It was privately published by Walter Wright who claimed to have picked up the author's diary for 10p at a charity book stall in the West of England in 1993. It was privately published in an edition of 1,000 copies after three years work of translation by Wright. Copies are pretty rare.

The 'diary' was first published in Germany under the title 'da giby's Weiderssehn! Krioegstagebuch eines Madchens" 1914-18" in 1982. I believe that there was some speculation in Germany about its authenticity, although I have not been able to confirm this.

Although the books seems to bulge with authoritative contemporary detail it just seems to knowing for the work of a 13 year old. It also seems to contain a perspctive about life and the military too well informed and sophisticated for a child. Noteworthy is Kuhrs reference to building a play aeroplane in the Garden - a Fokker biplane- in 1915 with a simulated machine gune which could "fire through the revolving propeller" The eindecker entered service in 15 certainly, but was the interuppter gear made public to the Germans then?

Wright was convinced that the work was genuine. I am not. The authoress, actually one Jo Mihaly, who as a young woman developed strong left wing views and married a prominent avant garde Jewish actor. She emigrated to Zurich to avoid the Nazi regime. (She had been clebrated dancer and became a writer -first book 1939 - and died in 1989.)

She may well have kept a diary as a child - but I think my most charitable judgement is that she at least "tickled-up" her work for publication as an adult. Less charitably the book could well be a partial or complete fabrication. But it is worth reading if you can find one of the other 999 copies that were printed. Others "May know different", but I would not like to see the book quoted in any authortative work about the homefront in Germany between 1915-1918.

[Gibbo]

There are 14 copies of the English edition in libraries, according to this search on Worldcat. It's currently sorted for proximity to my address in Edinburgh: just change the post code to your own to sort it according to your location. Note that for the British Library it gives the address as being the storage facility at Wetherby, where the book's kept, rather than the reading room in London, where you'd read it.

Searching on the German title brings up 2 editions; 23 copies of the 1982 one and 3 of the 1986 one.

[burlington]

I didn't know about the authenticity doubts, and to me it does not read like that. Are you saying also that the photographs may be dodgy as well?

For the record, her real name does appear to have been Elfrieda Kuhr. This is what Wikipedia says about her:

<quote>

Piete Kuhr grew up in Schneidemuhl (now Pila), then about 80 miles from the German-Russian frontier, now in Poland. Her full name was Elfrieda Kuhr The town was the site of a World War I Prisoner of War camp, and Kuhr's rediscovered adolescent diary was published late in her life asDa Gibt’s ein Wiedersehn (1982). It has been translated into English by Walter Wright, a pacifist and former conscientious objector, under the title There we'll meet again, a young German girl's diary of the first world war. It gives an unusual insight into German experience of the war: 'The fact that the diary is written by a German teenager does make it unusual. The fact that this teenager went on to oppose war, to dance her anti-war message on the Berlin stage, to marry a Jew, and to be forced to flee Germany in 1933, gives an added poignancy to the diary.'

</quote>

[IanA]

'A War in Words' by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis (Simon & Schuster, 2003) contains substantial parts of Kuhr's diary and extended passages from the diary of Yves Congar, a 10 year old French boy living in Sedan. Congar's family suffer the indignity of having a German officer billeted on them.

[burlington]

David's response worries me. I get the strong impression that because:

<quote>

The authoress, actually one Jo Mihaly, who as a young woman developed strong left wing views and married a prominent avant garde Jewish actor. She emigrated to Zurich to avoid the Nazi regime.

</quote>

her diary may not be relied on. Indeed, his error about her name indicates a certain antagonistic attitude.

Perhaps David may care to correct me on this and I certainly hope he does.

I am not criticising; just trying to present a balanced view.

Let's face it. Germany post-1918 was a society with a strong polarisation of views, of the left and then of the right. It was surely a maelstrom of thoughts, attitudes and politics.

Martin

[David Filsell]

From the introduction of 'There We'll Meet Again" by Anja Ott, daughter of Jo Mihaly - which follows Walter Wright's introduction in which he acknowledges that Piete Kuhn was Jo Mihaley. "My mother Jo Mihaly began the writing of her diary on August 1st 1914....

I think therefore I have written the author's givenname correctly.

I have no antagonism toward the author, nor that she was left wing, nor that she married a jew, nor that she removed to Zurich.

I did not use Wikipedia in my research.

I have not suggested the photographs are suspect

I have absolutely no axe to grind.

I do for the reasons stated in my post I have doubts about the authenticity of the diary as that written by a girl of her age. I did not state that it was definitely a forgery. Now I may be right or wrong in my doubts. So read it and see, but I do find suggestions of antagonism and lack of accuracy somewhat offensive (and clearly inaccurate in themselves).

My post was meant simply as my view of the book which I maintain needs to be treated with some caution as a genuine wartime diary by a girl of 12 - 16

[Pighills]

Thanks for the link Martin (Gibbo).

I see it's in Wtherby - just down the road from me, so near, yet so far!!

[burlington]

David

You may well be right in your feelings about the diary. I don't know.

I am confused though with your thoughts about her name.

If she was born in Prussia then surely she would not have the name Jo Mihaly. My understanding, right or wrong, is that her given name is Kuhr, though whether Piete or Elfrieda is her first name is a matter of some debate. THEREFORE, probably it is more correct to say that Jo Mihaly WAS Piete Kuhn rather than the other way round.

Did not many refugees from Germany & Austria change their names when they arrived to safety? Surely, also, an anglicized sort of name is likely to go down better when seeking work. Also, of course, if she was a political activist of some sort as she certainly seems to have been, then a change of name may have been very useful for her. She would not be the first person to do that!

I would not want us to fall out over this! I certainly did not mean any offence, but perhaps the conjunction of the phrases was perhaps a shade unfortunate. I fully understand how easy it is to do this when writing what is an online entry rather than considered prose.

Perhaps I now ought to re-read the book in the light of what you have said but to be quite honest my only thoughts when I finished it the first time was that this girl could certainly write. Perhpaps that itself is the problem. Who knows!

Regards

Martin

[IanA]

Having mentioned the Congar diary, I would be interested to hear what David thinks about a ten year old boy writing: "It is the rule of the strongest; it is invasion and ruin; it is the cry of the hungry who don't even have a crust of bread; it is the resentment against the race that pilfers, burns and holds us prisonners; our country, which is no longer our home, when our cabbages, our leeks and all the other goods are in the hands of those thieves; the town is held to ransom, under oppression and the aggressor's injustice. Vengeance starts with a murmur, it's getting stronger and soon it will overflow like water in an already full cup, and in 10 years it will allow us to pay back the invaders with interest."

He may, indeed, have been advanced for his years - he did end up as a Cardinal of the Catholic church.

[David Filsell]

Having mentioned the Congar diary, I would be interested to hear what David thinks about a ten year old boy writing: "It is the rule of the strongest; it is invasion and ruin; it is the cry of the hungry who don't even have a crust of bread; it is the resentment against the race that pilfers, burns and holds us prisonners; our country, which is no longer our home, when our cabbages, our leeks and all the other goods are in the hands of those thieves; the town is held to ransom, under oppression and the aggressor's injustice. Vengeance starts with a murmur, it's getting stronger and soon it will overflow like water in an already full cup, and in 10 years it will allow us to pay back the invaders with interest."

He may, indeed, have been advanced for his years - he did end up as a Cardinal of the Catholic church.

[David Filsell]

Not my thoughts - Wright and Mihaly/Kuhr's daughter both state that her name was Mihaly (introduction). Kuhr/Mihily states that she was born in the province of Posen (diary).

I think your reading rather than my phrasing was "unfortunate"

I have not traced the author's career in Zurich, but I doubt that an anglisied name would have helped her find a publisher - I assume she would have been writing for a German speaking audience. Most German emigre authors retained their names. The markets for banned/disliked German authors (once publishing in Germany was denied them by the Nazi Party) had their books distributed in Austria (until 1938) and in German speaking parts of Poland and etc where they were known by publishers like Querido)

I comment on this book because as part of my interest in preparing a bibliography and commentary on German/Austro Hungarian books published in English I found a copy, read it and researched it and consequently feel that it might not be "what is says on the tin".

I have no valid opinions on Congar, I have not read the book. And in the light of the "aggro" which my comments - meant only to pass an opinion and some facts - seem to have stirred dare not comment in case I am considered anti-papist as well.

Infact I wish I had not bothered!

[David Filsell]

As a final comment check abebooks - The German original of the diary is listed as written by Jo Mihaly (together with a raft of other works). There are no works listed under the name Piete Kuhr. Strange that!

[burlington]

David

Posen is of course now part of Poland but was, up to 1918, a part of Prussia.

What I think probably happened is that she adopted the name Jo Mihaly after the War, for whatever reason (she was dancer as well as a writer), and used that name permanently, which of course explains why her daughter and everyone else called her Jo Mihaly.

If, indeed, this is NOT the case then I am puzzled as to why she was given an anglicized name if indeed she was born in Prussia to, presumably, Prussian parents.

It is, as you rightly imply, all very strange!

Martin

[David Filsell]

She published at least as early as 1942 in Zurich under the name Jo Mihaly and danced under that name in Weimar Germany. Full listing of names include psuedonyms Jaques Michel, J Josiah Francesco Moleta. Maried name was Elfrieda Alice Steckel. Also stated that she was born 25th April 1902 in Pila, Pomerania. Emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and lived there until 1949. I have nothing further to add.