Hanna Bergas

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Hanna Bergas , actually Johanna Bergas, (born March 11, 1900 in Berlin , † January 1987 in California ) was a German teacher who became a victim of the Civil Service Act on April 1, 1933 because of her Jewish descent . She was dismissed from the state school service and because of her acquaintance with Anna Essinger found a job in the private country school home in Herrlingen . In the same year she became a co-organizer of his secret emigration to Kent in the south-west of England , where she helped to set up the Bunce Court School as a school in exile . In 1937 she went to teach at another school in exile, the Alpine school home on the Vigiljoch . When it had to close in 1938, she and her cousin Hellmut Schneider transferred some of the children there to the Bunce Court School . Then she helped to look after the refugee children who had come to Great Britain as part of the Kindertransport . After World War II, she and Hellmut Schneider moved to the United States and lived in California.

Origin and education

On the basis of her personal data sheet for teachers at higher education institutions , Hanna Berga's life path can be largely reconstructed until she was discharged from school. Accordingly, she was born on March 11, 1900 in Berlin as the daughter of the businessman Robert Bergas. It is "the Mosaic Confession".

Hanna Bergas received her school -leaving certificate on September 27, 1919 at the Fürstin-Bismarck-Schule , today's Sophie-Charlotte-Oberschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg . From the winter semester of 1919/20, she studied in Berlin, and later for one semester in Göttingen . On June 30th and July 1st, 1924, she passed her teaching examinations in Berlin with the grade “good” in the main subjects German and English and in art history as an additional subject. Before that, she had already passed a university examination for Greek on June 28, 1923.

Hanna Bergas began her first year of preparation at Easter 1925 at the Hohenzollern-Oberlyzeum. On May 20th of that year she was sworn in and was also temporarily employed at the Lyzeum de Mugica in Berlin-Moabit . At Easter 1926, Hanna Berga's second year of preparation began at the “Bismarck Lyceum in Grunewald”, today's Hildegard Wegscheider Gymnasium . Her temporary employment at Lyzeum de Mugica continued.

On March 9, 1927, Hanna Bergas passed the pedagogical examination, the 2nd state examination, with the grade “good”; On April 1, 1927, she was awarded the “employability in Prussia”, which, however, did not result in a permanent position: she was initially at the “1. municipal college (Aufbauschule Friedrichshain) ”without permanent employment. From April 1, 1929, she was employed as a teacher at the same institution. From April 1, 1931, she taught in Berlin-Lichtenberg for six months before returning to Charlottenburg on October 1, 1931. Unfortunately, the personnel sheet does not tell which school.

There are no more entries in the chronology of the personal sheet. On the cover sheet, however, the following entry is emblazoned at the top: "1.11.33 Retirement, BBG". "BBG" stands as an abbreviation for the law for the restoration of the professional civil service and meant professional ban for Jewish and politically unpopular civil servants. Hanna Berga's cousin Hellmut Schneider met the same fate on December 1, 1933. However, Hanna Bergas was actually kicked out of school on April 1, 1933. She describes this event in her memories:

“Just before 8:00 am, when I got to the school building and was about to go to the staff room, the principal said, 'Good morning,' in his usual friendly manner, stopped me, and asked me to come to his room instead. When we were seated, he said, in a serious, embarrassed tone, that he had orders to ask me not to go to my classroom. I probably knew, he said, that I was no longer allowed to teach at a German school. I knew, but did it have to happen so suddenly? The big headline in the newspaper should be followed immediately, as we saw. He. he was very sorry, Mr B assured me. But the order could no longer be a surprise, neither for me nor for him. I pulled myself together: not many words were exchanged. I collected my things in the staff room. At that moment there was no one inside to say goodbye, because everyone else had gone into the classroom he or she belonged in. "

The big headline in the newspaper, to which Hanna Bergas refers, concerned the boycott of Jews , which the Nazi regime had planned for a long time and carried out across Germany on April 1, 1933.

Landschulheim Herrlingen

For Hanna Bergas, the weeks after her expulsion consisted of gaining a new perspective for herself. She gave private tuition, tried to clear her up with school boards, and wrote applications. At the beginning of May she received an offer from Anna Essinger , whom she had met three years earlier. Essinger, the director of the Herrlingen country school home, no longer wanted to teach children in Nazi Germany and intended to move the school to England.

Anna Essinger suggested that Bergas teach in Herrlingen in the summer months and then emigrate with her, other teachers and the students. This action, which met the approval of most of the parents of the Jewish children, was well prepared and well shielded from the outside world. The participating children went to their parents' summer vacation as normal, but they weren't supposed to come back to Herrlingen afterwards.

After a long search, Anna Essinger found a house in Otterden, Kent . The first vanguard of the future Bunce Court School arrived there in mid-September 1933: six older boys and girls as well as six teachers who were supposed to prepare the house together and prepare the arrival of the other students. At the end of September / beginning of October three groups then gathered in Germany to travel to Ostend on separate routes.

“Group 1 was picked up by the religious education teacher Martin Schwarz on the train from Basel along the Rhine. Group 2 was collected by Paula and Anna Essinger from Munich via Stuttgart and Frankfurt and Group 3 picked up Hanna Bergas, a teacher who had been dismissed from school in Berlin, via the Breslau-Berlin-Northern Germany route. In the evening 65 children and six adults arrived in Ostend. Three big red buses picked them up in Dover the next day. Two English women vouched for the newcomers and managed to get the passport formalities processed in Bunce Court the following day. There were no difficulties whatsoever with the English authorities. […] The next day, October 6th, 1933, the first lesson took place in 'New Herrlingen', in Bunce Court. "

In her memoirs, Hanna Bergas describes in detail the farewell of her group at the Berlin Zoo station , which for her was also a farewell to her mother, and the trip to Dover. After being kicked out of school, which she called her first exodus, this trip was now her second exodus.

Bunce Court School before World War II

Hanna Bergas described everyday life in the Bunce Court School and its ongoing expansion in more detail than Anna Essinger herself.

The number of pupils from the first year increased continuously and with it the demands on the employees. According to Hanna Bergas, after a while they felt happy and exhausted at the same time.

“The reason for the latter was that we hadn't interspersed our busy lives with more or less regular times for relaxation and private life. We were available to the children all the time, which was a good thing, of course, even necessary to make a home for those who had been uprooted so young. But in order to keep everyone healthy, resilient and productive, this had to be gradually changed. The concept of 'free of obligations' was introduced. We arranged obligation-free weekends, evenings, and vacations when someone else would take over one's duties. It became possible to read, write a letter, go away for a few hours or a weekend without being interrupted or missed. Such arrangements were common for new hires who had previously worked elsewhere, and they worked well in Bunce Court from now on. It became a common and popular affair for small groups of off duty individuals to start the day with a breakfast meeting in a private room - an hour later than normal days - and with the luxury of half a grapefruit for each participant. A weekend in London alone or with friends or a day on the coast could be a great refreshment. And it was a pleasure to experience the interest and friendliness with which you were welcomed back into the community when you returned. "

Hanna Bergas took her first break in the summer of 1936, but not entirely free of responsibility, as she described it as a concept: After a long period of planning, she traveled to South Tyrol with a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl to visit the Alpine school home on Vigiljoch , its co-director her cousin Hellmut Schneider was. During this visit, a momentous development began, which was given additional impetus through "the close relationship between Helmut and me":

“Should I leave the good and rewarding job at Bunce Court? Was the school well established enough to lose someone who was intimately familiar with it? Would a suitable successor be found? The problem had to be resolved upon returning to Bunce Court. And so it happened then, in discussions with Anna Essinger and other employees. The final decision and the active preparation for my departure were made in autumn 1936, and in winter, in January 1937, I was expected on the Vigiljoch. "

Interlude at the Alpine school home on the Vigiljoch

Hanna Bergas stayed on the Vigiljoch until autumn 1938 and, after Marie Günther-Hendels emigrated, ran the school home together with Hellmut Schneider. After the passage of the Italian Racial Law on September 1, 1938, however, it was foreseeable that the school in Italy would have no future. A solution therefore had to be found for all pupils, partly with their own parents, partly with relatives or even at schools in other countries. The Bunce Court School also agreed to take in five children, and Anna Essinger also informed Hanna Bergas that she “had a permit to work in Great Britain from earlier years. Now, with the flood of immigrants, such permits would only be given to domestic helpers. Later, if Helmut wanted to come too, there would be a place for him too; but he would only have to work for his livelihood, since he did not have a permit for employed persons. These were valuable offers that we accepted with deep gratitude. ”Probably in October or November 1938 Hanna Bergas returned to the Bunce Court School, where she was followed by Hellmut Schneider.

Kindertransporte and time of the world war

Dovercourt

Hanna Berga's return to England immediately led to a special commitment, the background of which Anna Essinger outlines: “Several of us were asked by one of the refugee committees to help receive the Kindertransporte that had come to England since the pogroms in Germany and Austria. Six of us went to Dovercourt with some former helpers and some of the older children of the school to welcome the children. ”Hanna Bergas was one of these six people who looked after refugee children in Dovercourt from December 1938 to the end of January 1939.

Her assignment here ended in late January 1939 and she returned to the Bunce Court School .

Between the eve and the end of the Second World War

After work in Dovercourt and the outbreak of World War II, the Bunce Court School faced difficult tasks: The ten children from Dovercourt had to be integrated, as well as the five from the Alpine school home Vigiljoch, and there were ten Czech children, 25 German and 30 Austrian children . This made it necessary to rent two additional buildings. For the smaller children, four to six years old, a country house was found in Chilham , about 7 miles from Bunce Court. A former children's hospital, Kennaways, was found in Faversham , five miles away, for a group of ten to twelve year old children . "Helmut, I and a very nice English colleague should manage this offshoot. Two of our older girls, sixteen years old, who worked part-time in school and part-time in the house, were our cooks and all-round household helpers. Both places, Chilham and Kennaways [...] had to be prepared for occupancy, which is why the relocation could not take place before mid-September. ”In the middle of these relocation preparations, the outbreak of the Second World War burst.

Hanna Bergas describes the time in Faversham with great enthusiasm, during which a “well-functioning, happy little community” emerged. Their duration was limited from the outset, because two corrugated iron barracks were built in Bunce Court to house fifty to sixty boys. In March 1940, the two outposts moved back to Bunce Court.

The course of the war changed the life of the school community permanently. One May morning, two government officials appeared and announced that from now on, all non-British teachers and non-British students aged sixteen or over would be sent to a detention center as enemy aliens . About 15 men and boys were removed within two hours. A few days later, the non-Jewish cook, Gretel Heidt, and the sixteen-year-old girls had to follow, as well as a German-Jewish teacher who had not been at school that long. Gretel Heidt and the girls were interned on the Isle of Man , the men and boys also there, but also in Australia and Canada.

The next blow came just a few days later: the school had to be evacuated within ten days. While Anna Essinger was traveling through the country to find a suitable property, the move was being prepared in Bunce Court. An ensemble of buildings was finally found near Wem in Shropshire , although it offered less space than Bunce Court. “Moving the school from the North Downs in Kent (which was a shielded military area from 1940) to Shropshire was an organizational masterpiece, especially since the cottage (Trench Hall) acquired by TA [“ Aunt Anna ”= Anna Essinger] is much smaller was as intended. The move had to be done incredibly quickly as authorities only allowed her a week or two to evacuate Bunce Court. In the end, it turned out that Trench Hall just barely met the needs of the school, even if it meant converting the dormitories for the older boys from a series of stalls. ”But the converted stables weren't enough, which is why the offer was accepted by Hilde Lion to temporarily place a group of younger children at Stoatley Rough School .

Trench Hall remained the school's domicile throughout the war. Hanna Bergas saw her move there as her third exodus, but confessed nonetheless, “Although we missed Bunce Court, we saw the great advantage of being in a fairly safe area during the war. We heard the roar of war in the air, but no bombs ever fell near Trench Hall. "

New start and old age in the USA

For Hanna Bergas there was never any doubt that after the war the school would return to Bunce Court, which had been used for military purposes in previous years. In the winter of 1945/1946, two agricultural teachers ("garden teachers") went to Kent as an advance party to prepare the property. Students and teachers followed in the spring of 1946.

Soon after, Bunce Court was taking in two fourteen-year-old boys, Sam and Joel, orphans who had survived a concentration camp . “Sam and Joel grew increasingly grateful for the care they received at Bunce Court, and by 1948 they were lucky recipients of the school's diploma, a considerable achievement by both of them and their teachers. The school gave them further training and study, as was our custom; and a number of years later, when I was living in San Francisco , I got a call from Samuel Oliver, who was about to become a rabbi, in Oakland across San Francisco Bay . "

The Bunce Court School, founded and functioning as a place of refuge for European children from Jewish families exposed to Nazi persecution, increasingly lost this function in the post-war years. Family reunions were taking place, other children had reached an age that led them to continue their lives outside of school - there were no offspring, and Bunce Court housed almost exclusively children who had not found another home or were too young for the time being to live independently outside of school.

This situation, in which the number of adults gradually exceeded the number of students, moved Hanna Bergas and Hellmut Schneider to make plans for their future outside of Bunce Court. Hellmut Schneider went to the USA in the spring of 1947, Hanna Berga's immigration papers followed in the summer of 1948. She left in August. “The final dissolution of our diverse household took a few more months.” Only Anna Essinger and her two sisters remained in Bunce Court.

Hanna Bergas and Hellmut Schneider settled in Mountain View . She became a teacher at the Peninsula School, whose co-director between 1949 and 1952 was Werner Warmbrunn, a former student of the Quaker School Eerde . Hanna Bergas “died on January 11, 1987 after Helmut had preceded her a year earlier. A month later, a memorial service was held for her by the Peninsula School, where she has taught for many years. I was very touched when I and my old friend Ernst Weinberg were asked to give a speech. "

swell

literature

  • Sara Giebeler: The Herrlingen country school home - founded by Anna Essinger. In: Sara Giebeler, Axel Holtz, Peter Wilhelm A. Schmidt, Susanne Trachsler-Lehmann: Profiles of Jewish pedagogues, Klemm and Oelschläger, Ulm, 2000, ISBN 978-3-932577-23-9
  • Leslie Baruch Brent: A Sunday Child? From a Jewish orphanage to a world-famous immunologist. BWV Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1702-3 .
  • Hildegard Feidel-Mertz (translation: Andrea Hammel): Integration and Formation of Identity: Exile Schools in Great Britain , in: Shofar. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies , Volume 23, Number 1, Fall 2004, pp. 71–84.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leslie Baruch Brent (formerly: Lothar Baruch) mentions that Hanna Bergas taught at the Peninsula School in Palo Alto . This leads to the conclusion that her residence was in Mountain View (Santa Clara County, California) , since this Mountain View is just like Palo Alto in Santa Clara County . The passage about Hanna Bergas in Brent's book is available online: Baruch Brents A Sunday Child on Google Books . Leslie Baruch Brent: A Sunday Child? From Jewish orphanage to world-famous immunologist , BWV, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 2009 (2nd edition 2012), ISBN 978-3-8305-1702-3 , p. 87.
  2. ↑ Personnel form for teachers of the “higher education institutions” . Unless otherwise stated, all of the following information comes from this source.
  3. ^ Hohenzollern-Oberlyzeum in the German Digital Library in Berlin-Wilmersdorf
  4. ↑ Lyzeum de Mugica in the German Digital Library
  5. ↑ For the history of this facility see: l. Municipal college and 12th Lyceum with advanced school & history of the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gymnasium  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.haendelgym.cidsnet.de  
  6. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years - Lived among, With and For Refugee Children , pp. 1–2. "Briefly before 8:00 am when I arrived at the school building and headed for the staff room, the principal, saying 'Good morning' in his customary friendly way, stopped me, and asked me to come to his room instead. When we were seated, he said, in a serious, embarrassed tone of voice, he had orders to ask me not to go into my classroom. I probably knew, he said, I was not permitted to teach anymore at German school. I did know, but was it to happen so abruptly? The big headline in the paper was to be obeyed immediately, we saw. Mr. B. was extremely sorry, he assured me. But the command could not be more of a surprise to me than to him. I collected myself: not many more words were exchanged. I also collected my belongings in the staff room. There was nobody in at that moment to say goodbye to, because everybody else had gone to the classroom in which he or she belonged. "
  7. ^ A b c Sara Giebeler: Das Landschulheim Herrlingen , pp. 40–74
  8. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years - Lived among, With and For Refugee Children , pp. 4-6. Unlike Giebeler, who writes that Anna Essinger accompanied the second tour group, Bergas remembers that Anna Essinger was in England and expected the groups in Dover.
  9. ↑ For the history of the house and the school, see also: Bunce Court, Otterden ( Memento of the original dated August 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.faversham.org
  10. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years - Lived among, With and For Refugee Children , p. 27. “The reason for the latter was that we had not interspersed our busy life with more or loss regular periods of relaxation and privacy. We had been available to the children all the time, which was, of course, good, even necessary to create a home for those who had been uprooted so young. But in order to keep everybody healthy, resilient and capable, this had gradually to be modified. The concept of 'off duty' was introduced. We arranged for off-duty weekends and evenings and for vacations, at which times another person would take over one's duties. It became possible to read, to write a letter, to go away for a few hours or a weekend without being interrupted or missed. Such arrangements had been the usual ones for new staff who had worked in other places before, and they worked satisfactorily at Bunce Court from now on too. It became a frequent and well-liked feature that little groups of off-duty people started the day with a breakfast gathering in a private room - an hour later than on norıal days - with the luxury of half a grapefruit for each participant. A weekend in London alone or with friends, or a day at the seashore, could become a great refresher. And it was a joy to experience the interest and friendliness with which one was greeted back in the community on return. "
  11. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years - Lived among, With and For Refugee Children , p. 28
  12. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years - Lived among, With and For Refugee Children , p. 30. “Should I leave the good and rewarding work at Bunce Court? Was the school well enough established to lose a person who was intimately familiar with it? Would a suitable successor be found? The problem was to be cleared in Bunce Court after return. And so it was, in talks with Anna Essinger and other members of the staff. The final decision and the active preparation for my leaving were made in fall, 1936, and in the winter of the year, in January, 1937, I was expected on the Vigiljoch. "
  13. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , pp. 36–37. “I still had, she stressed, a permit for 'gainful employment' in Britain from former years. Now, since the flood of immigrants, such permits were only given to "domestic" workers. Later on, when Helmut wanted to come over too, there would also be a place for him; but he would have to work merely for his keep, as he had no permit for 'gainful employment'. These were lost valuable offers which we accepted with profound gratitude. "
  14. ^ Anna Essinger: Die Bunce Court School (1933-1943) , p. 77
  15. ↑ She herself only reports on four people, although it remains open whether she includes the older children mentioned by Anna Essinger in her counting method.
  16. ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz: Integration and Formation of Identity , p. 82
  17. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 44. “Helmut, myself and a very nice English colleague (female) were to conduct this branch. Two of our older girls, sixteen years of age, who worked half-time at school and half-time in the household, were to be our cooks and general household helpers. Both places, Chilham and Kennaways [...] had to be readied for occupancy, so the moves could not take place until the middle of September. "
  18. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 45
  19. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 45, pp. 58-59
  20. ↑ Leslie Baruch Brent: A Sunday Child? , P. 76
  21. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 52
  22. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 64. “Though we missed Bunce Court, we fully realized the great advantage of being in a fairly safe area during the war. We heard the roaring of the war in the air, but no bombs ever fell near Trench Hall. "
  23. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , pp. 65–66
  24. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 69. “Sam and Joel became more and more appreciative of the care they experienced at Bunce Court, and in 1948 they were happy recipients of the 'School Certificate', a considerable achievement both by them and by their teachers. The school launched them into further training and studies, as was our custom; and a number of years later, when I lived in San Francisco, I received a telephone call one day from Samuel Oliver, who was on the way to become a rabbi in Oakland across the Bay. "
  25. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , pp. 70–71
  26. ↑ Hanna Bergas: Fifteen Years , p. 72. "The final termination of our multifaceted household took another few month."
  27. ↑ Leslie Baruch Brent: A Sunday Child ?, p. 88
personal data
SURNAME Bergas, Hanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bergas, Johanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1987
Place of death California