Rest home project

The Rest Home project was a recreational facility initiated by British Quakers . It was intended to create a protected place in Germany for those persecuted by the Nazi regime in order to strengthen the resistance against National Socialist Germany. The idea for this project came from the environment of the Germany Emergency Committee (GEC), which Bertha Bracey co-founded in London in April 1933 . The project ended with the death of Helen W. Dixon (1865–1939) in April 1939, who was one of the main people responsible on site.

The establishment of the Rest Home in Falkenstein

The idea for the Rest Home apparently came from Bertha Bracey and her friend Helen W. Dixon and was then developed by Helen W. Dixon through the German-British Quaker Dorothy Henkel (1886–1983), who lives in Frankfurt am Main, with the support of Frankfurt Quakers pushed: "Dorothy was requested by Helen Dixon to assist her in opening a Rest Home, where people who had suffered under the Nazi regime could find rest and refreshment. This home was set up in the Frankfurter Hof in Falkenstein , Taunus. "

Former Hotel Frankfurter Hof

After Bonavita, other Frankfurt Quakers were also involved in the plan, such as one of the later housemothers in Falkenstein, Leonore Burnitz († November 22, 1949 in Frankfurt), who had long been friends with Helen W. Dixon. Dorothy Henkel chose the location while taking a walk with her mother in Falkenstein. They met Jean Schmitt, the owner of what was then the Frankfurter Hof Hotel, and were able to win him over to the project. In November 1933 the Rest Home started its work. The Frankfurter Hof building is now a listed building.

Not only Jean Schmitt turned out to be a stroke of luck for the project, but also the town of Falkenstein itself: “In addition, the remote village of Falkenstein with its then almost 1,000 inhabitants, without a direct connection to the larger railway and road network, without Through traffic, almost 500 m high, represented an ideal place for such a refuge. ”In addition, the Catholic Falkenstein was a place where the NSDAP could not win majorities in the previous elections . “So it was anything but a 'brown' place. This fact was certainly not unimportant for such a decision. "

Operation and costs

Helen Dixon, who worked in a leading position at the London GEC, was also responsible for the financing of the Falkensteiner Rest-Home until 1935. Through collections among English Quakers, she acquired the funds that were needed to run the facility. Around 60 English pounds were required per month for this. After 1935 the rest of the home was borne by the “Germany and Holland Committee of the FSC”.

In the hotel, which continued to operate normally, five to six Quaker guests could be accommodated and looked after at the same time. They spent their stay in a shielded wing of the house and did not have to come into contact with the other hotel guests. They were looked after by the so-called house mothers, who often took turns. In addition to the aforementioned Leonore Burnitz, there were Marion Fox and Elisabeth Fox Howard (1873–1957), Rosamund Wallis (1892–1976), who mainly helped as a translator, Lucy Backhouse (née Mounsey, 1882–1965), Dorothy Henkel and Janet Rawlings. It was planned that a British and a German housemother should always be present at the same time. Like Bonavita, Claus Bernet also points out the special role played by the Frankfurt Quakers in supporting the rest of the home. In addition to Leonore Burnitz, Melly Küchler (née de Ridder, 1899–1963), who had lived in Falkenstein since 1936 and was the only Quaker member who had permanent residence here, was responsible for this task. Other German housemothers were “Luise Jacob from Nuremberg and Lina Hilger from Bad Kreuznach. The latter had been the director of a girls' school there and was removed from office. This Kreuznach school is named after her today. "

Beyond the Frankfurt Quakers, the German Quakers were not involved in the project. The reasons for this are not known, but Bernet suspects that the German Quakers might not want to endanger their existence through the Rest Home because they feared that this facility would easily come into conflict with the regime. But he also rules out a simple disinterest in this work because it may have been perceived as too apolitical.

The guests

The everyday coexistence

The Rest Home in Falkenstein was anything but an apolitical vacation home. This already results from the considerations quoted at the beginning, which led to its foundation. The aim was to help the politically persecuted to take a breather, to offer them a sheltered retreat for a short time: “Some had just been released from prison, others had even been imprisoned in a concentration camp for months. In the first winter months of 1933/34, seventy invited guests came to Falkenstein, who were offered an 'atmosphere of genuine friendship' (Joan Mary Fry), which they stabilized again and could perhaps let them go home with perhaps more confidence. "" For some of the guests the stay was also a stepping stone to emigration. "

“There was a prayer every day, singing and making music together, sociable evenings and other things. In one-on-one discussions, an attempt was made to rebuild the 'guests', as those seeking help were respectfully called. The costs for travel and accommodation were mainly borne by English Quakers. On average one was housed for two weeks. There was no admission procedure, only personal recommendations - or rejections. In the beginning, this was usually expressed by the Quaker Center in Berlin , headed by Corder Catchpool . ”However, after a transition period“ one could also fall back on recommendations from former guests, who could name fellow inmates or released work colleagues, for example. However, the guests themselves did not find out about this, as it was a principle to keep those who issued references anonymous. This also applied to the Berlin Quaker Center, which most of the guests recommended and which was in close contact with Falkenstein in this regard. "

Political or religious reasons did not play a role for inclusion in the Rest Home :

“Among the guests were Jews, Catholics, Protestants and members of left-wing parties or, to make it clearer: an EX head president of a province, an EX trade union secretary, an EX newspaper editor and“ a small elderly communist couple who neither I got along particularly well with the Social Democrats and with the Quakers, ”wrote Elisabeth F. Howard. [...] It was not always easy for the caring housemothers to move through time by mutual agreement between the different characters and the guests, who came from different political directions and various social classes to accompany you during your stay. One spoke only by first name to emphasize the community, in the hope of avoiding heated political debates from the outset. "

Known guests

Claus Bernet assumes that by April 3, 1934 there were already 70 people in the Rest-Home Falkenstein. This number increased to around 400 by March 1937. “Many of these people were former prisoners from concentration camps. In such cases, the spouse of a persecuted person was sometimes invited as it was taken into account that he had also suffered. Most of them were people in leading professional positions, and the principle from the beginning was to have help in Falkenstein as professional as possible. As a result, 'ordinary' people who perhaps had no training or otherwise showed no interest in religious or intellectual topics were refused an invitation to the rest of the home. "

So although rather well-known personalities found refuge in the Rest Home , the names of most of the guests are still unknown today. Someone who fit into the guest pattern - and at the same time probably the most famous guest in Falkenstein - was

Ernst Reuter , Mayor of Magdeburg, dismissed by the Nazis in 1933. He came to Falkenstein in the spring of 1934 immediately after his release from the Lichtenburg concentration camp . His stay here gave him a short break, because he was arrested again in June 1934, before he was finally released from prison in 1935 with the support of the Quakers and was able to emigrate to Turkey via England.

Other well-known guests were:

Heinz Kappes , a Protestant pastor and a city councilor in Karlsruhe who was pushed out of office by the Nazis.

Benno Elkan , a well-known sculptor who was in Falkenstein before emigrating to England.

Emil Fuchs , Protestant theologian, Christian socialist, Quaker. He was in Falkenstein in 1934, as was his daughter Elisabeth Kittowski (1909–1939).

Hermann Ivers (1892–1941), left-wing politician and resistance fighter, was looked after in Falkenstein in 1935. He later died during medical experiments by an SS doctor ("injected to death"). Hermann Ivers was KPD local chairman in Eckernförde and head of an active resistance group that enabled hundreds of persecuted people from all over the Reich to flee to Scandinavia in fishing cutters.

Lisa Albrecht , originally a sports teacher, worked in the workers' welfare department, was the SPD women's secretary, was politically persecuted and was imprisoned. The exact time of her stay in Falkenstein is not known.

Walter Fürstenheim (* 1879 in Berlin - † 1967 in Frankfurt am Main) studied medicine and became a child psychiatrist in Frankfurt am Main. In Frankfurt he also worked as a medical advisor in the service of the city and was a co-founder of the so-called municipal youth inspection agency. In 1934 he was forced to give up his practice. Probably after that he stayed in Falkenstein. In 1938 Fürstenheim emigrated to England, where he was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man when the war began. In 1959 Fürstenheim returned to Frankfurt. In 1966 he was awarded the plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt.

In addition to these people, Claus Bernet also has the following names of Falkensteiner guests:

Elton: Bernet only notes that it was a woman "who later worked for the Swedish Red Cross in Hanover".

Friedrich, Charlotte: One of the first guests was “1933 Charlotte Friedrich, geb. Meier (1895-1981), whose husband Ernst Friedrich (1894-1967) founded the Anti-War Museum in Berlin . After her stay, the Quakers helped her emigrate to England. "

Helmschmidt (couple)

Hermann, Eva: According to the dates of birth reported by Bernet, there is much to suggest that it was Quaker Eva Hermann , who was later honored as Righteous Among the Nations .

Lüdecke, Elisabeth: "(born 1887) from the Quaker group in Berlin recovered in the Rest-Home in 1935 or 1936. Her husband Kurt (born 1883), who worked as a state bank director, had previously lost his professional position due to racial politics. and the family lived in Berlin under difficult financial conditions. "

As an exception, a group of people was accepted: “In May 1937, the Bruderhof, an institution run by the life reformer Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935), had to close within forty-eight hours. Three of the brothers who had previously been in custody were able to spend some time in the rest home before they left for England. "

A women’s project for men

The initiators of the Rest Home were women, and it seems that only women were involved in its operation. Claus Bernet writes: “Back then, the carers were referred to as 'housemothers', whereas I did not come across 'housemen' in the sources. Such an activity has also become known from Louisa Jakobi from Philadelphia and Julia Whitworth (later Carter). Lucy Backhouse (born Mounsey, 1882-1965) in the Pyrmonter Rest-Home, 'where her German, her music and her loving spirit was a healing influence', was also regular housemothers, and Margot Pottlitzer-Strauss was a supervisor in Falkenstein, and later Almost a few weeks a year in Bad Pyrmont. ”Also on the German side there were only housemothers. In the case of the guests, however, the men were in the majority.

The rest of the home and the outside world

Setting up the rest of the home in a hotel offered both risks and opportunities. A separately rented building, in which constantly changing people lived, some Germans, some English women, would have attracted much more attention at that time than the chosen accommodation in a hotel that continues to work normally. “The 'Frankfurter Hof' had a good restaurant with a small garden as well as rooms in which meetings and events of the local clubs often took place. In addition, the restaurant guests were not infrequently German officers from the health resort hospital across the street. ”But despite all the caution that was required to shield the different groups of guests from one another, the frequent and prolonged presence of foreign women and their German“ guests ”remained with the public authorities and party organizations not entirely hidden. Groß reports on a visit by the local NSV women’s association ( National Socialist People’s Welfare ), who were interested in the carers and their guests. “Ms. Liesel Schmitt had been stipulated as a companion and an interpreter had been brought along. The English women then proceeded very skilfully, the language difficulties on both sides did their part, in any case the problem of the presence of certain guests in Falkenstein was not discussed in great detail. The English women came to speak very quickly and in detail about the special advantages of a stay in Falkenstein. "

The age of the English women, who also had certain privileges due to their foreign passports, may have contributed to the fact that the public interest remained low and that even the Gestapo took no notice of the rest of the home. It is not mentioned in their reports from 1935. Claus Bernet points out that apart from the aforementioned visit to the NSV women’s association, there was only one incident in which state power appeared: “Elisabeth Fox Howard was arrested once by the carers on her return journey to England brought from Aachen to Berlin for interrogation. It actually seems to have been the case that the audience was really that naive and believed the speaker, which could have turned out very differently under different circumstances or different audiences. Only in 1938 did a written invitation to the rest of the home come into the hands of the Gestapo in a way that was no longer comprehensible, but this obviously had no consequences for the establishment or the person invited. "

Bad Pyrmont

From October 1934, guests were partly accommodated in a second rest home in Bad Pyrmont, including Reuter after his second imprisonment in the Lichtenburg concentration camp. Falkenstein continued to operate, but only outside of the summer season.

Claus Bernet describes the changed conditions compared to Falkenstein as follows:

“Here, in Bad Pyrmont, in contrast to Falkenstein, it was possible to give the guests a lively impression of the religious life of the denominational community thanks to the proximity to the Quaker House , the center of the German Quakers. Thanks to the English Quaker Mary Friedrich (1882–1970), the facility found a home in the St. Josephs Home. The St. Josephs Home was a boarding house and a Catholic monastery of the Franciscan Sisters, which was subordinate to an American mother house. Every year from October to March guests could be looked after here, while the rest of the home was closed over the summer. The reason was the high tourist taxes, which would have made the company unprofitable in the summer. An average of eight to twelve guests of both sexes recovered in Bad Pyrmont for mostly two weeks. As in Falkenstein, the spa facilities in Bad Pyrmont and the deep forests with their hiking trails were particularly conducive to a relaxing stay. "

In April 1939, both facilities were closed due to the death of Helen Dixon († April 13, 1939), who had been very committed to the two facilities. Claus Bernet expressly points out that it was not the “political situation in 1939” that was responsible for the closure of the two remaining homes, but Dixon's death.

Bad Pyrmont guests

For the reasons already mentioned, the information about the people who found refuge as guests in the Rest Home Bad Pyrmont is very sparse. Claus Bernet was able to at least name some of them:

Bergholtz, Albert: The Bergholtz presented by Bernet as the "former chairman of the Iron Front " could have been Albert Bergholz , a member of the SPD Reichstag, because he was born in 1892 . However, in his biography there is no evidence of a function in the Iron Front.
Kleinspehn, Johannes
Ockel, Gerhard (* 1894 in Frankfurt / Oder - † 1975 in Konstanz): Many publications by Gerhard Ockel can be found in WorldCat , including his font “Guilt”. In a discussion about it it says: “The doctor Gerhard Ockel became a Quaker in Germany in the 1920s. He was strongly influenced by his knowledge of depth psychology, through which he saw the Quaker approach founded. The amalgamation of spiritual belief and psychological insight seemed to be of the utmost importance to him, and he tried this not only in his professional work as a doctor and psychotherapist, but also in an aid project that he initiated in Frankfurt after the Second World War. In 1945, together with others who were affected by the physical and mental needs of the ailing residents, he founded the Friends' Service Fellowship in Frankfurt, which is also known as the Nothelfergemeinschaft der Freunde . "The pediatrician and Quaker Gerhard Ockel (1894-1975) practiced in Frankfurt and was a popular speaker on sex education in the 1950s and 1960s." Ockel was in the Rest Home in 1945 (see below)
Grünberg, Wilhelmine: It is only known that she stayed in the Rest Home in 1935.
Kube, Erna: Only her stay in 1935 has come down to us.
Frank, Mathilde: She was born in 1888 and was Jewish.
Dr. Schloss and his wife Helene (née Wallersteiner): Their stay was in October 1936.

A rest home in the post-war period

After the end of the Second World War, the British "Friends Relief Service" (FRS) and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) succeeded in reopening the Rest Home at the British military government responsible for Bad Pyrmont. It continued to exist next to the Quaker House, which was maintained by Mary and Leonhard Friedrich (1889–1979). "The Friedrich couple also organized the leisure events in the Rest Home, such as excursions, music evenings or board games."

The actual management of the rest home, however, lay with Elizabeth Fox Howard, who had already been a housemother in Falkenstein, and since 1947 with the couple Corder and Gwen Catchpool. The focus of the work was no longer exclusively on the German victims of the Nazi regime, but had to shift - under pressure from the British military government - in the direction of care for the displaced persons .

Eva Hermann , who was honored as Righteous Among the Nations together with her husband Carl Hermann in 1976 , was one of the first after the end of the Second World War to be given a two-week stay at Rest Home Bad Pyrmont. It was here that she wrote her text “Captured and yet free”.

On October 1, 1950, the Rest Home moved from the traditional location in St. Joseph's Home to the Birkenhaus (An der Stadtkirche 4). The management there lay with the Quaker Elisabeth Jankowsky (1883-1965) and her daughter Brigitte Schaper (1912-2008). Claus Bernet describes the working conditions that have now changed significantly compared to the original concept:

“A selection had to be made from among the thousands and thousands of potential candidates who needed help after 1945. The Quakers intend to seek out people in management positions and multipliers, such as doctors, camp managers or political officials. On the one hand, it was hoped that the 'spirit of reconciliation' could be carried on and that as many people as possible could be reached. On the other hand, this selection was also an expression of an elitist understanding, which was not alien to the Quakerism of those years, despite all the emphasis on equality and equality. This went hand in hand with the fact that most of the guests were now much younger than they were in the thirties. It was compulsory for the guests to participate in the reconstruction in one way or another. But that also meant that they could take advantage of certain benefits in terms of food and care. The Quakers have made a far-reaching contribution to the reconstruction through this facility. "

In the spring of 1962 the story of the rest home ended: The facility was closed because the English Quakers wanted to continue their relief work in other parts of the world. The German Quakers were not available to continue the establishment.

literature

Lawrence Darton: An account of the work of the Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens, First Known as the Germany Emergency Committee of the Society of Friends 1933–1950. OO, 1954.
The rest of the home. Memories of some house mothers and guests. Bad Pyrmont, 1962.
Claus Bernet: The Rest Home for those persecuted by the Third Reich. In: exile. Research - Findings - Results. Issue 2/2004, pp. 75-81. Updated version: News about the "Rest Home": Help for victims of the Nazi dictatorship 1933-1939 in Germany
Stefan Jung: Fluchtort Falkenstein , in: Taunuszeitung from April 26, 2014, p. 16
Petra Bonavita: Quakers as saviors in Frankfurt am Main during the Nazi era , Schmetterling Verlag, Stuttgart, 2014, ISBN 3-89657-149-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Recreation home" in Falkenstein im Taunus , in: Petra Bonavita: Quakers as Retter in Frankfurt am Main during the Nazi era , pp. 24–32.

^ A life of Quaker service in England and Germany from World War I to II: cataloging the papers of Dorothy Henkel (1886-1983) . There is also an overview of Dorothy Henkel's biography.

↑ On the Quaker resistance in Frankfurt am Main see also: Rescue Resistance in Frankfurt am Main during the rule of the National Socialists

↑ List of cultural monuments in Königstein: Frankfurter Hof & Eva Rowedder: Hochtaunuskreis . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , cultural monuments in Hessen ). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2905-9 , pp. 268-269 . A postcard showing the Frankfurter Hof as it looked in the 1930s can be found on the “Rescue Resistance in Frankfurt” website .

↑ His motifs remained largely in the dark. After talks with older Falkensteiners who could still remember the rest of the home, Groß doesn't want to rule out the fact that not only pure Christian charity was involved, but “rather business interests too. These guests finally filled the house in the 'dead time'. ”( Hermann Groß: A Refugium in the Taunus - The Quakers' rest home in Falkenstein 1933-1939 )

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Hermann Groß: A Refuge in the Taunus - The Quakers' Rest Home in Falkenstein 1933-1939

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Claus Bernet: News on the “Rest Home”: Help for victims of the Nazi dictatorship 1933-1939 in Germany

↑ Claus Bernet: Corder Catchpool (1883-1952)

↑ The figure of 800 also mentioned by Claus Bernet relates to Falkenstein and Bad Pyrmont.

↑ The reasons for this are given by Claus Bernet: “In the Quaker publications, even long after 1945, the names are usually not mentioned or are made illegible by abbreviations. For security reasons, no guest lists were made officially. Even the guests only addressed each other by their first names and did not know their identity. This practice was continued after the war until the end of the rest home. Internally, however, they had such lists that were 'carefully guarded'. If one were to find such lists today, or even just one, it would be a small sensation. In over ten years I have not been able to find a list in any archive, it actually seems to have been lost after 1945. ”( Claus Bernet: News on the“ Rest Home ”: Help for victims of the Nazi dictatorship 1933-1939 in Germany )

↑ Compare this to Eckernförde in the time of National Socialism

↑ A memorial stone for Frieda Fürstenheim

↑ Winners of the plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main & Fangerau / Topp / Schepker: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in National Socialism and in the Post-War Era , p. 307

↑ Claus Bernet reports this visit as one of two cases of observation by government agencies, but describes it a little differently: “Helen Dixon, on the other hand, had to give the NS women in Koenigstein information about the rest of the home, which of course she did not do, but the one gathered National Socialists gave a winning lecture on the beauty of the Hessian mountains. "( Claus Bernet: News about the" Rest Home ": Help for victims of the Nazi dictatorship 1933-1939 in Germany )