gb-003348-wl745
type: RecordSet
archival history: Little is known about the provenance
conditions of access: Open
has beginning date: 1933-01-01
has end date: 1939-01-31
has or had holder: gb-003348
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 1069
has or had subject: 1068
has or had subject: 329
has or had subject: 1008
has or had subject: 1080
has or had subject: 381
has record set type: Collection
identifier: WL745
record resource extent: 1 bundle
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection of a correspondence consists mostly of letters written by a school teacher, Hellmut Lange from Chemnitz, Saxony, to an English woman, Miss Jessie Nicholson in South London between 1933 and August 1939. Whilst precious little is known about the recipient of the letters, they provide a valuable insight into the mentality of an ordinary German whose nationalist and antisemitic leanings develop into full-blown Nazi sympathy by the outbreak of war. It is evident from the first letter that they had communicated previously and that judging from the familiar tone of the correspondence they had probably known each other for some time. However, there are indications in the later correpondence of strains in the friendship based on an inability to reconcile the burgeoning gap in their political views. He writes on 6 June 1938:"Sie bekennen sich zum Liberalismus; ich bekenne mich zum Nationalsozialismus</em" (-/25). And on 22 June 1938 Lange observes that whenever he mentions the suffering of the Sudetendeutsche at the hands of the Czechs, she retorts with comments on the suffering of the Jews in Nazi Germany (-/26). Lange's preoccupation with the fate of the Sudetendeutsche is born of his close affinity and family links with the region. There are many references to trips he has made there and to the experiences of friends and family. His antisemitism whilst evident throughout, reaches maturity in the later correspondence. In a letter dated 13 November 1938 (-/28) no mention is made of Kristallnacht which occurred 3 days previously. Instead, he launches into a diatribe against the Jews, mentioning, for no apparent reason that Jews have been almost wholly responsible for all the assassination attempts on German public figures in the last 60 years. He adds that no nation wants war apart from the Jews 'who preach hatred and enmity'. It seems that their relationship was formed in part as the result of a mutual interest in the study of language. Lange often asks for n…
title: Jessie Nicholson: correspondence