Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): Letter from a mother to Adolf Hitler after the German invasion of the Sudeten territories in September 1938 (Published on 20/09/2022)
Feldpostbriefe and their significance today
When researching Julius Erasmus, one inevitably comes into contact with letter correspondence between soldiers at war and their families from the time of the Second World War, such correspondence being called “Feldpostbriefe” in German. Be it messages about the death of a soldier, written by his superior to his relatives, which were later sent to Mr Erasmus as a hint for a grave search, or other correspondence between soldiers at war and their families at home. Since then, I have also been dealing more closely with field post letters from that time.
Feldpostbriefe are valuable contemporary documents that unfold their timeless message, especially in times like the present, and convey a vivid impression of what war means to all involved. They are a valuable tool to ward off the very beginnings of a renewed striving for war and perhaps to help prevent history from repeating itself once again and with yet more gruesome consequences for mankind. At present, war, weapons and the killing of people on a large scale are once again being drummed up forcefully, although for decades one could have had the vague hope that mankind had finally learned its lesson to some extent from the painful experiences of two world wars in particular. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case once again.
With this in mind, appropriate letters or letter excerpts from various sources will be published here from time to time in the section “Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (Feldpostbriefe)” as a reminder of what war means to man and mankind. To provide food for thought and in the unshakable hope that this may make a difference.
Letter from a mother to Adolf Hitler dated 28 September 1938 after the German invasion of the Sudeten territories
(source: Lilli Vetter, Briefe aus jener Zeit, p. 87 f. [translation from German language]):
“To Adolf Hitler
You must know that thousands of mothers are praying for peace these days — the mothers whose husbands fell in the world war, whose sons do not know their fathers because foreign soil already covered them when the son was born.
These sons are now grown up. Once again the hopes blossom in the mothers, which the early death of the men already once nipped in the bud.
You, Führer, live among men, and in the days of decision you will listen to the words of these men and hardly seek the advice of women.
But before you give the sign that unleashes the war furies anew, hear the word of a mother calling out to you: Go into the halls where the women in labor wrestle with the new life, listen to the screams of anguish of the women in labor, witness the hell that every woman goes through before the new life tears itself loose from her and she — plunged into all the abysses of pain, thrown on all the peaks of despair — is nothing but a helpless creature, with the naked fear of death on her face, until at last the new life is released and the tormented creature becomes a smiling Madonna, even the most inconspicuous, most miserable being transfigured and sanctified by maternal happiness, by the newborn she now holds in her arms and around whom all her dreams, all her wishes, all her hopes entwine.
Women are not cowards. Every woman who goes into the horrors of childbirth for the second, third and more times is as brave as the brave soldier who puts his life on the line. Of course, women are soldiers of life, not of death. For life they fight, for life they suffer; for they receive life, they bear life, and they guard life. Soldiers of death are the men. Our men went to death without complaint. Our sons will do the same when it is required of them.
But before you give the order that sends these sons after the fathers, look to the east, and look to the west, look at the hundred thousand scattered crosses. Fix your eyes first on the mothers and then on the crosses. –
P R E S E R V E P E A C E F O R U S!”
(Head picture: Military Cemetery Hürtgen, August 2022)
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