Letters and Papers From Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Page B
Authors: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Tags: General, Literary Collections
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from your long experience of prisoners. I am not yet sure what the so-called prison psychosis is, though I am getting a pretty good idea.
I’ll send you my smoker’s card back as soon as possible; I’m hardly getting any cigarettes here now, only very bad pipe tobacco. Maria’s and mother’s cigarettes were glorious.
I’ve much enjoyed reading grandfather’s Ideals and Errors; 57 I also enjoyed Indian Summer. You must read Stifter’s Waldsteig and Gotthelf’s Uli sometime; very rewarding!
I’ve just come back and have seen Maria - an indescribable surprise and joy. I knew about it only a minute beforehand. It’s still like a dream - really an almost unimaginable situation - what will we think of it one day? What one can say at such a time is sotrivial, but that’s not the main thing. It was so brave of her to comes I wouldn’t have dared to suggest it to her. It’s so much more difficult for her than for me. I know where I am, but for her it is all unimaginable, mysterious, terrifying. Think how things will be when this nightmare is over! And now Maria’s and mother’s letters have just come, to make my joy complete and as an echo of this morning. How good things still are! Tell them that I say this to myself every day.
We shall probably be able to see each other next week. I’m. looking forward to that very much. Maria so enjoys being with, you, and speaks of the Schleichers so happily. I’m very grateful for that. Much love to all the family and friends. I’m always; thinking of you.
Ever your grateful Dietrich
From his mother
[Charlottenburg] 27 June 1943
Dear Dietrich,
We were very glad that you were able to see Maria again and to talk with her, though at the same time I was rather worried that there would not be enough time for us. But perhaps it will be a good thing if we get used to that a bit; and we were told by Captain Maetz 58 that we would have a chance to see you at the beginning of next week. Maria was quite thrilled by the reunion and of course she had to tell us all about it…I expect Maria has also told you about us, as she said.
At the moment we’re wondering whether we should not have the best of our pictures rolled up and put in a less dangerous place. A man from the museum would help us. Our air-raid shelter is already so full anyway. And now its only window is to be walled in. As father is over seventy, I expect that I shall remain upstairs with him, come what may. If the window is closed in, one cannot get out with the things. I’m also wondering about all your books in the attic; I would very much like to send away the most important of them, too, but I cannot decide about them by myself. Can you perhaps write a list with rough details of what is where?Perhaps your absence will now really not last much longer. One finishes each week in disappointment with the thought ‘and again not’, and who knows at our time of life how many weeks one still has left? They say that war years count double. I have the feeling that they count ‘fourfold’…
With much love.
Your Mother
To his parents
[Tegel] Sunday, 3 July 1943
Dear parents,
When the bells of the prison chapel start ringing at about six o’clock on a Saturday evening, that is the best time to write home. It’s remarkable what power church bells have over human beings, and how deeply they can affect us. So many of our life’s experiences gather round them. All discontent, ingratitude, and selfishness melt away, and in a moment we are left with only our pleasant memories hovering round us like gracious spirits. I always think first of those quiet summer evenings in Friedrichsbrunn, then of all the different parishes that I have worked in, then of all our family occasions, weddings, christenings, and confirmations - tomorrow my godchild 59 is being confirmed! - I really cannot count all the memories that come alive to me, and they all inspire peace, thankfulness, and confidence. If only one could help other
I’ll send you my smoker’s card back as soon as possible; I’m hardly getting any cigarettes here now, only very bad pipe tobacco. Maria’s and mother’s cigarettes were glorious.
I’ve much enjoyed reading grandfather’s Ideals and Errors; 57 I also enjoyed Indian Summer. You must read Stifter’s Waldsteig and Gotthelf’s Uli sometime; very rewarding!
I’ve just come back and have seen Maria - an indescribable surprise and joy. I knew about it only a minute beforehand. It’s still like a dream - really an almost unimaginable situation - what will we think of it one day? What one can say at such a time is sotrivial, but that’s not the main thing. It was so brave of her to comes I wouldn’t have dared to suggest it to her. It’s so much more difficult for her than for me. I know where I am, but for her it is all unimaginable, mysterious, terrifying. Think how things will be when this nightmare is over! And now Maria’s and mother’s letters have just come, to make my joy complete and as an echo of this morning. How good things still are! Tell them that I say this to myself every day.
We shall probably be able to see each other next week. I’m. looking forward to that very much. Maria so enjoys being with, you, and speaks of the Schleichers so happily. I’m very grateful for that. Much love to all the family and friends. I’m always; thinking of you.
Ever your grateful Dietrich
From his mother
[Charlottenburg] 27 June 1943
Dear Dietrich,
We were very glad that you were able to see Maria again and to talk with her, though at the same time I was rather worried that there would not be enough time for us. But perhaps it will be a good thing if we get used to that a bit; and we were told by Captain Maetz 58 that we would have a chance to see you at the beginning of next week. Maria was quite thrilled by the reunion and of course she had to tell us all about it…I expect Maria has also told you about us, as she said.
At the moment we’re wondering whether we should not have the best of our pictures rolled up and put in a less dangerous place. A man from the museum would help us. Our air-raid shelter is already so full anyway. And now its only window is to be walled in. As father is over seventy, I expect that I shall remain upstairs with him, come what may. If the window is closed in, one cannot get out with the things. I’m also wondering about all your books in the attic; I would very much like to send away the most important of them, too, but I cannot decide about them by myself. Can you perhaps write a list with rough details of what is where?Perhaps your absence will now really not last much longer. One finishes each week in disappointment with the thought ‘and again not’, and who knows at our time of life how many weeks one still has left? They say that war years count double. I have the feeling that they count ‘fourfold’…
With much love.
Your Mother
To his parents
[Tegel] Sunday, 3 July 1943
Dear parents,
When the bells of the prison chapel start ringing at about six o’clock on a Saturday evening, that is the best time to write home. It’s remarkable what power church bells have over human beings, and how deeply they can affect us. So many of our life’s experiences gather round them. All discontent, ingratitude, and selfishness melt away, and in a moment we are left with only our pleasant memories hovering round us like gracious spirits. I always think first of those quiet summer evenings in Friedrichsbrunn, then of all the different parishes that I have worked in, then of all our family occasions, weddings, christenings, and confirmations - tomorrow my godchild 59 is being confirmed! - I really cannot count all the memories that come alive to me, and they all inspire peace, thankfulness, and confidence. If only one could help other
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