On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg
On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-46 was written by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg during the Hamburg air raids of WWII. Wolff-Monckeberg says in her first letter “This war would be conducted with the most horrible weapons and resources, its whole justification based on a daily incitement of lies, not an honest war, but an illegal and mean exploitation, as far as we were concerned.”1 The first letter boldly states that Wolff-Monckeberg views Germany’s participation in the war as a shameful endeavour driven by the “Fuhrer’s blind lust for conquest”2 Wolff-Monckeberg makes this ever apparent with letters about, Nazi invasions into other countries, the struggle that became surviving in war time Hamburg, and the shame brought on Germans by the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Wolff-Monckeberg repeatedly mentions the Nazi invasions of neighbouring countries in her letters. With each letter involving invasion, revealing much more distaste from Wolff-Monckeberg towards the Nazi Party. For example her letter from January 12 1941 states “Suddenly we were in Denmark, ‘to rescue that poor little country’ we were told. Oh you poor proud free little Denmark with your kind King! … Everyone always surrenders when Adolf Hitler wants it.”3 Wolff-Monckeberg’s overt sarcasm to the Nazi ‘liberation’ of Denmark builds upon her arguments in the first letter. Furthermore later invasions lead to a development of an enveloping hatred for the Nazi party. The invasions of Holland and Belgium are the first time Wolff-Monckeberg mentions her distaste towards celebrations revolving around, Nazi ‘liberation’ of neighbouring countries. Wolff-Monckeberg describes being in the corner store when the liberations of Holland and Belgium were being reported stating “the radio went mad with special announcements, and nothing but loud martial music in between. All flags were ordered to be flown for ten whole days! Nazi flags wherever one looked, red like a sea of