Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941
Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941: Czechoslovakia to Canada
HANNA SPENCER
Copyright Date: 2001
Published by: McGill-Queen's University Press
Pages: 216
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt80zp7
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Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941
Book Description:

Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941 offers an intimate view of sweeping historical events that engulfed Europe and the world, evoking the creeping fear, desperate hopes, desertion of friends, and sense of isolation that Hanna Spencer felt as Nazism spread. The diary follows Spencer to England - where she faced misery of a different kind - and then to Canada where, as a young immigrant with a PhD, she worked in her uncle's glove-making factory before finally landing a teaching job in Ottawa. Spencer describes her experiences lecturing on Czechoslovakia's history and its takeover by the Nazis, and her resulting celebrity on the Ontario lecture circuit.

eISBN: 978-0-7735-6947-8
Subjects: History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. Illustrations
    Illustrations (pp. ix-x)
  4. Preface
    Preface (pp. xi-xii)
    Hanna Spencer
  5. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. xiii-xvii)

    This diary was begun in 1938, when Hitler’s shadow was spreading ever more ominously a cross Europe. He had already annexed Austria, and Czechoslovakia seemed next on his list of targets. This was a matter of particular anxiety to Jewish families such as mine.

    Czechoslovakia was still a very young country, one of the new democracies created in 1918 at the end of World War I. Long known as Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia, the area had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries, and I was in fact born in Austria. I was four years old when the...

  6. Map
    Map (pp. xviii-xviii)
  7. DIARY, 1938–1941
    • 1 Czechoslovakia: 6 August – 24 October 1938
      1 Czechoslovakia: 6 August – 24 October 1938 (pp. 3-46)

      I have been here for two days. Nice that no one takes any notice of me all day, except three-year-old little Johnnie,¹ who is very sweet. I have spent the days sitting either in the garden or on a bench in the nearby forest, trying to read English, but can’t seem to find the peace within me to settle down to it. The threat of war makes me anxious. And I don’t know where H is. He wrote only that he is going away for a few days and that I could go away too until around 21 August. I...

    • 2 Czechoslovakia: 26 October 1938 – 20 February 1939
      2 Czechoslovakia: 26 October 1938 – 20 February 1939 (pp. 47-80)

      Principal Lachnit informed me today that he had to declare me redundant. The official expression waszur Verfügung stellen– to be placed at the ministry’s disposal. Until the ministry disposes otherwise, I shall continue to draw my salary and have some teaching duties. I asked him to leave me the philosophy class. Had my first session with them today. Afterwards, outside, I overheard Beigel say to the rest of them, “That was something else!” Later, when I had them for Czech, they pleaded, “Please, let’s continue with philosophy instead.” That was not possible, of course. But I was pleased.

      Schenk...

    • 3 England: 1 March – 20 May 1939
      3 England: 1 March – 20 May 1939 (pp. 81-107)

      This will be the last night in my bed at home. I have packed. The suitcases cases were bulging so much that I had to buy another. Goodbye old home!

      Sitting on deck. The ship is still anchored in Vlissingen Harbour, due to leave in forty-five minutes. It is a radiantly sunny spring day. I have been watching t he wild ducks play in the water, dipping in and out. Tall cranes – the inorganic variety – surround us, looking like prehistoric creatures. To me it all seems improbable, a magical landscape. From the train too. This Holland! Everything so dainty, colourful,...

    • 4 Canada: 3 June 1939 – December 1941
      4 Canada: 3 June 1939 – December 1941 (pp. 108-164)

      My last night in Europe. Tomorrow we set sail. In the end, everything went very quickly. The Cunningtons have been simply wonderful. Hilda and Bill had planned a holiday but cancelled it to help me. They have done more for me than I can say. They are going to drive Mimi and me to Southampton. Hilda and I have grown very close. Last night, she sat by my bedside and we talked through half the night. There was so much to catch up on. Just now Mr Cunnington phoned to thank me for being so good to the children and...

  8. Epilogue
    Epilogue (pp. 165-170)

    The journal ends abruptly. It fell silent after Edith brought her brother Elvins to New Haven for Christmas in 1941. Elvins and I fell in love and were married six months later.

    When the war ended in 1945 and the Czechs were again in charge of their country, they decided to expel the Germans. All 3 million of them. The term “ethnic cleansing” had not yet been invented, but that is what we would call it today. The Czechs felt fully justified in their action. Had not the Sudeten Germans demanded to be joined to the Reich, chanting and roaring...

  9. Appendix: Family and Friends
    Appendix: Family and Friends (pp. 173-176)
  10. Notes
    Notes (pp. 177-190)
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