Last Letters: The Prison Correspondence between Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke, 1944-45

by Helmuth Caspar von Moltke (Editor), Johannes von Moltke (Editor), Dorothea von Moltke (Editor), Shelley Frisch (Translator), Rachel Seiffert (Afterword)

Overview

Available for the first time in English, a moving prison correspondence between a husband and wife who resisted the Nazis.

Tegel prison, Berlin, in the fall of 1944. Helmuth James von Moltke is awaiting trial for his leading role in the Kreisau Circle, one of the most important German resistance groups against the Nazis. By a near miracle, the prison chaplain at Tegel is Harald Poelchau, a friend and coconspirator of Helmuth and his wife, Freya. From Helmuth’s arrival at Tegel in late September 1944 until the day of his execution by the Nazis on January 23, 1945, Poelchau would carry Helmuth’s and Freya’s letters in and out of prison daily, risking his own life. Freya would safeguard these letters for the rest of her long life. Last Letters is a profoundly personal record of the couple’s fortitude in the face of fascism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681373812
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	09/17/2019
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

In 1935, after turning down an opportunity to become a judge because the job would require him to join the Nazi party, Helmuth James von Moltke (1907-1945) began a practice of his own in Berlin that helped Jews and other persecuted peoples emigrate from Germany. In 1939, von Moltke was drafted into the German counter-intelligence service. He soon became a leader of those opposed to the Nazi party, leading to his eventual arrest and execution.

Freya von Moltke (1911-2010) was part of the anti-Nazi opposition group, the Kreisau Circle, which she helped to form with her husband Helmuth. After World War II, Freya left Germany and settled in South Africa with her two sons. Unable to tolerate Apartheid, however, Freya returned to Berlin in 1956 and eventually settled in Norwich, Vermont, where she lived until her death.

Helmuth Caspar von Moltke is a retired lawyer and the son of Freya and Helmuth von Moltke. He lives in Vermont, Quebec, and Berlin.

Johannes von Molkte is a professor of German and Film, Media and Television at the University of Michigan and the grandson of Freya and Helmuth von Moltke.

Dorothea von Molke is co-owner of Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ, and the granddaughter of Freyaand Helmuth von Moltke.

Shelley Frisch's translations from German, which include biographies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dietrich/Leni Riefenstahl (dual biography), and Franz Kafka, along with many other works of fiction and nonfiction, have been awarded numerous translation prizes. She has chaired the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize jury since 2015.

Rachel Seiffert is a British novelist and short story writer.

Editorial Reviews

This is a Taj Mahal of correspondence—a monument to married love. . . . the heights and depths make harrowing reading.” —John Arnold, Church Times

“[The] letters and the explanatory footnotes reveal a deep love bolstered by a building religious devotion . . . A compelling, profoundly emotional Nazi-era story that also serves as a reminder of the power of letter writing.” —Kirkus

“[A] story of the triumph of love between a couple whose lives were torn apart by the Third Reich but whose letters should certainly belong to any anthology of 'classic' correspondence and who played their part in the history of the humanisation of their country. . . . [T]hey deserve to be read now as widely as possible: a demonstration of the heights to which the human spirit, nourished by faith . . . can rise over adversity.” —Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald

"Last Letters documents what the Song of Songs calls 'love as strong as death,' or even stronger: the unbreakable connection between two courageous people who managed to maintain faith and love in nearly unimaginable circumstances." —Elaine Pagels

“The four-month daily correspondence between Helmuth von Moltke—imprisoned resistance leader awaiting almost certain but unscheduled execution—and his wife Freya, who would serve humanitarian causes for another 65 years, is a devastating testimony to courage, family love, and the consolation of religious faith.  It also reveals the Nazi jurists’ implacable legal reasoning as well as the Moltkes’ hope somehow to delay the sentence by working the corridors of a regime in denial of its own imminent extinction.” —Charles Maier
 
“These letters form an extraordinary zone of light in the darkest of times. The writers think lucidly and eloquently about who they are and where they are, and by the extension about who we are or might be, if we care enough about humanity to stand firm against its worst abusers. An unforgettable book.” —Michael G. Wood
 
"Any tale of brave resistance to political tyranny elicits profound admiration. But told through the intimate correspondence of a wife and her husband, this one acquires an extraordinary vitality and poignancy. Here we witness at close quarters the human costs of courage and its more-than-human springs. The sight is achingly, commandingly beautiful." —Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford
 
 “Bombs are falling, the Russian front is closing in, and the Nazi law machine grinds along, preparing cases, examining witnesses, churning out death sentences. In the midst of this destruction takes place the extraordinary leave-taking between Freya and Helmuth James von Moltke recorded in this volume. Through their letters, full of desperate humanity, they find a deeper personal connection, in defiance of the regime that seeks to crush them.” —Martin Puchner, author of The Written World and editor of The Norton Anthology of World Literature

“[F]illed with love and soul-searching, honest attempts to sift through their fears and understand their fates, and, increasingly, to find solace in their strong Christian faith.” —Danna Harman,
Haaretz

From the Publisher

2019-06-30
The son and grandchildren of Helmuth and Freya von Moltke, anti-Nazi leaders, present the last letters their parents exchanged as he was awaiting trial in Berlin in 1944.

Their letters and the explanatory footnotes reveal a deep love bolstered by a building religious devotion. "These are love letters in extremis," write the editors. "They testify to the profound openness with which Helmuth and Freya confront their fears, declare their love, articulate their hopes, and find faith." Helmuth consistently demonstrated unwavering trust in Freya's abilities, and their mental, physical, and spiritual devotion only increased as the letters continued. Both were attorneys, and Helmuth was conscripted as an attorney for the Wehrmacht in 1940. Both opposed Hitler from the very beginning, and their active resistance became known as the Kreisau Circle, a dedicated faction of Germans working to break with top-heavy authoritarian political tradition. They devised detailed political and economic plans for a postwar democratic Germany. In early 1944, Helmuth was unexpectedly arrested for alerting a friend that Gestapo had infiltrated secret meetings. At first, they expected him to be released—until the failed attempt on Hitler's life that summer. Some of Helmuth's co-conspirators were arrested in that plot, and the Nazis worked tirelessly to find a connection to him. Helmuth's and Freya's letters show their remarkable optimism and unvarnished grasp on the reality of the outcome of the trial. Eventually, Helmuth was transferred from Ravensbrück to Berlin's Tegel prison. The chaplain at the prison, Harald Poelchau, was a Kreisau member, and he smuggled the letters contained in this book. Knowing the trial would likely end in a death sentence, Helmuth and Freya exhausted every political and social connection to find help. His family, descended from one of Prussia's greatest heroes, was their strongest weapon as they worked toward a clemency plea. On Jan. 23, 1945, Helmuth was executed.

A compelling, profoundly emotional Nazi-era story that also serves as a reminder of the power of letter writing.

Kirkus Reviews