Anne Hornbostel, German-born, was my German teacher at Suffolk County Community College, Selden, Long Island, New York, in the 1960s. Here is her story.
She was married to a professor of literature at the University of Bonn. He was Jewish. They considered Hitler to be a roaring lion and felt that once the German people got the discontent out of their systems, they could go back to their Bach and their Schiller.
They hated the radio so didn't own one. One night their neighbors told them Hitler would be broadcasting a speech and they needed to hear his message. Hitler's rhetoric disturbed them, but what horrified them even more were the cheers of approval from their beloved German people. That night neither of them slept, and the next morning they left their home and their beautiful rose gardens and fled to Prague. She had not been back to Germany since that time.
We asked what could have prevented Hitler's rise to power. Her response: The intelligentsia were too apathetic.
Can we learn anything from Anne Hornbostel's story?
ADVERTISEMENT
Delores Nelson
Brainerd
