Two stories crossing

I am at the first crossover point between Clara’s Story and The House on Schellberg Street. This is the birth of Renate Edler, who is the main character in the first story. She was born five weeks prematurely in a thunderstorm and there were concerns about whether she would live. So, she was christened straight away. Her father had to find a priest quickly and the only one he managed to locate had had rather a lot to drink. He made three mistakes:

·         He got the names in the wrong order

·         He spelt Renata wrongly

·         He spelt Clara wrongly.

The family had wanted the Italian spelling of Renata, not the German Renate. She was supposed to be named Clara after both of her grandmothers. So, instead of being Renata Clara she became Klara Renate. This may eventually have helped her to get out of Germany more easily in 1939.

Childbirth in early 20^th century

In order to write this scene I’ve had to do some research about childbirth in the early 20^th century. Five weeks prematurity would not be too critical these days. It still was then. Births would normally be at home and this is the case here though because labour started early the doctor as well as the midwife is in attendance. The husband would not be present at the birth like nowadays and even the doctor, the other nurse and the mother looked away as the midwife checked “down below”.

Was the disorientation as the second stage started recognised then? Even if it wasn’t, chances are women experienced it. Käthe, being the modern young woman she is, gives vent to those feelings, though Clara, enlightened as she is, remains a lady, and although she recognizes what Käthe is going through she remembers that she didn’t mention it out loud.

There was no machinery – no heart monitors and no oxygen on demand. The doctor and the midwife relied on stethoscopes and the baby’s airways had to be cleared manually. Clara fears a still birth but all is actually well.   

Handling the crossover

Where the stories cross over they will have to match.  This is the first of many, now. However, although they must never contradict they show different angles of various events. Now we see everything from Clara’s point of view instead of Renate’s or Hani’s. I hope those who have already read The House on Schellberg Street will enjoy reading about these events from this other point of view. Those who haven’t may wish to after they’ve finished Clara’s Story. They will of course then have the answer to the question left open; they will know what has happened to Clara. This isn’t really a problem – most people will have guessed anyway.            

 

               

Putting in an extra thread - Rudi Lehrs

We only know a little about this character:

He was five years younger than Käthe Lehrs i.e. there was a much bigger gap between them than between Käthe and Ernst.

• He only had one lung. (Though for how much of his life we’re not sure, nor why.)
• He was a mathematician.
• He was in London with Ernst when niece Renate Edler arrived there on the Kindertranport.
• He ended up at the University of Ottawa.

Despite the problems with his lung he survived almost as long as his brother and sister.

At one point they could not find him: he had moved house in Canada and the notification had gone astray.  

That actually may seem like quite a collection but in fact we have much less of an impression of him than of the rest of the family. He seems to have been a bit of a loner but he has to come into Clara’s story. She was above all else a mother and a mother is concerned about her children.

I am only including a few scenes of Clara’s life before her “third stage” – her life after her husband’s death which spans the time of her involvement with the Steiner schools, the special class in Schellberg house and her persecution by the Nazis. Yet these scenes are crucial. They really build her.

For these scenes I am using the historical writer’s third tool – the imagination. (The other two are primary resources and repeated experience.) I’m inserting three scenes of Rudi’s earlier life. He will appear again later – mainly as he moves away from Germany.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the research we do and our writing in any case. We research the story in order to be able to tell it but as we write new questions appear. The research must stay out of the writing time and be seen as separate activity.  Sure, it counts as a writerly activity, it’s extremely interesting and it seems to me to be a good use of my time. But it can’t count as writing time.

I keep a list of what else I need to look into. Lung diseases joined that list yesterday.                 

    

Introduction

This blog follows on from the Potatoes in Spring one. The House on Schellberg Street tells the story of Clara Lehrs from when her husband dies in 1918 until she herself is murdered in Treblinka. There will be some crossover with Potatoes in Spring. There are also a few flashbacks to her childhood and the early years of her marriage.

There will probably be a number of spoilers in this blog. These are not necessarily ones that I give directly because here I’m mainly talking about my creative process and discussing some of the research. However, some of the links will give some material away. We all probably guessed the main outcome anyway when we read Potatoes in Spring.   

This is the first full length piece of fiction I’ve written for adults but I think it will still be readable by young people aged twelve and over – especially those who have read Potatoes in Spring.  Arguably both books are actually biography, but there is so much we can’t find out for sure and have to guess and both are written in the style of a novel.  

I stumbled upon this story when I wanted to find out something about Haus Lehrs. I knew that was the home of Renate Edler’s grandmother in Stuttgart. I knew that Renate spent a lot of time there as a child. Even when I spent some time in Stuttgart as part of my BA in French and German, Haus Lehrs was known amongst the locals.

I rented a room from two elderly sisters in Degerloch. I explained my husband’s connection with Stuttgart.(He is Clara’s great grandson and nearest living relative.)  

“Oh yes,” one of them said.  “Haus Lehrs is still there, on Schellberg Street.”  

That was in 1973. I never dreamt that one day that statement would practically be the title of a book I’d write.  

When I started Renate’s story, I Googled  “Haus Lehrs” and was taken to  the Stolperstein web site. The essence of Clara’s story is there. Renate used to tell us of a school that was hidden but came out into the open. It must have been the one that was run in 20 Schellberg Street, surely.

As I worked further on Renate’s story, I began to realise what an incredible woman Clara Lehrs was. She deserved to have her story told too.

At the moment there are only a few traces of her. Hopefully I will find a few more. I’m starting out on a journey and I’d like to invite you along.