Mind-mapping Carl Heumann

Grandchildren mine,

Back when I was planning to write a book… or bring Thomas-Opa’s books to the public… or however it is that “the book” was going to manifest itself, I worked with a book coach to help me get started.

For all my father’s impeccable qualities, he had one that persisted beyond his death – in fact, it strengthened after his death. My father held very high expectations, not only for himself, but for those around him – especially those he loved. After his death, that manifested for me in my complete paralysis in regards to writing “the book.” Eventually I hired a book coach, but what I actually needed was a book coach who was also a therapist!

I wrote about this paralysis and associated mental health challenge on my Northwestladybug blog, here. This blog is my answer to said paralysis. Fingers crossed!

Kate, my book coach (but not my therapist) recommended that I create a mind map for each potential character in my book. A mind map is a great tool to help hone in on important topics and themes of any writing exercise.  All my mind maps resulted in THIS one – centered on my grandfather, your great-great grandfather, Carl Heumann.

No matter where I start telling the story – whether with the wedding of Carl and Irmgard in 1919, or with my father’s written memories at the turn of the next century, or even with my own associated experiences in recent years – everything somehow comes back to Carl.

Can you see the story web?

I’ll try another little writing exercise right here on our blog. I’ll try to give a short synopsis of Carl as the center of the story, and the point from which every sub-chapter emanates. Let’s see…

Konsul Carl Heumann, a prominent German banker and art collector, was a Jew who, about 20 years before the beginning of WWII, married a non-Jew, Irmgard. Carl and Irmgard had three children who they raised as Protestant but who were officially deemed by Nazis as Mischlinge (“half-breeds).

As Hitler came to power and politics in Germany began to focus on anti-Semitism, being married to a Jew became more and more dangerous for “a good German,”  and Irmgard's family – especially her Nazi-sympathizing father and brother -  urged Irmgard to divorce Carl “for your own safety.” She steadfastly refused, well aware that her sheer existence was all that stood between her husband and certain death in a concentration camp, at which point their Mischling children would be guaranteed to meet the same fate.

In the early 1940’s, after her Jewish husband had been striped of his profession and his basic rights as a member of society and had been relegated by law to the confines of his own home, Irmgard began to experience mysterious physical symptoms which she assumed were stress related. In 1944, she died suddenly of a brain tumor.

At this point, all hell broke loose for Carl and his children. The older boys were sent to a work camp, the youngest daughter was taken in by her uncle, and Carl prepared himself for the worst.

But it never came. Carl was never taken, prompting a mystery that, to this day, has not been solved: why was it that in this town of 350,000 people with a formerly sizable Jewish population, Carl was, to his knowledge, the only Jew who had survived? Did he have a protectorate?

Do you want to read on? Good. Stand by…