My father and I have a lot in common. We both love puppies and children. We are both "disgustingly" (not my word) organized. And we both have been writing since we can remember. First, diaries and journals. Then, stories and essays. And finally, in my dad's case, BOOKS... and in my case, BLOGS.
Dad was a far more prolific writer than I am. Dad wrote and wrote and wrote. Dad never stopped writing - and he had a great deal to say. He decided to say it mostly to his children and grandchildren. And now I'm saying it to my own children and grandchildren, because what Thomas had to say should never be forgotten.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My father, Thomas Heumann, grew up in Chemnitz, Germany during WWII, the son of a Jewish father, Carl, and a non-Jewish mother, Irmgard. Carl had been a bank president until his job (and career) was stripped from him by the Nazis in the late 1930s. With war raging all around him and Jews being taken from Chemnitz by the hundreds, Carl became a prisoner in his own home, surrounded by his beloved collection of exquisite Romantic German art. He was not allowed to socialize, to use public transportation, or even to have a telephone listed in his name.
But Carl was married to a non-Jew and had three young children. That made him a partner in a "privileged mixed marriage" with "Mischling" (half-breed) children. Those Jews, the Nazis decided, would not be deported to concentration camps (at least "for now"), as their marriages protected them.
When Irmgard died unexpectedly of a brain tumor in January, 1944, all hell broke loose for Carl and his Mischling children.
And my father wrote about all of it.
This blog is dedicated to my father's writings - mostly to his book, The Rim of the Volcano, which he couldn't bring himself to publish but which, shortly before his death, he made it clear to me that I was to publish... somehow.
This blog is how.
While my father's words form the basis of posts on this blog, my own experiences, opinions, and perspectives are interwoven with my father's. For clarity, my father's words are indented, while mine are left-justified.
My plan is to include a variety of my father's other writings in addition to The Rim of the Volcano - but we'll see how things go (as he would say).
I should have done this many years ago, but I've been, well... paralyzed. I wrote about it here, on my other blog.
