The Past Is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg

The Past Is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg

On 29 September 1934, at the German Embassy office in London, Christabel Bielenberg officially became a German citizen. Having met her German husband Peter two years prior, Christabel decided to renounce her British citizenship, planning to start married life with Peter in Berlin. Though Adolf Hitler had risen to power in 1933, Christabel and Peter were convinced the German people would see through the newly elected chancellor.

But soon Christabel found herself living under the horrors of Nazi rule and Allied bombings as the war progressed. Closely associated with resistance circles, her husband was arrested after the failure of the plot against Hitler’s life on 20 July 1944, and she herself was interrogated by the Gestapo. Though she lived in constant fear for her and her family’s safety, Christabel survived the war with the help of other like-minded Germans who were against Hitler and the Third Reich.

With various memorable encounters – from a simple-minded Nazi official who was also her odd-job gardener to the good-hearted Black Forest villagers who sheltered her till the liberation – Christabel shares not only the hardships and worry but also the humour and humanity she found during these dark days. The human dimension of her writing brings about an unforgettable portrait of an evil time.

Christabel Bielenberg, a niece of Lord Northcliffe, was born in 1909 and left for Hamburg, Germany, in 1929 to study singing. There she met and married the lawyer, Peter Bielenberg, in 1934. She lived through the war as a German citizen and wrote about her experiences in her memoir, The Past is Myself (1968) and in its sequel, The Road Ahead (1992). The Past is Myself was adapted for television by Dennis Potter under the title Christabel. In 1988, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded her the Commander's cross of the Order of Merit for her contribution to German-English understanding. Since 1948 she and her family had been living in Co Carlow, Ireland, where she died in 2003.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781804994993
ISBN 10	1804994995
Title	The Past Is Myself
Author	Christabel Bielenberg
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Transworld Publishers Ltd
Year published	2024-06-20
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.