Freya von Moltke

Infobox Person
name = Freya von Moltke


image_size =
caption = Freya von Moltke, at age 95.
birth_name = Freya Deichmann
birth_date = birth date and age|1911|3|29
birth_place = Cologne, Germany
residence = Norwich, Vermont
nationality = Federal Republic of Germany, United States of America
known_for = Chronicling her husband’s role in the Kreisau Circle’s non-violent resistance to Nazism during World War II.
education = Doctor of Law, Humboldt University of Berlin
occupation = scholar, author, speaker
boards =
spouse = Helmuth James Ludwig Eugen Heinrich Graf von Moltke [Note: "Graf" is a title, meaning “count.”]
partner =
children = Helmuth Caspar, Konrad
parents = Ada & Carl Theodor Deichmann
relatives = Hans Deichmann, Carl Deichmann
url =

Freya von Moltke (born March 29 1911) was a participant in the anti-Nazi resistance group, the Kreisau Circle, co-founded by her husband, Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. During World War II, her husband acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany. He became a founding member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group, opposing the government of Adolf Hitler. The Nazi government executed her husband for treason, he having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler. Von Moltke preserved her husband’s letters that detailed his activities during the war and she also chronicled events of that period from her perspective. She supported the founding of a center for international understanding at the former von Moltke estate in Kreisau, now in Poland.

Early life

in 1935.

Pre-war Kreisau

Following her law studies, she lived summers at the von Moltke estate at Kreisau where her husband, a "Graf" (count), had actively managed the farming activities—a pursuit atypical of a German nobleman—before retaining an overseer.Citation
last =Bavarian Radio Online
first =("Bayerische Rundfunk"—Online)
title =Meine Geschichte–2. Frauen im Widerstand: Freya von Moltke
date = February, 2007
year =2007
url = http://www.br-online.de/bildung/databrd/mg02.htm/mg02f1.htm
accessdate = 2007-11-11] There von Moltke actively worked on the farm, while her husband started an international law practice in Berlin and studied to become an English barrister.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party, obtained the chancellorship of Germany, an event that von Moltke’s husband foresaw would be a disaster for Germany, not the transitory figure that others expected.Citation
last = von Moltke
first = Freya
editor-last= Translator: Winter
editor-first = Julie M.
title =Memories of Kreisau & The German Resistance
publisher = University of Nebraska Press
year = 2003
location = Lincoln, Nebraska
isbn = 0-8032-4669-2] [Citation
last = von Moltke
first = Freya
title =Erinnerungen an Kreisau—1930-1945
publisher = C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
year = 1998
location = Munich
isbn = ] The Nazis immediately revoked the rights of individuals by emergency decree and abolished the constitution, by manipulating the Reichstag. The von Moltkes encouraged their overseer to join the Nazi Party to shield the community of Kreisau from government interference.

In 1937 she gave birth to their first son, Helmuth Caspar. Thereafter, she lived at Kreisau year-round. Her husband inherited the Kreisau estate in 1939.

Wartime Kreisau

In 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. Von Moltke’s husband was immediately “drafted at the beginning of the Polish campaign by the High Command of the Armed Forces, Counter-Intelligence Service, Foreign Division, as an expert in martial law and international public law.” In his travels through German-occupied countries, her husband observed many human rights abuses, which he attempted to thwart by insisting that Germany observe the Geneva Convention (it continued not to) and through local actions in creating more benign outcomes for local inhabitants, citing legal principles.Citation
last = von Moltke
first = Helmuth James
editor-last= Translator: von Oppen
editor-first = Beata Ruhm
title =Letters to Freya—1939–1945
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf
year = 1990
location = New York
isbn = 0-394-57923-2] In October, 1941, her husband wrote, "Certainly more than a thousand people are murdered in this way every day, and another thousand German men are habituated to murder... What shall I say when I am asked: And what did you do during that time?" In the same letter he said, "Since Saturday the Berlin Jews are being rounded up. Then they are sent off with what they can carry.... How can anyone know these things and walk around free?"

In 1941 von Moltke gave birth to their second son, Konrad, at Kreisau.

by nearly sixty years, summarized in documented resolutions. The third meeting in June, 1943 addressed how to handle the legacy of Nazi war crimes after the fall of the dictatorship. These and other meetings resulted in “Principles for the New [Post-Nazi] Order” and “Directions to Regional Commissioners” that her husband asked von Moltke to hide in a place that not even he knew.

On January 19, 1944 the Gestapo arrested von Moltke’s husband for warning an acquaintance of that person’s impending arrest. She was allowed to visit him under benign conditions and found that he could continue to work and receive papers. On July 20, 1944 there was an attempt on Hitler's life, which the Gestapo used as a pretext to eliminate perceived opponents to the Nazi regime. In January 1945, Helmuth von Moltke was tried, convicted, and executed by a Gestapo “People’s Court” for treason, having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler.

Leaving Kreisau

In the spring of 1945 von Moltke and another Kreisau widow had evacuated their families to Czechoslovakia to avoid the Russian offensive, which ultimately bypassed Kreisau. After the fall of Berlin on May 2, 1945, the Russians sent a small detachment to occupy Kreisau. Using improvised notes in Russian and Czech, she obtained safe passage for both families to return to Kreisau from hiding. A Russian company was billeted at the von Moltke estate to “supervise the harvest" during the summer of 1945. When the Poles began to occupy the small farms, vacated by Germans, the Russians became protectors of the occupants of the von Moltke estate.

After a trip to Berlin, where she met Allen Dulles and received American rations for a difficult return trip to Silesia to retrieve her children, von Moltke followed the advice of Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz to leave Kreisau. Gaevernitz was an American officer, who came to inspect conditions in Russian and Polish-occupied Silesia. Von Moltke gave him for safekeeping the letters that her husband had written to her, which she had hidden from the Nazis in her beehives. Thanks to British friends of her husband, emissaries from the British Embassy in Poland arranged for her evacuation from Poland.

Transitions

After her escape from Silesia, von Moltke moved to South Africa, where she settled with the couple's two young sons, Caspar and Konrad. There she worked as a social worker and a therapist for disabilities. In 1956, unable to further tolerate Apartheid, she returned to Berlin where she commenced her work in publicizing the Kreisau Circle. There she received support in this effort from Eugen Gerstenmeier, then president of the Bundestag, among others. In 1960 she moved to Norwich, Vermont, to join the social philosopher, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who died in 1973. As of 2008 she resided there still.

Legacy

Von Moltke has been active since the war in publicizing her husband's ideas and actions during the war, to serve as an example of principled resistance. As early as 1949 she traveled to the United States to lecture on "Germany: Past and present," "Germany: Totalitarianism versus democracy,""German youth and the new education," and "Women’s position in the new Germany."Citation
last = Truman
first = H. F.
title = A German of the Nazi Resistance
year = 1949
url = http://sdrcdata.lib.uiowa.edu/libsdrc/details.jsp?id=/moltke/1&page=1
accessdate = 2007-11-22]

On the centenary of her husband's birth, March 11, 2007, she was invited to attend a commemoration of his legacy in Berlin, where German chancellor Angela Merkel described her husband as a symbol of "European courage".cite news
last = Marquand
first = Robert
coauthors =
title = Moral legacy of Nazi resister takes root in Germany - and abroad
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = The Christian Science Monitor
date = 2007-03-12
url = http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070312/ts_csm/omoltke;_ylt=Ao4Z0oSnEIhzkleOd92G3nGOe8UF
accessdate = 2007-03-13]

Von Moltke has been a subject of many interviews and articles. She told interviewer, Owings: "People who lived through the Nazi time, and who still live, who did not lose their lives because they were opposed, all had to make compromises." [Citation
last = Owings
first = Alison
year =1995
title = Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich
publication-place = Piscataway, New Jersey
publisher = Rutgers University Press
isbn = 0813522005-10.]

With the reunification of Germany, von Moltke was supportive of transforming the former von Moltke estate in Kreisau into a meeting place to promote German-Polish and European mutual understanding. Poland and Germany invested 30 million DM in renovating the venue. It opened in 1998 as the " Internationale Jugendbegegnungsstätte Kreisau" (Kreisau International Youth Center). In 2004, a fund was established, the "Freya von Moltke Stiftung für das Neue Kreisau" (Freya von Moltke Foundation for a New Kreisau), to promote the long-term support of the meeting place and further the work done there. As of 2007, von Moltke actively supported this initiative as the honorary chair of the board of trustees of the Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding (the supporting entity for the Kreisau meeting site) and the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure, Sachsen in Görlitz. Citation
last =Freya von Moltke Foundation
first =("Freya von Moltke Stiftung")
title = Freya von Moltke Foundation for the New Kreisau
date = February, 2007
year =2007
url = http://www.kreisau.de/fvms/de/de.htm
accessdate = 2007-11-11.]

Recognitions

In 1999, Dartmouth College awarded von Moltke an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for her writings on the German resistance during World War II. [cite web
url = http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/1999/apr99/commence.html
title = Sen. George Mitchell to deliver main address at Commencement
accessdate = 2007-12-10
date = 1999-04-22] In same year, she accepted the Bruecke Prize from the city of Görlitz, Germany, in recognition of her life’s work. [cite web
url = http://www.brueckepreis.de/index.jsp?p_contrib=156&p_cursor=177
title = Freya von Moltke
accessdate = 2007-12-11
publisher = Brueckepreis.de] Her life serves as the basis of a play by Marc Smith titled "A Journey to Kreisau". [ [http://thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=4807 Molly Ritvo. (2008, April 16). Play recounts Nazi resistance. "Jewish Advocate".] ]

Notes and references

External references

*Websites:
** [http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/woman/biography/freya-graefin-von-moltke/ FemBiography]
** [http://www.fvms.de Website of the Freya von Moltke Foundation]
** [http://www.kreisau.de Website of the "Kreisau-Initiative Berlin e.V."]
** [http://www.krzyzowa.org.pl Website of the Kreisau Foundation]
** [http://soziale-demokratie.de/30-31-94.doc.html Freya von Moltke interview with the weekly, "Junge Freiheit" on August 22, 1994]
** "Geschwister-Scholl-Preis" [http://www.buchhandel-bayern.de/geschwister-scholl-preis/1989_laudatio.shtml recognition for "Briefe an Freya" ("Letters to Freya") and the achievements of Helmuth von Moltke.]
** [http://www.brueckepreis.de/index.jsp?p_contrib=156&p_cursor=177 Bruecke Prize recognition of von Moltke's life work.]

In English

*Citation
last = Balfour
first = Michael
last2 = Frisbee
first2 = Julian
title =Helmuth von Moltke—A Leader against Hitler
publisher = MacMillan London Limited
year = 1972
location = London
isbn =
*Citation
last = Grose | first = Peter
last2 = | first2 =
last3 = | first3 =
last4 = | first4 =
year =1996
title = Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles
publication-place = Amherst, Massachusetts
publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
isbn = 1558490442-10.
*cite news
last = Marquand
first = Robert
coauthors =
title = Moral legacy of Nazi resister takes root in Germany—and abroad
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = The Christian Science Monitor
date = 2007-03-12
url = http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070312/ts_csm/omoltke;_ylt=Ao4Z0oSnEIhzkleOd92G3nGOe8UF
accessdate = 2007-03-13
*Moltke, Freya von. "Memories of Kreisau & the German Resistance". Trans. Julie M. Winter. Lincoln, NE: U of Nebraska P, 2003.
*Moltke, Helmuth James von. "Letters to Freya 1939-1945". Ed. and Trans. Beate Ruhm von Oppen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
*Citation
last = Owings | first = Alison
last2 = | first2 =
last3 = | first3 =
last4 = | first4 =
year =1995
title = Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich
publication-place = Piscataway, New Jersey
publisher = Rutgers University Press
isbn = 0813522005-10.
*Citation
last = Von Meding | first = Dorothee
last2 = Translator: Balfour | first2 = Michael
last3 = Translator: Berghahn | first3 = Volker R.
last4 = | first4 =
year =1997
title = Courageous Hearts: Women and the Anti-Hitler Plot of 1944
publication-place = Oxford & New York
publisher = Berghahn Books
isbn = 1571818537-10.

In German

*Citation
last = Leber | first = Annedore
last2 = von Moltke | first2 = Freya
last3 = | first3 =
last4 = | first4 =
year =1961
title = Für und wider—Entscheidungen in Deutschland 1918-1945
publication-place = Frankfurt-am-Main
publisher = Mosaik Verlag
isbn = .
*Citation
last = Moltmann-Wendel | first = Elisabeth
last2 = Moltmann- Wendel | first2 = Elisabeth
last3 = | first3 =
last4 = | first4 =
year =2005
title = Das Leben lieben - mehr als den Himmel. Frauenporträts
publication-place = Gütersloh
publisher = Gütersloher Verlagshaus
isbn = 3579052098-10.
*Citation
last = von Moltke | first = Freya
last2 = Hoffmann | first2 = Eva
last3 = | first3 =
last4 = | first4 =
year =1996
title = Die Kreisauerin
publication-place = Göttingen
publisher = Lamuv Verlag
isbn = 3889774415-10.
*Citation
last = von Moltke
first = Helmuth James
title =Briefe an Freya—1939-1945
publisher = C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
year = 1988
location = Munich
isbn =