Bibliograph

Last letters, the prison correspondence, September 1944-January 1945, Helmuth James von Moltke and Freya von Moltke ; edited by Helmuth Caspar von Moltke, Dorothea von Moltke, and Johannes von Moltke ; translated from the German by Shelley Frisch ; afterword by Rachel Seiffert

Type

Label

Last letters, the prison correspondence, September 1944-January 1945, Helmuth James von Moltke and Freya von Moltke ; edited by Helmuth Caspar von Moltke, Dorothea von Moltke, and Johannes von Moltke ; translated from the German by Shelley Frisch ; afterword by Rachel Seiffert

Language

eng

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Last letters

Medium

electronic resource eBook

Nature of contents

bibliographydictionaries

Responsibility statement

Helmuth James von Moltke and Freya von Moltke ; edited by Helmuth Caspar von Moltke, Dorothea von Moltke, and Johannes von Moltke ; translated from the German by Shelley Frisch ; afterword by Rachel Seiffert

Series statement

New York Review books classics

Sub title

the prison correspondence, September 1944-January 1945

Summary

Available for the first time in English, a moving prison correspondence between a husband and wife who resisted the Nazis. Tegel prison, Berlin, in the fall of 1944. Helmuth James von Moltke is awaiting trial for his leading role in the Kreisau Circle, one of the most important German resistance groups against the Nazis. By a near miracle, the prison chaplain at Tegel is Harald Poelchau, a friend and co-conspirator of Helmuth and his wife, Freya. From Helmuth’s arrival at Tegel in late September 1944 until the day of his execution by the Nazis on January 23, 1945, Poelchau would carry Helmuth’s and Freya’s letters in and out of prison daily, risking his own life. Freya would safeguard these letters for the rest of her long life, much of it spent in Norwich, VT, from 1960 until her death in 2010. Last Letters is a profoundly personal record of the couple’s love, faith, and courage in the face of fascism. Written during the final months of World War II, the correspondence is at once a collection of love letters written in extremis and a historical document of the first order. Published to great acclaim in Germany, this volume now makes this deeply moving correspondence available for the first time in English

Table Of Contents

Editors' introduction -- Acknowledgments -- Translator's note -- The letters -- Appendix: additional documents -- Afterword

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