Marie Jahoda über das Ende ihrer Kindheit

Dänemark, Sommer 1919


Childhood ended in the summer of 1919 when I was sent with about 200 other undernourished Viennese children to a castle in Denmark for 6 weeks to be properly fed. After a stormy crossing of the North Sea – many children were sea sick and I was inordinately proud not to succumb – we arrived at Kings Lynn1 at a table set with a plate for each child: a white roll and a tablet of chocolate – long forgotten delights.
It was the first time I had been away from home for so long; a period of growing up and out of childhood. A privileged childhood certainly, in spite of the war and its aftermath, but a happy one? Perhaps it is silly to talk of happy childhoods. I remember moments of passionate hate and passionate love, feeling alienated from the family […].

Marie Jahoda Albu: Reconstructions. [Keymer, Sussex: Published by the author] 1996, S. 21.


1 Sicherlich ist nicht das britische Kings Lynn (Norfolk), gemeint. Eventuell wurde es mit dem dänischen Lynge (Vestsjælland) verwechselt. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

© Reinhard Müller -- Graz, im Oktober 2006

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