Today is the last day that I will be spending in Hamburg, because today we are leaving already. I got up very early to pack the last things and mementos. The time went by very quickly. At midday, my friend Felicitas came to say goodbye. She wrote in my poesiealbum and we had a very tender conversation. We said farewell to each other, briefly and painfully; then that, too, was over.

An hour later, Herr Baum came. He didn’t know what to say when he saw our empty home. Then Mother and Father came home and the Perlinskys came and we ate supper at Fraulein Katerabich’s house. We exchanged gifts. So the time went and the departure was upon us. The Perlinskys cried an awful lot, and Frau Krug also.

We went with the car to the railroad station, and at 12:00 midnight the train came. We waved until we couldn’t see anyone anymore.

—diary entry for November 7, 1938