Chapter 10

WITNESS TO HISTORY

In her last full term at St. Paul’s in 1937, Eva wrote, “All day long it was pretty foggy and cold. At times the fog was so thick that it seemed like you only saw a white wall when you looked out the window. The sun at times looked like a glowing red ball through the fog. It really looked ghostly. I’ve never seen such a fog like that before. This was a real English fog.”⁵⁴ Indeed, the future of England was also obscured by blurring fog or, more accurately, war clouds.

Eva attended a concert of Beethoven, Brahms and Debussy. As she left the concert hall, still in the rapture of such superb music, she was rudely thrown back to reality:

When [she] got outside, she heard drums and people marching. There was a demonstration of hundreds and hundreds of people that marched through the streets with red flags, singing the Communist song…They were unemployed men and women, and also young boys and girls who had come from all parts of England to march in this parade. They came from Wales and the north and from all over. They had backpacks and blankets packed on their backs, and almost everybody had some sort of red piece of cloth…They were collecting for Spain. The men looked terribly unkempt. They looked dark and menacing in their facial expressions. They were unshaven…with glowering faces that partially had the impressions of animals.⁵⁵

Eva thought to herself that she could not imagine what these people were capable of doing if they were provoked. “People like that could destroy a whole culture, in fact a whole nation, with their fanatical ideas provoking others and through that drown out reason. This you can see is happening in Russia and Spain. Everywhere where the Communists have their hand in the game, there are revolutions, shootings, and massacres.”⁵⁶

Eva feared the Communists; she learned this in Germany, but she did not fully understand that Hitler and the Nazis used the same fear to gain power and, ultimately, absolute dictatorship. Obviously, she had never witnessed a Nazi demonstration. She did not, as yet, have the insight to realize that the Communist revolutionaries were in many ways no different from the Nazi fascists. The “far Right” and the “far Left” were not so far apart.

The British Empire, the United Kingdom, had to deal with its own unexpected turmoil. King Edward VIII abdicated his throne. As soon as the news broke, Miss Strudwick, the headmistress, called the girls to the auditorium. After the students were assembled, she went to the stage and, with a deathly serious face, said the following words: “Paulinas, I hope that I am going to be the only high Mistress of this school who has to say what I am going to say now. Our Edward VIII has abdicated, and the Duke of York, Albert the First, will be the new King. I hope that girls from other countries in this school, who are guests in our country, will feel for us and help us overcome this event.”⁵⁷

Eva had high regard for national traditions. She felt bad for the girls who took the abdication as a personal loss.

The weeks leading up to the coronation of the new king saw a London that was “crazy.” Banners and decorations hung everywhere, and “even cars had their own little flags. There were coronation chocolates, tennis rackets, pencils…all blue, white and red. If you wanted to buy a dress, you only get it in these colors: blue, white and red.”⁵⁸

The only bit of news that could steal the headlines as the country edged forward toward coronation day and its festivities was the tragedy of the Hindenburg dirigible that exploded and crashed in the United States. It was the largest blimp in the world and was the pride of Germany. Over one hundred people were killed.

Even though there was so much excitement in England, Eva could not extricate herself from her own worries. Letters from home, which usually arrived on Saturdays, became erratic. This was alarming. She wrote, “I have no idea what is going on at home. If I don’t hear from them by tomorrow, I don’t know what I will do. Hopefully, everything is all right.”⁵⁹ The usual absorption into studies, activities and her own misery of loneliness began to include worry about how safe her family was in Germany. This only added to her feeling of helplessness. For a brief period, however, she allowed herself to be swept up in the excitement of the coronation.

It was 4:00 a.m. when Eva and a classmate, Alix, left to find a spot to view the coronation parade. The subway was already crowded even at that early hour. The two arrived at the Oxford Circus station and made their way into the throng that had gathered. She recounted:

After nine hours, we were standing probably in the second row. All around us were people from the East End or real proletarians. I have to say that I’d rather be among the Germans than the English. The Germans have a lot more humor, and would if they had to stay this long, I’m sure, sing one song after the other… Pretty soon a Scottish regiment marched by. I liked the uniforms of the Highlanders very much…Above us there was a loudspeaker, and we listened to parts of the coronation in the Abbey…finally it was three o’clock, and the parade slowly came toward us. In the front rode soldiers from all different types of the British Commonwealth. Arabs, Indians with colorful turbans and big beards, Africans, Negroes, Malaysians. It was a colorful mixture of people. They came partly on foot, partly on horseback, troops with beautiful uniforms. In between were bands on horseback, where the riders held the reins with one hand, and had a trumpet in the other. For saddles they had tiger skins. Especially terrific were the mounted police from Canada. How terrific those guys were sitting in their saddles, their guns almost perpendicular to their saddles. They were tanned by the sun and very, very strong figures. Then the Australians with the large feather bushes on their hats…So everything went colorfully by. The horse guards and the regular guards. The tall men with the high hats and a majestic step. Scottish regiments with red kilts. Scottish riders on horseback with coats thrown over their shoulders, bagpipe music and the conductor in front who threw his big staff that he used to conduct with into the air and caught it again, and made all kinds of impossible catches…Then came the first carriages with honored guests from in and outside the country…drivers in uniforms full of gold decorations…an Indian prince and princess, the Queen of Norway. Then, all of a sudden, our Scottish guards stood at attention and presented arms and some of the Royal Family came by. The two little princesses with small crowns on their heads (Margaret and Elizabeth), Queen Mary, Duchess of Kent and Gloucester and then a golden State carriage pulled by eight white horses. The King sat to the right of the Queen, the white cape thrown around his shoulders, scepter and staff in his hand, and a crown on his head. So very sublime and royal! ⁶⁰

The entire spectacle made a lasting impression on Eva. Everything seemed like a fairy tale, only more beautiful. “It showed the pomp and the majesty and the richness of a world power.”⁶¹