RT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL
ANNE FRANK
ROUND TABLE OF NEBRASKA
The Bookworm 2501 S. 90th St
Omaha Nebraska, 68124
Omaha Chapter of the International Churchill Society
https://churchillsocietyomaha.org/
July 26th
Sunday 1:30 pm at the Bookworm
http://wrldhstry.com/WinstonChurchill_AnneFrank_Online_Resources.htm
Martin Gilbert’s
Winston S. Churchill Volume 6 Finest Hour 1939-1941
Chapter 24 ‘The Common Cause’ (1983, pages 470-494)
Andrew Roberts’
Churchill Walking With Destiny
Chapter 21 ‘The Fall of France: May-June 1940 (2018, pages 553-557)
Hannah Pick-Goslar’s
My Friend Anne Frank Chapter 15 ‘Beterschap’ (2023, pages 241-251)
June 11 1940
Churchill ended, ‘& those of my colleagues, for all you are doing & seeking to do for what we may now indeed call the Common Cause.’
Excerpt from Martin Gilbert’s Winston S. Churchill Volume 6 Finest Hour 1939-1941
(1983, page 493)
Churchill now turned to Britain’s immediate needs, telling Roosevelt that airplanes and flying boats were essential ‘in the impending struggle for the life of Great Britain’. But even more pressing, he urged, was the need for destroyers. Churchill’s appeal continued:
The Italian outrage makes it necessary for us to cope with a much larger number of submarines, which may come out into the Atlantic and perhaps be based on Spanish ports. To this the only counter is destroyers. Nothing is so important as for us to have the thirty or forty old destroyers you have already had reconditioned. We can fit them very rapidly with our Asdics, and they will bridge the gap of six months before our wartime new construction comes into play. We will return them or their equivalents to you, without fail, at six months’ notice if at any time you need them.
The next six months are vital. If while we have to guard the East Coast against invasion a new heavy German-Italian submarine attack is launched against our commerce the strain may be beyond our resources.
Reading this telegram before it was sent off, Churchill added at this point, in his own handwriting: ‘& the ocean’s traffic by which we live may be strangled. Not a day shd be lost.’
‘I send you my heartfelt thanks,’ Churchill ended, ‘& those of my colleagues, for all you are doing & seeking to do for what we may now indeed call the Common Cause.’
August 15 1945
But what they all wrote about you, my good Hanneli, moved me very much and also showed me how proud we can be of you: how you cared for your dear father and Gigi under the most difficult conditions and were a help and a consolation to them
Excerpt from Hannah Pick-Goslar’s
My Friend Anne Frank (2023, Pages 247-248)
In August, I received my first letter from Aunt Eugenie in Leeds. She had found out that Gabi and I were freed by the Russians as our names were on a list published in a London newspaper by the Dutch government on 21 June.
Her letter was dated 15 August 1945. She described the day as ‘Victory Day in England’. She wrote:
… Now, my dearest Hanneli, the first and most important thing is that you get completely better. I am so longing to see you and our adorable little Gigi. So many people have written to say how sweet she is and that she was a joy for everyone who knew her in the camp. But what they all wrote about you, my good Hanneli, moved me very much and also showed me how proud we can be of you: how you cared for your dear father and Gigi under the most difficult conditions and were a help and a consolation to them – I will never forget that. You are my good, considerate and wise Hanneli, whom I love very much. I would like to ask you so many questions, but I don’t dare stir up too much from the past, nor do I want my questions to make you feel sad. I want you to be happy and look to the future and we will all help to make the future good for you and Gigi. You are now our dear children, and Uncle Hans and Aunt Edith’s too.