Felicitas
In the new book I’m writing Behind the Words, I’m writing about the Wolf Siblings: Otto, Kurt and Felicitas.
Felicitas’s chapter will probably take the longest. WHY? Well, there are sooo many gaps in her story. I don’t want it to be a short one. There’s so much to unpack here. But there’s a problem, I’m doing this WITHOUT HELP from HER FAMILY. As I have reached out to them, and nothing on their end?? If only I knew the name of Felicitas’s other daughter. I only know one..and she lives in Prague (Eva Vavrecka, for those of you who want to know).
I have written about Felicitas many times and there are still things I don’t know about her. What did she do after the war? I have found some information but nothing that satisfies my answers. I don’t know why her children- or should I say one of her daughter’s families don’t want to talk about Felicitas. Are they scared that she might come back to haunt them?
Do they think I’ll try to profit off Felicitas? Y’all, she’s dead. What would I profit off? Tell me, because I honestly don’t know.
“Oh they’re just trying to protect her privacy” — as I’ve heard from Deanna Durbin fans when her kids were unresponsive as well. I’m dealing with a Jewish Deanna Durbin, who only spoke about her brothers when she got older. Now, when I say Jewish Deanna Durbin, let me be clear. Felicitas didn’t act or sing or be in films. She was in fashion, like Renee Firestone. But honestly, I wish her family could have said “Hey, cool idea, but I am just not comfortable with talking to you, no further questions.” That’s it. Listen, I’m autistic, I need verbal connections, or answers. I hate it when people don’t respond. For one thing, it’s plain rude and second, I have been wondering for two months if her daughter even got my letter, well I guess she did? Cause she did not answer. I tried reaching out to the granddaughter on Linkedin, and again, absolutely nothing. But she did “view my profile.” Her and her boss did, which I was like “Hey read about my books!” At the time of me contacting them, I was writing Among the Many which is out now! But now, I needed their response on Felicitas for this big book and guess what? They’ll be like “Why is Felicitas’s chapter so …how do I put this…with little information and full of questions?” I’ll tell you why- CAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY DAMN GAPS WITHIN HER STORY. I know she was haunted by the memory of her two brothers, and the war was VERY TRAUMATIC for her, I get that. I am not saying that her experience shouldn’t be respected, but it shouldn’t be forgotten either. But here’s the kicker, her daughter could show up to events honoring her mother (like two memorials for the family built and paid for by American Students in 2012), but doesn’t have the time to respond and answer like three or four questions for a book ABOUT her mother (well it’s about her other siblings too, but Felicitas is in it). Like it doesn’t make any sense to me.
I understand that Felicitas acted like her brothers didn’t even exist after the war. Like, nobody wanted to talk about Kurt or Otto. Like why? Why forget them? As an autistic person, I don’t take death lightly, I still don’t.
I don’t understand why we say “We have to move on.” I don’t. When Felicitas died, a lot of history went with it.
I like to keep people alive, in any way that I can! I think of Felicitas, even though I didn’t get the honor of interviewing her (Otto came into my life in 2010. She had been dead for a few years up until that point). Up until 2021, I didn’t realize Felicitas had any family at all. I knew she married, but I didn’t know about the kids. My purpose for contacting families is to keep them alive and know that I think of them. I am glad that Felicitas donated to the USHMM in 1995, she was 75 at the time. She couldn’t handle Otto’s diaries anymore, as she said when she donated them. She didn’t do any formal interviews, which was truly a missed opportunity.
I wished she would have done at least one interview to talk about her brothers, but she chose not to. I think it hurt her too much. I have been told by my friend Zapruder, that she loved Otto very much and his death remained painful for her. I can imagine that she had to go through life WITHOUT BOTH OF HER BROTHERS, not just ONE. She lost BOTH. Both Kurt or Otto saw her got married, or open her own store, or have her own children or grandchildren. such a pity.
So when the book comes out and there’s “not enough information”, don’t blame me, I’ve done all research I could do.
But the book is not to come out for a little while, must see what I can finally dig up.
x peace
