Introduction

Memories

A letter from Antonie „Tona“ Perels to Fritz Weigle, 10.05.1949

After his forced resignation, Ernst Perels continued his work for the MGH and even in the very rooms of the institute, but was obliged to keep invisible. This was an open secret. One of Perels‘ former students, Fritz Weigle, who worked in the Deutsches Historisches Institut (German historical institute) in Rome and, by 1943 at the latest, was also active for the SS, wrote a letter to Thea Vienken at the MGH on 15 April 1942 with greetings to all his acquaintances there, particularly "Fräulein Dr Kuehn, Herr Prof. Perels, Herr Dr Erdmann, Herr Foerster and Frau Hermeking" (B 558, Blatt 281v). On August 31 1942, Carl Erdmann wrote to Prof Anton Michel in Freising thanking him for his latest corrections but stating that he had deleted the words „the commission with Herr Prof. Dr E. Perels“, since there had been no such commission. Erdmann revealingly adds that, „Prof. Perels (whom you yourself suggested, although our institute is now not allowed have any contact with him) received a copy of the manuscript to assess it, just as I did“ (B 561, Blatt 137).

In January 1944, the MGH library was evacuated for safety reasons from Berlin to Pommersfelden near Bamberg and many of the institute’s staff members went with it, including Ernst Perels. He worked there on a comprehensive study of the relationship between church and state in the Early Middle Ages that was, however, to remain unfinished. in October 1944, Perels was arrested by the Gestapo in the MGH library as an act of retributive punishment against his son, Friedrich-Justus, who had been charged with participating in the attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944 and was executed on April 23 1945. Ernst Perels was first imprisoned in Berlin, then in the concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, and finally in the concentration camp Flossenbürg in the Upper Palatinate, where he died in May 1945.

In 1945, Fritz Weigle wrote an obituary on Ernst Perels and sent a copy to his widow, Antonie „Tona“ Perels. Under the NS regime, Antonie Perels had not only lost her husband and her son Friedrich-Justus, but also her youngest son Hans, who fell in duty in North Africa on 26 November 1941, and her brother-in-law, Prof. Kurt Perels, who committed suicide on 10 March 1933 after being threatened with forced retirement. In the letter to Weigle on exhibit, Antonie, now aged 64, looks back fondly on the convivial evenings in their family home. She was certainly unaware of Weigle’s activity for a division of the „Reichssicherheitshauptamts“, a department of the SS that was largely responsible for the repressive measures under the NS dictatorship (see Fuhrmeister, Kunstschatz, pp. 107ff). It is quite possible that Weigle’s renewal of his contact with Perels family was partly intended as a proof of his successful denazification.

Like his mother, Perels‘ eldest son Otto also treasured memories of the hospitality of his parental home. He relates that a circle of MGH colleagues including members of the older generation, such as Reinhold Koser, Oswald Holder-Egger, Emil Seckel, and Paul Kehr, as well as contemporaries of his father such as Mario Krammer, Walter Holtzmann, Erich Caspar, and Adolf Hofmeister, would gather to socialise with his parents and sometimes joined them in music evenings. In particular, he times when his father would sing Schubert, Loewe, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schumann accompanied by his mother on the piano, or when she herself played sonatas by Beethoven, Mozart, or Schubert, were special occasions for him, as he recalls (Perels, 1991, p. 4).

Transcription

Berlin-Lichtenfelde Weddigenweg 64
10.5.49

Sehr verehrter Herr Doktor!

Herzlich danke ich Ihnen für Ihren feinen Nachruf auf meinen armen Mann. Ich entsinne mich sehr Ihrer Persönlichkeit, als Sie in der Stubenrauchstr. in Friedenau bei uns verkehrten und liebte den ganzen Schülerkreis, bedauerte es von Herzen, dass ab 30 diese Abende aufhörten. Sie haben Glück gehabt, von 39-45 in Italien zu leben. Hier war es gar zu schwer, unser Hausverkehr hörte ab 35 ziemlich auf, wir wohnten seit 34 in Lichterfelde und die Verfolgung hielt Viele fern. Ich selbst war bis Anfang August 45 hier, trug Essen ins Gefängnis solange es ging, für meinen Sohn noch bis Ende März. Seine Frau durfte ihn besuchen. Mein Mann hatte Rauch- und Leseverbot und keine Sprecherlaubnis. So sah ich ihn nicht wieder seit Oktober 44. Sein Schicksal war zu hart, besonders da es ihm bis Oktober 44, meist fern von Berlin, noch gut gegangen war. Unser Heim ist erhalten geblieben. Ich habe 4 Zimmer abvermietet und wohne so billig. Eine seit 18 Jahren im Hause befindliche Stütze wohnt noch bei mir als Rentnerin. Die Nähe unserer Friedenauer Kinder ist mir ein grosser Trost und Freude, 7 Enkelkinder sind dort, 2 noch in Süddeutschland, Karlsruhe und Gmund. Ich helfe in Ottos Gemeinde, bin seit 30 Gemeindehelferin, erst in Friedenau, dann Lichterfelde, dann Flensburg und jetzt Friedenau.

Ihnen für Ihre schöne Arbeit Gottes Segen wünschend grüsst Sie vielmals Ihre Tona Perels

Eben erst erhalte ich den Brief von meinem Sohn zurück, seine Zeit ist zu knapp!

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In Flensburg stand mein Sohn Ulrich zuletzt als Unteroffizier und holte mich dorthin bevor Berlin Frontstadt wurde.

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Wie mag es Dr. Schur und Pater Scholz gehen?