examples – 26 – The Dark Cloud

The Dark Cloud – 

Convicted war criminal Charles Schneider is permitted to write and receive letters to and from designated individuals while in prison, subject to censorship, a limit on the number of letters, and approval from prison authorities. There are 160 letters from 1945 to 1955 that Schneider wrote to his child. The poor child writes back to him. She sends him soap, underwear, money, and stamps, oranges, and cake. At Christmas, Schneider receives a Christmas stollen. Schneider’s repeatedly expressed belief that he had been wronged was parroted by the child until the end of her life. I sit down and begin transcribing the letters. An overwhelming sense of helplessness, despair, and horror rises like a dark cloud from beneath my chair and envelops me at my desk, penetrating my Berlin reality, which for decades I had believed to be so safe from family problems. Something took hold of a space within me. Something merged with me. What was this all about??

Newspaper report: November 19, 1946, Cour de Justice de Metz: “The No. 1 Nazi of the Orne Valley—the terror of Rombas—Schneider is sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor.” Source: ASCOMEMO http://ascomemo.chez.com/