Mysterious German Memo Book-Diary of Gertrud Spaethe: WWII Era 1943

Item Details

Berga, Germany, 1943, Leather

This one’s a bit of a mystery—this tiny memo book is filled with the thoughts of German Gertrud Spaethe of Berga (Elster) Germany during the height of WWII—1943. The notes are mostly in pencil and hard to read, but in addition to words, there are a lot of numbers that look almost like code. In the back, I see the words "Göring"(?) and also Führer". I did show a couple pages to someone fluent in German and they thought it might be referring to a “leader”-ship camp rather than Hitler himself. Still, so who knows what Gertrud wrote about during this tumultuous period? In 1944, a forced labor camp that included American POWs was established at Berga, as a subcamp of Buchenwald. An absorbing research project if you read German, or know someone who does.

Book measures just 2 1/8” x 3 1/8”, and almost 200 pages, most of them with notes of some kind. Wear to leather cover, complete but binding loosening in spots, and missing the pencil.