PC/4/3/4 - Letter, Patricia Crampton to Wenda Focke, 31/7/1998

PC/4/3/4

Item

Letter, Patricia Crampton to Wenda Focke, 31/7/1998

31/7/1998

4 leaves Letters (typescript)

Hildesheimer, Wolfgang, 1916-1991
Pohl, Oswald, 1892-1951
Taylor, Telford, 1908-1998
Lawrence, Peter, d. 1991

Crampton, Patricia, 1925-2016
Focke, Wenda, 1938-recipient

Crampton recounts her life story. Her birth in India and speaking Hindi more fluently than her parents; the family’s move to England; education at two private schools where she showed a gift for languages; this was followed by a public school at 10 and Oxford followed, reading German, French and Russian. While waiting for Oxford she did some months as an untrained Red Cross Nurse. ‘I absolutely hated nursing.’ At Oxford she acted in plays.

In 1947 Crampton accepted a translator’s post and flew to Germany in General Telford Taylor’s plane. There she met Peter Lawrence. She describes her accommodation with fellow girls. She applied and was granted a gun for self-protection as they were living close to an arms dump.

At the Court House she was in the English section, one of eight translation sections, within the American Zone. Here she met Wolfgang Hildesheimer (interpreter). She describes their early relationship and artistic trips to Munich.

Crampton describes the general feelings amongst the translators and the conclusion of [Oswald] Pohl’s trial.

Crampton describes Hildesheimer’s character, his delayed feelings of being Jewish, that his grandfather was Berlin’s chief Rabbi, and that they had planned to marry. Story continued in letter dated 10/3/1999.