Mary Mills translates five essays by Hans Albrecht, Clerk of German Yearly Meeting from 1927 to 1947, along with the illustrated album written by children of the Quaker school in Eerde Castle, near Ommen in the Netherlands.
Mills has given us a challenging glimpse into the heart of courageous, faith-driven action during exceedingly dangerous times. The context for these writings is the reawakening of the German Quaker movement after World War I. Members of the Friends Ambulance Unit were amongst the first to enter Germany and helped about a million children to survive. In “Quakerism's Encounter with the Spiritual Situation in Germany” (1938), one of the essays translated here, Albrecht recalls this historical prelude to the struggles of Quakers under Nazism. He then explained how English Quakerism, with its roots in pre- and post-Reformation German mysticism, had returned to Germany in the form of these relief efforts.
Hitler came to power in January 1933 and ordered a boycott of Jewish stores. German Quakers were compelled to confront this situation. Albrecht writes that this new German Quakerism was the reawakening of “an old legacy of Central European spiritual life, which returned to us with the message of the Inner Light in action.” German Quakers recognized the neighbor as a Friend and turning that recognition into action. It enabled many courageous efforts in opposition to the Nazi regime and its broad public support.
Mill’s book concludes with the translation of a very mundane yet powerful example of focused Quaker action in the midst of growing danger. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the translation.
“In 1934 as human rights were being trampled and groups such as Jews and political dissidents became increasingly targeted by the Nazis, the Quaker School at Eerde was founded by Friends from England, Germany, and America, in cooperation with the small, but vigorous Dutch Yearly Meeting… Many Jews and liberals sent their children to the school. Students and teachers from mixed marriages or families that had converted to Christianity were welcomed into the school community….
“The Little Gardeners’ Album is a journal written by the pupils of Quaker School Eerde, who formed a gardening club and called themselves ‘Little Gardeners….’ The Album may be viewed as a practical application of some of the ideas discussed by Albrecht in his essays, ‘The Concept of Community’ and The Essence of Encounters’.”
For more information, see "Hans Albrecht and the Quaker Witness in Nazi Germany" (http://universalistfriends.org/weblog/hans-albrecht-and-the-quaker-witness-in-nazi-germany) for Mary Mills' introduction to the efforts of Hans Albrecht and the German Quakers in 1930s, as well as "Recovering History: Hans Albrecht & the Quakers of Nazi Germany" (http://universalistfriends.org/weblog/recovering-history-hans-albrecht-the-quakers-of-nazi-germany) for her story of how she became aware of that witness.
See also "What Does Quakerism Mean to Us?" (http://www.holisticpage.com.au/what-does-quakerism-mean-to-us-hans-albrecht/9781162752129) by Hans Albrecht (1930).
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![A Garden Grows: Quakerism in Nazi Germany by [Mary Mills]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DjVXDtU-L._SY346_.jpg)
