Public-domain ebook
by Lady Harriet Julia Campbell Jephson
Language: en1,964 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Germany·World War I·Biographies
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #23533.
Harriet Julia Campbell Jephson, Lady writes a first‑hand wartime diary that doubles as a travelogue of German towns and the everyday life of civilians caught up in the early months of the Great War. The book opens with a candid preface in which Jepson explains why she hesitated to publish her notes, concern for the safety of fellow detainees in Altheim, and then proceeds to a day‑by‑day chronicle that begins on August 1, 1914. From the sounding of trumpets that summon reservists to the frantic attempts to cash a cheque, the entries record the sudden mobilisation, the closure of transport, the hostile press, and the palpable anxiety of English residents as German patriotism swells around them. Interspersed with sketches from German newspapers, the narrative moves from the cramped streets of Altheim to brief observations of other towns, offering a vivid snapshot of civilian experience at the outbreak of hostilities.
The voice is that of an educated, observant Englishwoman writing in a straightforward, almost reportorial style, punctuated by occasional French phrases and German quotations that convey the immediacy of her situation. Her tone mixes personal distress with an admiring, if uneasy, respect for the German “spirit of sacrifice” she witnesses. Readers interested in primary‑source accounts of World War I, especially those that illuminate the civilian perspective, the social atmosphere in small German towns, and the challenges faced by foreign nationals at the war’s outset, will find Jepson’s journal both informative and emotionally resonant.
The opening · free to read
Prefaces are rarely read, yet I have the hardihood to venture on this one because there are certain things in connection with my journal which it is necessary to explain. On returning from Germany, although urged by my friends to publish the story of my experiences, I refused, fearing to do anything which in the smallest degree might prejudice the case of those still in captivity. There came a day, nevertheless, when I read that all English people had left "Altheim." The papers announced that men under forty-five had been interned at Ruhleben, and those over that age had been sent to Giessen. There seemed, therefore, no possible object in further withholding the journal, since, after all, there was nothing in it which could by any possibility affect the fate of others less fortunate than I. Accordingly I sent my manuscript to the Evening Standard, which accepted it, and published the first couple of pages. Then, in deference to the wishes of people whose relations were still at "Altheim" (having been sent back from Giessen), I stopped my diary. However, in view of the daily revelations in the Press as regards prisoners in Germany, I have come, after seven months, to the conclusion that nothing I can say will in any degree make the condition of prisoners there worse. Meanwhile it is of supreme interest to compare the opinions and conduct of Germans at the beginning of the war with what they express and observe now. My journal is simply a record made each day of my detention, and although it has no pretension to being literature, it is at least a truthful picture of the state of things as we in Altheim saw them at the beginning of the war. For obvious reasons the place of detention has been given a fictitious name.
HARRIET J. JEPHSON.
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