Helene Zahn

"[...] my life was largely determined by school and relationships with friends and teachers, by encounters in places outside the close family circle."

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Helene Golodetz was born on August 9, 1910, the daughter of Dr. Lazar Golodetz, a doctor of chemistry, and his wife Malka in Hamburg. Her father had already left his native Russia for Germany to study at the beginning of the 20th century. For traditional reasons, Lola was given the Russian name Yelena Lazarovna at birth. Although both Marie's and Lazar's family were of Jewish faith, her father developed an atheistic worldview already in the course of his years of study in Germany.

Lola and her younger brother Victor enjoyed a sheltered childhood. "I truly suffered no hardship. Had my room, my food, my clothes. [...] What I lacked was the affection of my mother." Throughout her life, her relationship with her father was a better one than with her ailing mother.

Despite her father's atheistic worldview, the Jewish religion was part of Lola's childhood in the form of religious holiday customs and practiced charity. Furthermore, she received Torah and Hebrew lessons every Saturday.

In her early years, she was a shy girl and continually felt that her "special national-social background" isolated her from others despite her good upbringing. With her father's change of profession from his employment as a chemist in a skin clinic to the operator of import and export trade in chemicals, her life situation was soon to change. At the age of eleven, Lola and her family moved from their five-room apartment in Eppendorf to a villa in the upscale Harvestehude district of Hamburg. Around the same time, she shed her shyness. Especially with her transfer to the Lichtwark School, her life and her views were to change.

"Both the piano exercises forced upon me [...] and the attendance at the Lichtwark School, which I enforced, led me in a communist direction from quite different sides."  

The older Lola became, the more intensely she felt that everything in her life was pulling her toward communism. In particular, her attendance at Hamburg's Lichtwark School represented a spiritual turning point in her life: "The Lichtwark School meant a turning point in my life; through it, its goals, its teachers and students, I found my way to the working class." At the Lichtwark School, racism, hatred of nations, and general intolerance were not tolerated; rather, it "was directed against war and fascism and understood itself in terms of a humanistic liberalism that had room for socialists of all shades and also for communists."  

At school she received instruction in science subjects, history, physical education, handicrafts, music, and cultural studies. Through the cultural studies classes and the study of various currents of thought, communism became more central to her consciousness. After class, she read works by Karl Marx, Vladimir I. Lenin, Max Stirner, and Edward Bellamy. However, merely studying communist writings was soon no longer enough for her. She wanted to get involved in the name of communism in her free time as well, which is why she joined the Communist Youth League of Germany (KJVD) in 1929.   

In addition to house and yard propaganda or the distribution of leaflets, her tasks as a young communist also included rural agitation, in which the young people drove through the villages singing while sitting on trucks and educating the rural population about their rights. In the spring of 1929, Lola successfully graduated from the Lichtwark School. Only a short time later, at the age of eighteen, she matriculated at the law faculty of Hamburg University. 

"I wanted to become a lawyer, a criminal defense lawyer, who seeks to defend accused proletarians within the limits of what is legally possible, to save them from harsh punishments that threatened them because they had taken part in actions in defense of already won rights and social positions."

With the constant goal of becoming a lawyer and criminal defense attorney of the proletariat in mind, Lola was a diligent student from the beginning. The model for her career aspirations was the communist lawyer Lothar Hegewisch, who was well known in Hamburg at the time.

Another reason for her choice of profession was that, due to her lack of German citizenship, neither a legal state position nor a position as in-house counsel in a company was possible for her. At the beginning of her law studies, the circumstance of obtaining German citizenship still seemed very simple to her. In order to obtain it, four conditions had to be met: "a secure social existence; mastery of the German language; a blameless reputation; and, which was not the case in my case, the consent of all twenty or so states of the Weimar German Reich. Anyone born in Germany could obtain German citizenship if it were granted to him solely by the state in which he was born - in my case, Hamburg."

She was convinced that she met all the conditions, but because of her open communist activities and worldview, her application for naturalization was rejected. Because of her lack of German citizenship, she was unable to take the upcoming state bar exam at university. "The legal career was now completely closed to me."

"The year 1931, in which I met my future husband, still seemed to be a quiet year, but beneath the calm surface it was bubbling."

In 1931, Lola met her future husband Alfred Zahn at the KJVD. Alfred came from a working-class family and already had an eventful life behind him: he had abandoned his training as a teacher and was instead active in journalism and politics. After his participation in the Hamburg uprising in 1923, he was wanted by the authorities and went to the Soviet Union, where he worked as a school inspector and for the Red Aid, among other things. After an amnesty, he was able to return to Germany in 1927 and remained professionally connected to the Soviet Union.

The couple now tried to build a joint existence: "Completely unaware of the [...] initiated reaction that would end in Hitler's fascism, we opened the 'Bücherstube Neue Zeit' in 1932 with financial help from my tolerant father." They operated the antiquarian bookstore in Hamburg's city center across from the labor office in order to win workers* over to their cause. However, the magazine reading circle set up for political persuasion could not be run profitably and the couple also misjudged the political situation: "Political and business cluelessness - that was definitely too much. We were actually doing more cultural charity without having intended it that way."

The bookstore, especially after the Nazis seized power, increasingly became a Communist meeting place and a venue for illegal activities such as passport forgery. During a search, Alfred Zahn was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for high treason and forgery of documents. Lola was with her relatives in the Rhineland at the time and, on a trip to Paris, decided to stay there - probably more because of the political persecution than because of the increasing anti-Semitic discrimination.

"If someone were to ask me about the happiest year in my life, I would say 1937."

In emigration, Lola spent the first two years without Alfred, but with the (financial) support of her relatives, which is why Lola was able to be politically active in Paris from the beginning and support other emigrants*. According to her description, the German emigration in France "presented a very colorful picture. Only a small part were political emigrants, only a relatively small number were communists. There were authors of burned books, people from the theater, [...] the creators of modern pictorial works, called degenerate art, later recognized as world art. Among them were intellectuals of Jewish and non-Jewish origin, after all, it had not mattered at all to them what religion played a role in the family tradition."

In 1935 Alfred was released from prison and managed to escape via Switzerland and to France. Lola followed the political situation in Germany as well as in France: "We wanted to do our part at least in our own cause, that is, as far as Germany was concerned, and that included turning to the French public to expose the fascist regime in our homeland." She believed  "to become a professional revolutionary" and supported the French Popular Front. She quickly formed an extensive network of communists* and literary figures such as Anna Seghers, Bruno Frei, Egon Erwin Kisch, and others.  This network not only obtained her release from prison, but was also able to prevent her expulsion after she participated in a collection of signatures calling for Ernst Thälmann's release.

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In Paris, Lola Zahn eventually continued her studies, first receiving her diploma from the Faculty of Philosophy and then her doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1937. 6 weeks later she gave birth to her son Edgar.

"I had just turned thirty-one years old, of course, there had been no talk of celebrations. But solemnly could be one in this time already feel, if one had brought healthy and lively another year of life behind itself."

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According to Lola's dissertation, the Zahn family lived on the income from their research work and Alfred's activity in various political committees.  Lola describes the tense political situation in her life report as a "war of nerves." "Everywhere signs were multiplying that pointed to war. [...] If in the fall of 1938 we had breathed a sigh of relief with the French in the hope of preserving peace, the subsequent psychological warfare of the warmongering forces, the anxious question, will peace be preserved or will war come, tugged at the nerves."

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Shortly before the start of the war, Alfred Zahn was arrested and interned along with other foreigners and communists classified as enemy. After the invasion of German troops and the rejection of various visa applications, Lola joins the many fleeing Paris with three-year-old Edgar: "An entire country began the flight, the flight from the 'hereditary enemy', the flight from history, the flight from itself. The visible debacle of France began."

In their adventurous flight from the advance of the German army, they covered a distance of over 800 kilometers in 10 days, mostly by bicycle, and finally reached a refugee camp near the internment camp "Le Vernet", where Alfred was. After several months they finally get the necessary documents to leave the country.  This time of uncertainty she experiences in inner turmoil: "Staying and wanting to go, facing or evading responsibility for the big picture, feelings and thoughts tossed back and forth between extreme decision-making possibilities."

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"In the back of our minds, even as we flee, the thought of returning to a more humanly ordered Europe haunts us."

In the spring of 1941, the small family decided to leave Europe for the time being in order to "[...] escape the National Socialist "reordering" [...]." After obtaining the French exit visa in Marseille and a Spanish and Portuguese transit visa, they left for Spain in Portbou. Their route continued by train via Barcelona and Madrid to Portugal, where they finally arrived in Porto via Lisbon. From here, the freighter was to leave for America. Again and again, Lola Zahn and her husband had the opportunity to explore Spain on the "[...] traces of the struggle against Francofascism" or to get to know "[...] extreme[r] life contrasts in the society [...]" of Portugal.

After a fourteen-day wait at the port of Porto, it was time to say goodbye. Lola, Alfred and Edgar Zahn boarded the Portuguese freighter "San Miguel," which was mainly carrying cork, bound for the United States in February. But even on the crossing, they always struggled with their war-fueled fears: "If we envisaged any misfortune, it was that we might become a target for German bombers, despite the color of neutral Portugal painted large [sic] on the ship's deck."

After two weeks, the Zahn family arrived in New York on a cold February day, where Lola said the sight of the Statue of Liberty not only made her breathe a sigh of relief, but also gave her hope. With the efforts of friends and relatives, they finally entered the U.S. on an emergency visa: "With curious eyes, with feelings between expectation and doubt, we faced the new."

Since no information is available about the exact location of the port in 1941, Porto was taken here as a symbolic location.

"Then the metropolis of New York swallowed us up."

Without work, the family spent their first weeks in New York as if "on vacation." In the process, Lola Zahn described her impressions of the American metropolis as "[...] bewildering, oppressive, luxurious and rambling." With the entry of the USA into the war in December 1941, they received their work permits. Alfred Zahn then took various jobs before employment as editor of the German American, the weekly newspaper of the left wing of German-Americans*, "redeemed" him, in Lola's words. Shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, the FBI raided the Zahn family's small apartment and eventually arrested Alfred. Lola saw a connection between the two events: "Again an occasion was found to put the Communist [...] [Alfred] Zahn [...] behind bars, as if he had had anything [sic] to do with the sinking of the almost completely assembled United States Navy!" After six weeks of imprisonment, Alfred Zahn was acquitted and was able to return home with his pregnant wife.

In June 1942, daughter Evelyn saw the light of day. Now Lola Zahn began working as a typist in the book service of the YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association, or at the Cooperative Wholesale Company, a chain of companies in the retail and wholesale trade. In the process, she repeatedly found strong words for the U.S. workplace: "Time is money [...] Paleness does not exude optimism. Keep smiling!" Along the way, she became involved with the German American, especially in the column "Hier spricht die Frau."

She quit her job as a statistician at Bellevue Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Manhattan's poor section, because of her pending return to Germany. In 1946, the family, now four, returned to Europe on the troopship Ernie Pyle, arriving in Bremerhaven on December 31.

"A hopefully awaited new life in the Germany to be rebuilt"

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The arrival in Germany turned out to be unexpectedly difficult for two reasons. First, the arrivals were neither informed about their next whereabouts nor provided with sufficient food: "We, voluntary returnees to our homeland, were treated like prisoners." So the four Zahns eventually ended up in the former military camp of Ludwigsburg, where they spent the first fourteen days under U.S. control. On the other hand, they were presented with a picture of wartime destruction, which Lola Zahn described at the next travel stop in Stuttgart: "That's when our laughter got stuck in our throats, too. We were standing at the main train station: a picture of horror. As far as the eye could see from the station, a single field of rubble, giant chunks next to smaller rubble."

Finally, the family started the onward journey to Berlin. In Bruchsal, they then passed the zone border: "The American border officer let [sic] us take a seat in his office, checked the note Schlotterbeck had given us in Stuttgart, the papers we had brought from the U.S., gave us an address - it was the address of the SED office in Eisenach - as well as bread and other food for the onward journey. This was anything but an Iron Curtain, this was still a piece of American-Soviet cooperation." For Lola Zahn, however, it was always clear that "[...] the comparison between West and East [...] [was] in favor of the Soviet-occupied zone at the time, not the American-occupied zone."

In February 1947, they reached Berlin and began to build a new life: Lola first as a housewife and her husband as the head of a journalism course in Liebenwalde, and later as the director of operations at the state radio station in Schwerin. For this reason, the Zahns eventually moved to Mecklenburg by 1949.

"We were ready!"

After Lola had taught as a lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Rostock until 1949, the family returned to Berlin. While Alfred pursued various jobs in the following years (executive positions at Berlin Radio, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst and Dietz-Verlag, among others), Lola habilitated at the law faculty of Berlin's Humboldt University, where she became professor of political economy and later vice dean. She became a member of numerous GDR organizations and was a respected member of GDR society, later receiving the Fatherland Order of Merit in bronze.

Lola participated in the extensive discussions after the Stalinist crimes became known at the XX Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. Shocked by these revelations, Lola championed the freedom of science and research in the resulting debates and criticized the SED's interference in these areas. As a result, she again found herself in trouble, accused of "conciliatory behavior" and reprimanded for "inadequate information" in her lectures. After "in-depth discussions within the party and the university administration," Lola Zahn had to leave the Humboldt University in 1957 as a "rebellious intellectual" (Ruschhaupt, 2001, p. 74f).

After temporarily working as a housewife and as an employee of the Ministry of Finance, she was able to continue her academic career in 1961 at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, where she remained until her retirement in 1971 from the Institute of Economics there.

"Especially in turbulent times you need a lot of strength u. Time to take steps to his self-assertion. [...] Thinking about himself and his time costs time u. Strength, which you have to save up."

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A joint retirement was not granted to the Zahn couple, Alfred Zahn died on 14.04.1972. Lola, however, remained active in the retirement period scientifically, journalistically and as an editor, made numerous research trips to France and Belgium and participated in public discussions.   

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Lola observed the Wende at an advanced age and with changing feelings. She writes in her Wende diaries that she had somewhat processed the "disappointment that the attempt to achieve a better society has now failed [...] in thinking in historical dimensions", and  "'started with new thinking' politically and personally", but also that she was "sad to feel" and "the some Germany [...] not so much at heart". Above all, she followed the economic changes that accompanied the end of the GDR with interest: "In war, a country falls when its flag sinks into the dirt of the battlefield.[...] In peace, a country sinks into nirvana when its money loses value, and how only when its money ceases to apply, becomes non-money, [...] play money, tokens of memory."

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Thoughtfully describing the collapse of her entire political and professional environment of party, union, academy and VVN, she felt let down by her comrades* - "Money gone? Mission gone?".  Nevertheless, however, she tried to let everything "come to her", withdrawing into the family environment and devoting herself in the following years to writing her life report. She survived her husband Alfred by 26 years and died on 17.02.1998.

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