{"id":1409,"date":"2024-01-23T13:06:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T13:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:38:27","slug":"remembering-the-holocaust-the-majut-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/2024\/01\/23\/remembering-the-holocaust-the-majut-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Holocaust: The Majut Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please note that this post contains content relating to suicide and the Holocaust. \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bIf you are affected by this topic, please be aware of our available <\/em>support information for students<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>support services in the community<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 27th<\/sup> January is both the International Day in Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust and the UK\u2019s national Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). This date is the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union. In 2024, the theme of UKHMD is \u2018the fragility of freedom.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf and Hans Majut were brothers, two of the millions caught up in the Nazi persecution of Jews and non-Aryans prior to and during World War II. Archives and Special Collections holds their personal papers, manuscripts and family photographs, catalogued as MS 201, and Rudolf\u2019s collection of around 6,000 books is held on the library\u2019s open shelves. Because the books and papers are primarily in German, the Majut Collection has, to date, received little attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf Majut was born in 1887 and Hans in 1892, in Vienna, Austria. In around 1897 they moved with their parents, Wilhelm and Anna, to Poland and then to Germany, where they settled in Berlin. The family was of Jewish origin, but in 1914 Rudolf was received into the Protestant church; his baptism certificate survives among the papers.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Hans Majut as a young man, date unknown. On the back is written in Rudolf\u2019s hand \u2018Bild meines Bruders Hans Majut: Dr.med.dent. Gestorben von eigener Hand, durch die Verh\u00e4ltnisse in dem Tod getrieben\u2019 [Picture of my brother Hans Majut Dr.med. dent. Died by his own hand, driven to death by circumstances]. Hans Majut Literary Papers, MS 201\/Photos and pictures\/Box 2, University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Few other papers survive from around this time and the family\u2019s history during the First World War is unclear. However, Hans\u2019 1933 short story Die Flucht <\/em>[The Flight<\/em>, or The Exodus<\/em>] refers to the shadow it cast over many lives: \u2018Wie in die meisten Lebenslaeufe unsere Tage hatte der Grosse Krieg auch in dein meinen eine Kerbe geschlagen\u2019 [as in most lives these days, the Great War has left a mark on mine].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf had obtained his doctorate in 1912 and became a Studienrat<\/em>, \u2018a post equivalent to a teacher in a secondary school but with the status of a civil servant.\u2019[i]<\/a> The focus of his academic research was German Literature, specifically Georg Buechner. Hans became a dentist, but outside of this was clearly a prolific writer. Both brothers had a strong creative streak and the collection contains many manuscripts of their early writings, mostly poems, M\u00e4rchen <\/em>[fairy tales] and short stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Rudolf Majut as a young teacher, date unknown. Hans Majut Literary Papers, MS 201\/Photos and pictures\/Box 2, University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 1933, after Hitler and the National Socialist party came to power, the Law for Restoration of the Civil Service was passed, which debarred non-Aryans from holding office. Rudolf was granted a temporary reprieve due to having served since 1914. However, persecution of Jews continued to intensify. In 1935 Rudolf was excluded from the Reichsschrifttumskammer, or RSK [Reich Chamber of Culture], which meant he could no longer publish his academic research. In 1937, driven to despair by the intensifying persecution, Hans killed himself. Almost twenty years earlier, in 1920, he had written a short story entitled Der Selbstmord <\/em>[The Suicide<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Letter invoking the Law for Restoration of the Civil Service, 1933; the handwritten section highlights Rudolf Majut\u2019s non-Aryan heritage. Hans Majut Literary Papers, MS 201\/Letters of appointment and dismissal, University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Rudolf\u2019s book of poetry Der Werdekreis<\/em>, published in Berlin later that year, is dedicated to Hans. The frontispiece reads infelicis fratris memoriae <\/em>[to the memory of an unhappy brother] and the first poem, in which the speaker laments \u2018Ich bin ein Ton\/In eines kranken Gottes Leid\u2019 [I am a note\/in a sick god\u2019s song], is titled \u2018Frater fratri\u2019 [from brother to brother].<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Dedication of Der Werdekreis<\/em> (Berlin: 1937). University of Leicester Library MAJUT 3690, Majut Collection (held on open shelves).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the time of Hans\u2019 death, unable to teach or publish his research in Germany, Rudolf was studying evangelical theology in Basel, Switzerland. Dozens of letters from this period survive, sent between Rudolf and K\u00e4the Genetet; years, later, in 1995, a selection was published as Briefe fuer Kaethe 1933 \u2013 37: Eine Auswahl<\/em> [Letters for K\u00e4the 1933 \u2013 37: A Selection<\/em>]. K\u00e4the was a teacher and mathematician from Berlin, where she was acutely aware of the dangers posed to Rudolf \u2013 and others of Jewish heritage \u2013 by the Nazis. It was she who ‘warned [Rudolf] of the personal dangers posed by the Nazi regime in Germany.\u2019[ii]<\/a> K\u00e4the herself also risked the ire of the Nazis, as \u2018[i]t was impossible to get any post in the realm of the Education department without producing the membership-card of the Nazi party and its number.\u2019[iii]<\/a> As she wrote starkly many years later, she \u2018had not this card nor intended to get one.\u2019[iv]<\/a> K\u00e4the left Germany in 1938, slipping over the Swiss border \u2018without giving notice or leaving any trace,\u2019[v]<\/a> and joined Rudolf in Basel.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
K\u00e4the in Basel, 1937\/8. Hans Majut Literary Papers, MS 201\/Photos and pictures\/Box 1, University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In May 1939 Rudolf and K\u00e4the arrived in England, refugees from Hitler\u2019s persecution. They fled their homeland with the help of Dr George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who operated a support network for Evangelical ministers of Jewish descent. On the 7th<\/sup> June 1939, they \u2018married and were safe.\u2019[vi]<\/a> Safe, perhaps, but not trusted: after the outbreak of war Rudolf was briefly interned as an \u2018enemy alien\u2019 at a camp in Hutyon; he then worked as pastor at another camp on the Isle of Man. In 1941 the Majuts were able to come to Leicester, where Rudolf taught German in a local secondary school. He then lectured at Vaughan College, then at Loughborough College, and finally at the University of Leicester, where he spent the rest of his career and was made an Honorary Professor after his retirement in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf and K\u00e4the gained naturalised British citizenship in 1947. K\u00e4the \u2013 known to the English as Kate, the anglicised form of her name \u2013 was granted it as Rudolf\u2019s wife rather than in her own right. They remained in Leicester for the rest of their lives, but never forgot their German Heimat<\/em> [homeland]. Rudolf continued to write; themes of exile and homelessness, wandering and foreignness, resonate throughout both his academic work and his poetry. K\u00e4the too wrote, although not as prolifically, in a similar vein, and after her husband’s death became involved with the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies<\/a>, founded in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reimchronik 1930 \u2013 1950<\/em>, a selection of Rudolf’s verses published posthumously by K\u00e4the, details their Wanderjahren <\/em>[years of wandering]. Arranged in eight sections, it charts Rudolf\u2019s journeys from Germany to Switzerland, Switzerland to England; the chaos of the war years and the strangeness of the Alien\u2019s Internment Camps; and finally the finding of a home of sorts in Leicester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially rejected by Germany, Rudolf was later honoured by his former country. In 1957 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse [Cross of Merit First Class].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf Majut died in 1981, leaving his papers and books to the university. K\u00e4the lived until 2005, dying at the age of one hundred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Dass ich heim nimmer geh,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muss ich mir tragen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dass ich dich nimmer seh<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frei wie du warst,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Als du mich eingebarst,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macht mich verzagen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ‘Heimat’, in Reimchronik 1930 – 1950<\/em> (K\u00f6ln: Schertgens & Co., 1983). Loosely translated: That I will never return home\/Is a burden I must carry.\/That I will never see you again\/Free as you were\/When you gave birth to me\/Makes me despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> ‘Rudolf Majut Papers,’ Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies<\/em>, accessed December 1, 2023, https:\/\/ilcs.sas.ac.uk\/library\/germanic-archives\/rudolf-majut-papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> K\u00e4the Majut, brief biographical notes, included in correspondence to Herbert Penn (1991), Majut Collection: University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections, MS 201\/ Correspondence\/Box 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[v]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[vi]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please note that this post contains content relating to suicide and the Holocaust. \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bIf you are affected by this topic, please be aware of our available support information for students and support services in the community. Saturday 27th January is both the International Day in Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust and the UK\u2019s national Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives-and-special-collections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}