Anna Essinger: Understanding the Times in Nazi Germany

by Martha Hutchens

Image from Deposit Photos, @everett225

Fundamentally, Anna Essinger was a teacher.

But the time and place of her birth gave her the opportunity to make history.

Anna was born to a secular Jewish family in Germany in 1879. At the age of 20, she traveled to the United States, where she lived with her aunt in Nashville, Tennessee. During her years in America, she came under the influence of the Quakers, whose educational philosophy would shape the rest of her life. She later earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Anna returned to Germany in 1919. Around 1925, she founded a boarding school, which originally grew out of the children’s home that her sister established in 1912. The school was fundamentally different from most schools in Germany at the time. Discipline was less rigid, and students learned basic life skills, as well as academics.

Anna read Hitler’s Mein Kampf before he came to power and she found it deeply concerning. While her school was non-denominational, she did have many Jewish students. When Hitler came to power in early 1933, she remembered what she read. She watched to see what would happen.

In the spring of 1933, public buildings, including schools, were required to fly the swastika alongside Germany's traditional flag. Anna chose to comply with the order, but she also arranged an extended field trip for all of her students, so that the flag flew over an empty school.

Perhaps it was this event that drew more official attention to her school, or perhaps it was simply the fact that she was Jewish. However, oversight became more strict. And then, in May of 1933, Anna learned that her students would not be allowed to sit for the exam that gave them the opportunity to attend university. At this point, she knew that her students had no educational future in Germany. I doubt she foresaw the extent of what would happen, but she saw enough.

When it became clear that the students from Anna’s school would not be allowed higher education, many of the non-Jewish parents withdrew their children. Some families may have withdrawn due to increasing pressure on Germans to distance themselves from Jewish-owned businesses and institutions.

Image from Deposit Photos, @Quasarphotos

Anna was certainly concerned before the news in May. Throughout the spring of 1933, she was looking for a place to move her school. She considered Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway, before she settled on a run-down estate in England called Bunce Court.

She was also spending time talking to the parents of the children in her school. It surprises me how many of the parents agreed to let her take their children out of the country, considering how early this was in the Nazi rule. Not all agreed, but the majority did. Over 60 of her students, mostly Jewish, would be leaving.

The 13 oldest, who had been refused the opportunity to enter university left first in the summer of 1933. Given only a few weeks to prepare for the equivalent exam in England, nine of the 13 passed.

Image from Deposit Photos, @Mnapoli

But it was the event in October 1933 that read like a spy novel. The remaining students were assigned to three groups and taken into three different train stations. The parents were ordered that there should be no emotional goodbyes. Nothing that would draw the attention of the Nazi officials and soldiers who were already everywhere by this time. Each of the three groups crossed the German border safely, and they met up to cross the English Channel together. Anna escorted them to Bunce Court.

In Bunce Court, their lives would change. The financial support Anna had received for the school in Germany was no longer available. The students learned to grow vegetables and tend to chickens as well as typical academics. English officials were suspicious of the school, thinking that no substantial education could happen with such limited resources. But within two years, they were convinced that the Bunce Court school was doing everything it needed to do.

Anna left Germany two years before the Nuremberg Laws (which greatly restricted what Jewish people could do) were instituted. She left five years before Kristallnacht. She recognized the direction Germany was heading long before most of her fellow Germans.

After Kristallnacht, England agreed to accept 10,000 refugee children. This came to be known as the Kindertransport. Anna helped to administer these children’s welcome, and at least 50 joined her at Bunce Court. And after the war, she also took in children who had survived the Holocaust, some by hiding, and some who had survived the camps. It is estimated that 800 children passed through the school at Bunce Court.

If you'd like to hear what life at Bunce Court was really like, I share the memories of two former students here.

When I read Anna’s story, there is one Bible verse that comes to mind. First Chronicles 12:32 reads in part, “From Issachar, men who understood the times and understood what Israel should do.” I can’t think of any description that fits Anna better.

P. S. While preparing this story, I became interested in the bit about Anna taking the children on a field trip while the swastika flew over their school. I have not been able to make the timeline make sense. Some resources date the order to fly the flag as early as March 1933 and indicate that it remained flying after that. Most stories of Anna make a point of her leaving the flag up for one day while the school was empty. For now, it is one of history’s little mysteries.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at marthahutchens.com.

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