(Sepia Saturday 600)
G.072.01 - TERRITET (Switzerland)
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| TERRITET - Lawn Tennis du Gd Hotel - 2291 |
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| Editions Art. PERROCET & DAVID La Chaux-de-Fonds. - Lausanne |
To: Herr Gustaf Ekman, Backa, Brålanda, Schweden
From: Gerda. Sent from Montreux, Switzerland, 21.8 [1914]
Montreaux d. 20 aug.
Käre bror. Hur mår du? Jag väntar på brev från dig. Jag önskar du vore här. Det är så vackert. Kom hit med båt. Kära hälsningar, Gerda.
Montreux 20 Aug.
Dear brother, How are you? I'm waiting for a letter from you. Wish you were here. It is so beautiful. [I] came here by boat. Best wishes, Gerda.
Territet is located between Montreux and Veytaux, on the Lake Geneva shore in Switzerland. According to the Wikipedia article, foreign tourists started to stay in Territet from 1848 onwards. From 1861, when the train station was opened, it became even more popular among famous and important people. The famous Orient Express train also stopped there. Territet also had the first tennis court in Switzerland - created in 1894, and exclusively for the use of the English tourists. (The Swiss or other nationalities were not allowed to access it!)
G.072.02 - VITTEL (France)
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| 29 - VITTEL. - L'Hôtel de l'Établissement. - LL. |
To: Herr Gustaf Ekman, Backa, Brålanda, Suède
From: Gerda. Sent from Vittel (Vosges dept), France - [date unknown] 1914
From: Gerda. Sent from Vittel (Vosges dept), France - [date unknown] 1914
Käre bror! Sänder här hotellet, som jag nu är, reser härifrån nästa vecka till England, skriver sedan. Kära hälsningar, syster Gerda. - Har fått sedel [=passersedel?], skall skriva om det sedan.
Dear brother, I'm sending [a view of] the hotel where I am now. Next week I'll be travelling from here to England, will write then. Best wishes, sister Gerda. - I've got a [visa?], will write about that later.
Vittel is a commune in the Vosges department in northeastern France. It is an old spa town, also known for still bottling and selling mineral water. The Wikipedia article also informs me that later on in WWI, from November 1917 until February 1919, it became home to U.S. Army Base Hospital 36 from Detroit, MI. They occupied the five resort hotels in the city plus the casino.
MY COMMENTS:
The card from Territet/Montreux is dated 20 August, no year. It makes sense to assume it's from 1914, though, and that Gerda and her employer (an English lady) have by then already been staying in Montreux for a while. (As Gerda says she's waiting for a letter from Gustaf, she must have given him an address to write to.) So they may well have been in Switzerland already when World War I broke out (around three weeks before this card was written). As Switzerland was not involved, it may have seemed safest for them to stay on there for a while, awaiting how the situation would develop, and sorting out safe travel arrangements.
Being in a safe place and surrounded by beautiful peaceful views, I can imagine that it may even have been quite hard to take in whatever news about the war that reached them there!
From Wikipedia I learn 20th August 1914 was a Thursday; and on this day, among other things...
- German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium
- The Battle of Lorraine (France/Germany) and the Battle of Gumbinnen (Germany/Russia) took place
- The Battle of Lorraine (France/Germany) and the Battle of Gumbinnen (Germany/Russia) took place
- The Moroccan Division of the French army was founded
- The Central Committe on Women's Employment was established in Britain (to develop employment and opportunities for women and support growing labour demands during the war)
- The Central Committe on Women's Employment was established in Britain (to develop employment and opportunities for women and support growing labour demands during the war)
- Pope Pius X died
On the card from Vittel, the year 14 is visible in the postmark, but not the date. But as they are now back in France and on the way to England, it must be of later date than the card from Switzerland.
The Swedish word sedel in Gerda's postscript is ambigious. From the context, I interpret it as referring to some kind of document (visa) that would make it possible for her to travel back to England together with her English employer. From what I've been told in the past, this did not go to plan, though. The lady was able to go back to England; but Gerda got "stuck" in France - and ended up remaining there for the duration of the war (confirmed by later postcards in the album). As for the exact circumstances, I can only speculate. One guess is that maybe only British citizens were allowed to leave France for England, and whatever document Gerda is referring to on this card was declared not valid. Gerda of course was a Swedish citizen. Sweden was not involved in the war, but travelling back to Sweden from occupied France through Germany was probably problematic as well. Whether it was impossible or if she just preferred not to attempt it, I don't know.
Anyway, the next postcards from Gerda to Gustaf are from Lyon in December 1914. They will be coming up in a future post.
MINA KOMMENTARER:
Vykortet från Territet/Montreux är daterat 20 augusti, utan årtal. Jag utgår dock från att året är 1914, och att Gerda och hennes arbetsgivare, en engelsk lady, varit på plats ett tag redan. (Eftersom Gerda skriver att hon väntar på brev från Gustaf, så måste hon ju ha gett honom en adress att skriva till.) Kanske var de i Schweiz redan i slutet av juli när kriget bröt ut. Eftersom Schweiz inte var indraget i kriget, kan det väl ha verkat säkrast att stanna där ett tag och avvakta hur krigssituationen utvecklade sig, medan de sökte efter säkra resealternativ.
Jag kan också tänka mig att på en fridfull plats omgiven av vackra vyer så var det kanske inte heller helt enkelt att ta in de nyheter om kriget som nådde dem där?
Från en engelsk Wikipedia-artikel om augusti 1914 plockar jag dessa händelser från den 20/8:
- Tyska trupper ockuperade Bryssel
- Slaget vid Lorraine (Frankrike/Tyskland) och slaget vid Gumbinnen (Tyskland/Ryssland)
- Den marockanska divisionen av den franska armén grundades
- I England bildades The Central Committe on Women's Employment för att utveckla möjligheter för kvinnor att arbeta och möta behoven av arbetskraft under kriget
- Påven Pius X avled
- Slaget vid Lorraine (Frankrike/Tyskland) och slaget vid Gumbinnen (Tyskland/Ryssland)
- Den marockanska divisionen av den franska armén grundades
- I England bildades The Central Committe on Women's Employment för att utveckla möjligheter för kvinnor att arbeta och möta behoven av arbetskraft under kriget
- Påven Pius X avled
Vykortet från Vittel har årtalet 14 synligt i poststämpeln, men inget datum. Eftersom de nu är tillbaka i Frankrike och på väg till England, så måste det dock vara skrivet senare än kortet från Schweiz. Det är oklart vad ordet "sedel" i Gerdas PS syftar på, men utifrån sammanhanget tolkar jag det som att det måste handla om något dokument (passersedel / visum) för att hon skulle kunna följa med sin engelska arbetsgivare tillbaka till England. Från vad jag fått berattat för mig, vet jag dock att det inte blev så; utan Gerda blev "fast" i Frankrike under hela kriget (vilket bekräftas av efterföljande vykort i albumet). Exakt vad som hände som gjorde att hon blev kvar i Frankrike kan jag dock bara spekulera om. En gissning är att endast brittiska medborgare tilläts att resa över till England från Frankrike, och att den "sedel" som Gerda här nämner inte godkändes. Gerda var ju svensk medborgare, inte brittisk. Även om Sverige inte var inblandat i kriget, så var det antagligen problematiskt att resa dit från det ockuperade Frankrike. Om hon inte kunde resa via England, så hade hon ju behövt resa via Tyskland. Om detta var helt omöjligt eller om hon bara föredrog att inte ge sig på det, vet jag inte.
Hur som helst är nästa vykort från Gerda i albumet skrivet från Lyon i mitten av december 1914.
Det kommer i ett senare inlägg.
Det kommer i ett senare inlägg.
Linking to Sepia Saturday 600
Excellent interpretation of history from these cards! So glad you also found other things that happened concurrently. I do wonder how you do that! THanks so much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Barbara :) As for my method of research, I'm afraid it's rather basic: I just typed "20 August 1914" into the Google search box! (LOL)
DeleteIt is so fortunate you have all these postcards from Gerda to be able to interpret some of what was happening prior to and after WWI began. A very interesting way to see things through an ordinary person's eyes.
ReplyDeleteThanks LaN. Trying to see things through the eyes of one specific person does usually cast a different light on details, yes. Postcards are often tricky to interpret, though, as obviously one can't write too much info on them. It also becomes evident that postal delivery became unreliable during the war and that even civilians had to take into account that cards and letters might be censored.
DeleteAnother fascinating set of postcards to piece together. From what I've read, travel across borders during the first months of the war became incredibly chaotic and complicated for every nationality. Many "enemy aliens" were detained in camps and only released after lengthy government negotiations. I suspect that Britain may have restricted free entry of Swedes across its border until it understood how the Swedish government would keep its pledge of neutrality.
ReplyDeleteRecently I volunteered to organize a Sepia Saturday chat group for our small club. If you'd like to participate, Monica, would you drop me a note at "mkbrbkr" at the geemail?
Thanks Mike. Actually I found it enough just to think of the last few years of refugees crises + restrictions following the covid virus, to get an idea what kind of travelling chaos must have been caused by that war in the past as well.
DeleteExcellent melding of historical research with Gerda's brief post-card notes and the postmarks. Your series is becoming suspenseful, with war breaking out and Gerda unable to travel to England with her employer. Looking forward to the next set of cards in this series.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Molly. I'm kind of in suspense myself - even though I know that she came out of both this war and the next one OK and lived to be over 90! Going through her cards from these years in order and pondering about details is still quite exciting, though. I'm trying now to organize things so that I save her WWI cards for Sepia Saturdays. (Posting some other cards from her brother's pc album in between, trying to keep up the chronology from his perspective as well.)
Delete