The patron of the arts, Ida Dehmel (1870–1942), kept a diary during her round the world trip on board the cruiser “Reliance”in 1936. On June 11, 1936, upon her return home to Blankenese, she jotted down an addendum. On this final page she describes the sense of happiness which she felt on the sea and addressed what for her was its essential difference from familiar land. At the time of her writing, the Reich Literature Chamber had banned Ida Dehmel from pursuing independent activity as an author. The brief diary that reports on the destinations during her six-month journey exists in several typewritten copies on thin paper, presumably transcriptions of handwritten originals, bound in marbled covers, that have remained in private hands. For Ida Dehmel, a friend of the arts who came from a Jewish home, sea travels offered the possibility of distracting herself and escaping, at least temporarily, the ostracism of National Socialist Hamburg. Emigration was never a consideration for her. The addendum to the diary bears witness to a pleasure trip in the face of danger.
An Addendum to Ida Dehmel’s Diary of Her World Cruise aboard the “Reliance” 1936 (translated by Richard S. Levy), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, <https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-205.en.v1> [October 06, 2024].