Book contents
11 - Family and Friends under Occupation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2023
Summary
The orphanage on Belgická was quite possibly where Klein first met Frantiská Edelsteinová (1917–44). She had been an outstanding medical student at Charles University, and lived a few doors down from the orphanage on Belgická. Almost three years older than Klein, she was mature, highly intelligent and a spirited redhead. In the winter of 1940–41, Gideon and Frantiská began a relationship, but after six months it was floundering, with Frantiská clearly frustrated that he would not, or could not, commit to the relationship as deeply as she would have liked. Things came to a head in the spring of 1941 and at the beginning of May she wrote a long letter to Klein, something of a cri de coeur, which reveals much about how he engaged with non-familial relationships, but also shows the intense love which Frantiská felt for him.
Dated 5 May 1941, she begins her letter ‘Angel – I decided to get down to it after all. That is to briefly summarise my half-year knowledge of you’. She describes Klein as ‘an intellectual type who has to a great extent broken away from the material world, from its practical and everyday side that is, and he is at home mainly in the spiritual world’. Yet she points to an apparent paradox by saying:
Perhaps in trying to overcome a certain feeling of inferiority, you try to span many subjects and impress people with it sometimes. But this way you, as a matter of fact, come back to the material world that you, I think, initially rather held in disregard. You return to it mainly because you expect it to give you admiration and appreciation.
She then writes about his ‘inability or unsuccessful attempts at creating close relationships’, adding, ‘You are sometimes so uncertain when it comes to women, to whom you attribute certain assumed qualities’. Interestingly, this observation is borne out by Hana Žantovská, who, in 1946, reflected on her friendship with Klein:
It was a ‘non-romantic’ friendship. That's at least how Gideon called them, and thus differentiated them from relationships that were more emotional. He had many of these ‘non-romantic’ friendships, and within those he was a very sincere, kind and faithful companion. He held some of his female friends in high regard, and he valued their exceptional abilities. Still, a man was the benchmark of performance for him.
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- Information
- Don't Forget about MeThe Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist, pp. 148 - 156Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022