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The following review is by Peter McGregor, Lecturer in Media & Social Studies, University of Western Sydney
ONE MAN IN HIS TIME Hans Post's ONE MAN IN HIS TIME is an amazing & inspiring story. It's a historically significant autobiography by an only child, born 1926, to a pro-Nazi middle-class family in Silesia. The cover of this latest book by the new, independent, social justice publisher, Otford Press conveys the distance of the journey that Hans Post has travelled. Because the colours of black & red, signify both Nazism & anarchism. And we see the icons : from Nazi & the SS, to the CND, War Resisters & anarchism. Then there are the cover images - the mature Hans dominating the front, to the naïve youth, serious in his SS uniform, juxtaposed with reviews on the back. A useful map of Germany & its neighbours, indicating most places mentioned, including areas such as Silesia, that became Poland after WW2, fills both inside covers as well as being one of the graphics within the text. These graphics are an illuminating selection of Hans' own photographs & other images. For instance, the damning photo of his parents' 35th birthday party in 1931, showing "the Nazi flag in the place of honour in the middle of the table".(p. 38 & p.326) Hans metamorphosised out of a childhood & youth fully - & successfully - immersed in Nazi, authoritarian culture, to come-of-age as an adult choosing pacifist, anarchist & egalitarian ways. It's the kind of journey that the German play-wright Peter Weiss imagined in his play MARAT/SADE, where: "the most important thing is to pull yourself up by your own hair, to turn yourself inside out, & to see the world with fresh eyes". Hans' life story reveals both the appetite for justice latent in each of us, & the capacity to change oneself, as a way to also change society. Hans' book confirms the validity of an epistemology of common sense - that a mixture of experience, cognition & compassion in the hearts & minds of any of us, not just the learned, is the best distiller of wisdom. Hans has the bold self-esteem to claim the Yiddish status of Mensch, because he has rejected & risen above both the way of life into which he was indoctrinated, & the suffering & pain he came to experience in the ending & aftermath of the war. Verily, by making his own way in the world, & reinventing his own identity, he has actualised Weiss' model. Hans' collaborator Michael Morley warns us that Hans' story seems much larger than life… Hans sees the book - which he began in 1993, in trepidation of the 1995 fifty year anniversary of the end of the war - as debriefing, as catalyst & as sociological & political family history. As an activist Hans acknowledges that unless each of us address our own history, we certainly won't be able to transcend it. Measures of Hans' success are both personal - his second wife of over 24 years, Gina, is a Jewish, feminist, anti-war activist - & social/political. While the former may not be as overtly addressed in the book - though some things, while left understated, remain obvious - the latter certainly is. (1) The fundamental measure is Hans' life, evident for those of us who have had the good fortune to know him. Hans sees us all as participants in the making of history - either as conscious participants or as unwitting accomplices. And perhaps in a (Wilhelm) Reichian way he conceives of the family as one of the primary ways history is passed on. Hence he expresses concern & sadness at the breakdown in his relations, both with his parents, and also with some of his children.
"…because of the breakdown in relations (with my parents)… I missed out on my last chance to understand my own history. Understanding my parents better would have helped me understand myself. I really value history, my own, other people's, & that of places too. The present is closely connected with what has happened & what is going to happen. I see myself as a link in the chain connecting the past & the future & I want to learn about the past so that I don't make the same mistakes as previous generations. Maybe some things can be changed for the better & I want to do all I can as part of that process." (p.347) Subsequent to his first wife, Lydia's sudden death in 1975 (they had migrated to Australia in 1959), & Hans developing a relationship with - & marrying - Gina, who had been a political collaborator & friend of the family, Hans' relations with some of his & Lydia's 5 children deteriorated. The book is dedicated not only to his two wives/companions (or as he calls them Schatzeles - treasures, darlings), but to his grandchildren in the hope that they will be able to find out about their family, & gain some historical understanding of themselves, & thus be able to learn to make a better future. The Preface - Goodbye to Germany - gives an overview of Hans (& Lydia)'s journey - a stepping away from something unacceptable, into the unknown - the courage to venture on the edge of the universe, without having to feel secure ? By the mid-Fifties, Hans & Lydia became increasingly rebellious & dissatisfied with West Germany. Chancellor Adenauer's re-introduction of conscription was proof for the increasingly outspoken 'red Posts' (as they became known), of the return of state propaganda. Hans gives a synopsis of his & Lydia's life so far in "a society built on lies". He makes the case that from the time the Nazis took power, the brain-washing was such that because "people did not know what was really going on", it is hard to "measure individual guilt". So, while finding more 'freedom & individuality' in Australia, Hans claims his "voice has been all the louder because of my own escape. My conviction of the fundamental value of the individual, of the meaning of freedom, has become ever stronger, in spite of, or because of, my upbringing in Nazi Germany." (p.12) The book is written in an engaging & personable style, revealing an impressive memory, & giving us a feel for the various situations - from the time of Hans' grandparents in the late 19th century till the early 1990s. Its 400 pages are broken into 40 chapters, making it an easy flowing read, as Hans notes crucial turning points, as if it's been an intentional, developmental journey. Because this isn't just a story for its own sake: it's like a self-help book, offering us something that we need - helping us understand what is wrong with our world & showing us how to change it for the better. Hey, if Hans managed to do it, so can we ! The photographs in the book reflect the contrast between the intense youth - even at his first marriage in 1951 - & the happy & relaxed adult - smiling, carrying a CND banner in Sydney on Hiroshima Day 1995. A humour & warmth permiates as Hans presents people & situations with a mixture of compassion & affection, but also dispassion & uncompromising criticism.
(1) As oral histories, Hans' book, together with that of a friend who was a fellow inmate of the Thoree-les-Pins POW camp - Hans Joachim Finke: Die Uberwindung der Sprachlosigkeit (2000) - corroborate the research of James Bacque's Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French & Americans after World War 11 (1999). Bacque found that one million German prisoners of war died from May 1945 to 1949 in POW camps like Thoree-les-Pins.
Peter McGregor, Lecturer in Media & Social Studies, UWS
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