A Piece of Personal History
In July 1943, the allies landed in Sicily. Armin T. Wegner fled from Padua, where he worked as a professor of German literature at the university. He was penniless, however, the allied servicemen helped him a great deal. He got a job at the American Service Club in Naples. Here is where, a Canadian soldier named John Howitt (pictured) became friends with Armin T. Wegner in 1944. In 2009 John Howitt’s son, Ted, contacted the Armin T. Wegner Society of USA. In his e-mail Ted had attached a pamphlet autographed by Wegner:
“For John Howitt our good friend and brother in Canada from Armin and Irene Positano, Sept. 1944”
Ted wrote:
“Many years ago I inherited several booklets, which I believe are about Armin T. Wegner… I would love to know more about these pamphlets…. Apparently, Wegner had very little money and was trying to raise funds in order to leave Italy….”
In fact, Wegner had no plans to leave Italy, he just needed to survive. After the war he considered going back to Germany, but felt so estranged, he gave up that idea.
The pamphlets are offprints (Sonderdruck) from Albert Soergel’s “Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit” (Poetry and Poets of the Time) printed in Leipzig in 1925.
