Buy Simone’s Book – help the Simone Feldman Helper Travel Fund
By Reynold Feldman On September 20 my wife of 43 years, Simone, entered the Great Life. An active, loyal Subud member for 45 years, she was named a helper shortly after we were married in 1963. Opened by Michele von Royk-Lewinski in Munich in November, 1961, she faithfully carried out her duties as a helper in New Haven, Connecticut; New York City; Honolulu, Hawaii (where she co-founded the group in 1967); Planegg (Munich) and Wiesbaden, Germany; Chicago; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and, till three months before her death, again in Honolulu. Bapak used her on several occasions to test before the members, once in Hawaii with hilarious results. Because Simone was almost nine years older than me, she didn’t broadcast how old she was until fairly recently – proud of how good she looked for her age. Anyway, in 1969, when Simone was 38 and most people thought she was in her late 20’s, Bapak tested with her on the state of her spiritual development at different ages. When Bapak reached ages 30 and 35, the assembled group started laughing, thinking he had made a mistake. He looked puzzled, so I explained the situation to him in Indonesian. Then Bapak laughed. Nevertheless, that was the end of Simone’s secret so far as Subud-Hawaii was concerned. Simone also served Bapak during various visits – sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes in the household. During Bapak’s first visit to the newly formed groups in Hawaii in 1968, Baroness Michele and Baron Ludwig von Royk-Lewinski gave Bapak and Ibu some land on the Big Island. The party was staying in our apartment in Honolulu, and the plan was that Michele would fly with Bapak and Usman to the Big Island to receive the property. Ibu Siti Sumari, however, wanted Michele to stay with her and gave instructions that Simone would use Michele’s ticket – you could still do things like that in those days; no one checked picture IDs – to assist Ludwig with preparing Bapak’s lunch. “Yah,” she said, “Simone will be baroness for one day!” And so it was. As some of you know, Simone was born in 1931 in far-away, rural East Prussia, as separated from the main body of Germany then as Alaska is from the Lower 48 States in the US today. (When World War II ended, the German province was split between Russia to the north and Poland to the south.) Simone grew up in a Lutheran family with socialist leanings. When the Nazis assumed power in 1933, her father lost his position as an elementary school principal – you had to be a Nazi to be a school official. The family suffered a great deal; even Simone and her older sister were persecuted by the Nazis for their father’s refusal to join the Party. Then, in 1945, just before Simone’s 14th birthday, she, her mom, and her pregnant 19-year-old sister fled for their lives from the oncoming Red Army. By a series of miracles they managed to escape the Russians, the fire bombing of Dresden, and other near-catastrophes, to arrive safe and sound in the resort village of Gruenwald, a suburb of Munich, in what would become the American Zone of Occupation. With legal papers showing he had been prosecuted by the Nazis, the US military appointed Simone’s father village school principal, and life began to get better. Simone’s mom, Ruth Gertrud, also a Subud member, lived with us in the States for 19 years, until her death in 1990. After that, Simone was moved to begin writing a memoir about her growing up in Hitler’s Germany, a book based on her actress’s recall of dialogue spoken during the gathering darkness of her first 14 years. Yet it is a book filled with humor, hope, faith lost and regained, and above all courage in the face of fear and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. The well-known Quaker writer, Parker J. Palmer, author of A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, and The Active Life, among other books, wrote me this about Voices shortly before Simone’s death: “Simone’s writing is very, very powerful.... Please congratulate her for me on a remarkable piece of work. It really needs to be published.” Happily, it now is. My nonprofit, Wisdom Factors International, is thus pleased to make Voices from a Vanished Past – Memories of a Christian Childhood in Hitler’s Germany available to Subud members. Indeed, Wisdom Factors will contribute $5 to Subud USA for every book bought by a Subud member. (Thus far, some 58 books fall into that category.) Once we reach 100 books, my family will add another $5 per copy, beginning with the 101st book. So, if 100 books are sold, Subud will receive $500; if 200, $1,500, etc. The idea is to use these donations to establish the Simone Feldman Helper Travel Fund. The National Helpers will set up guidelines for putting this money to best use. Our only interest is to get Simone’s wonderful memoir into as many Subud hands as possible while enabling helpers to travel more to do their work of building up the organization that nourished Simone for over four decades. (Note to Subud readers in other countries: We would be happy to extend the same arrangement to your national committees and are also looking for individuals to translate the text into other languages to make it available in non-English-speaking countries as well.) If you would like to order one or more copies of Voices, simply email me your request to reynoldfeldman@yahoo.com Cost is US$20 per book (250 pages of text plus 28 pages of pictures), or three (3) books for $50. Shipping and handling costs are another $5 for up to three books (Priority Mail in the US). Also, based on the enthusiastic response I am getting from the 220 readers to date, Subud and non-Subud alike, there is no reason why Voices could not become a national bestseller. So, if you have any ideas about how to get the book into the hands of more people – we have printed 1,000 copies this first round – please email them to me. My board would consider all creative ideas for additional sales, including personal arrangements with individuals to act locally as our representatives. In conclusion, I am proud to have had a wife and companion of Simone’s quality and to have been privileged to serve as editor of her book. Other than me and our two incredible daughters, Voices was her life’s work and enterprise – a fitting memorial to her and a real opportunity for subsidizing helper work throughout the Subud world as well as the charitable activities of Wisdom Factors International. The book is also a strong testimony to the horrors of war and the need for peace now and always. |