obituary: poet henry beissel wrestled with his childhood in nazi germany
"i think his war experience shaped his desire for justice and equity. he liked fighting for the little guy."
4 minute read
henry beissel grew up in nazi germany, immigrated to canada after the second world war and went on to become a celebrated poet, playwright, scholar and activist. in his work, he strived to come to terms with his childhood and germany's dark past.
photo courtesy of the beissel family
by the spring of 1942, 13-year-old henry beissel had grown blasé about allied bombing and would often stand outside his home in cologne, germany, to watch the war’s drama unfold in the night sky.
he hated the darkness of bomb shelters and didn’t like cowering with women and children.
“my mother would be furious trying to stop me,” he once told an interviewer. “i would go and watch the searchlights sometimes finding planes, the flak. i spent a lot of time out there, wondering how long i would live, and why people would do these things to each other.”
beissel survived the war and studied philosophy and literature. eager to escape germany, he pursued graduate studies at the university of london, where another philosophy student convinced him to move to canada.
he landed in canada in april 1951 and built a career as a celebrated poet, playwright, scholar and activist. he wrote more than 40 books during his lifetime and taught for three decades at montreal’s concordia university, where he founded the creative writing program.
henry beissel grew up in nazi germany and immigrated to canada after the second world war. photo courtesy of the beissel family
one of his poems, coming to terms with a child, sought to explain his childhood in nazi germany to his grandson. another poetry collection, seasons of blood, reflects on war, nature and cruelty.
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beissel died earlier this year in ottawa. he was 95.
one of beissel’s three daughters, clara, described her father as witty, gregarious, compassionate, concerned and stubborn. “i think his war experience shaped his desire for justice and equity,” she said. “he liked fighting for the little guy. that was my dad’s style.”
beissel’s wife, artist arlette francière, said he should be remembered as a vital, multi-faceted writer committed to making the world a fairer, more peaceful place.
henry beissel grew up in nazi germany. he was in school, immersed in latin, english, philosophy, math, science and art, when the second world war broke out in september 1939. photo courtesy of the beissel family
“i’ve always wondered why he’s not better known, even though he was in germany,” she said. “he was so positive, so enthusiastic. he always thought, ‘well, the next book will put me on the map.’”
henry beissel was born april 12, 1929, in a cologne suburb and grew up in the gathering terror of adolf hitler’s germany. as a boy, henry was made to join the hitler youth, which became mandatory for german children in 1936.
beissel was in school, immersed in latin, english, philosophy, math, science and art, when the second world war broke out in september 1939. it didn’t seem real at first, but the war was soon brought home to him.
his father, a musician, was drafted and later reported missing in action. (he was taken as a prisoner of war and survived.)
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then, on the night of may 30, 1942, cologne was targeted by the first “thousand bomber raid,” a tactic designed to exhibit the destructive power of saturation bombing. the raid was supposed to hit the industrial city of hamburg, but poor visibility meant the bombers were redirected to their secondary target, cologne.
henry beissel was a wide-ranging activist. photo courtesy of the beissel family
the mass attack sent beissel to a bomb shelter.
“it was a terrifying experience,” he told an interviewer. “the ground shook. the houses shook. the women screamed or wept. my brother and i were hugging each other, not knowing what to do or say.”
with other children, beissel was evacuated to a small town east of the ruined city.
on his 16th birthday, he was ordered to report to the german army, but he went into hiding instead. at the end of the war, he worked as a translator for occupying british and u.s. forces, who showed him films that depicted the shocking horrors of nazi concentration camps.
“when i found out about them, i was so revolted by everything german because it seemed to me a betrayal of all the things that that i had been taught to believe in,” beissel told an interviewer. “i felt betrayed by everyone — my parents, my teachers, my priests — and i turned my back on germany … i couldn’t get out of germany fast enough.”
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after immigrating to canada, beissel spent 10 years in toronto, where he worked as a door-to-door salesman, apple picker and gardener while completing graduate studies at the university of toronto.
he taught english literature at u of t, the university of alberta and the university of the west indies in trinidad while publishing his first volumes of poetry. he was also the founding editor of an avant-garde journal, edge, that explored art and politics.
he was a wide-ranging activist.
in the early 1970s, beissel led a national committee of scholars devoted to the canadianization of canadian universities, then dominated by foreign-born academics. he served as president of the league of canadian poets and enthusiastically defended freedom of speech.
later, as a founding member of secular ontario, he led a crusade to get rid of the lord’s prayer from the ontario legislature and from municipal council meetings.
“we need to rely upon ourselves if we want to address the problems that are besetting this planet,” he argued.
beissel’s best-known literary work was a play, inook and the sun, about a boy’s search for the sun during the dark arctic winter. the play — it’s now known simply as inuk — premiered at the stratford festival in 1982.
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for years, beissell lived and worked in a log cabin near maxville before moving to ottawa about two decades ago.
he continued to write well into his 90s, even after a series of heart attacks. in 2020, he won the ottawa book award for his collection of poetry, footprints of dark energy.
he was writing his autobiography when he died. beissel had only reached the year 1945.
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