[Julius Moritzen, the writer of the following article, was born in Odense, Denmark, where Hans Christian Andersen was born. Mr. Moritzen has written much about Andersen, and at present is engaged in a dramatization of his life.]
As the entire world is paying tribute to the memory of Hans Christian Andersen on this, the one hundred and twenty-ninth anniversary of his birth, it is well to recall at this time, when racial superiority has become an obsession with Denmark’s neighbor to the south, that no people meant more to the famous Danish writer of the wonder stories in the latter period of his life than the Jewish families with whom he associated in Copenhagen.
As a matter of fact, the Melchiors of the Danish capital provided this perennial bachelor with those home comforts that money alone could never buy. Here he enjoyed associates who not only appreciated his genius, but who saw to it that nothing was wanting to give him that peace and restfulness that they and the villa “Quietude” provided in such rich measure. The Melchior and Henriques families, occupying as they did prominent positions in Copenhagen’s financial and social life, centered the artistic atmosphere of that city, and Andersen came to realize to what a degree Danish Jewry, through these representatives, was instrumental in aiding him indirectly in visualizing some of his captivating stories.
MADAME MELCHIOR UNDERSTOOD HIM
Perhaps no single individual among his Jewish friends better understood Hans Christian Andersen and his characteristics than did Madame Dorothea Melchior, whose correspondence with him during his frequent trips abroad constitutes one of the most valuable sources of information with regards to the psychological background of the man himself and his work. The book by the Danish author, Elith Reumert, dealing wholly with Andersen and the Melchior family, affords an insight into that relationship which transcends the immediate interest attaching to anything bearing on his career and it becomes a part of that Anderseniana which future biographers must take into account.
VISITED WARBURGS IN HAMBURG
Volumes could be written about the manner in which the friendship between Andersen and Madame Melchior developed and influenced the entire character of the poet. For the present purpose it must suffice to say that for more than twenty years the villa “Quietude” was to him a haven unlike anything that he had experienced in his former years.
“It was the Melchiors”, writes Elith Reumert, “who in November, 1874, took the initiative in a popular subscription toward the erection of a monument of Andersen in the King’s Garden, Copenhagen. His last Christmas he spent with them. He passed away quietly in his sleep in the morning of August 4, 1875.”
As dramatizations of the Andersen wonder-stories come over the radio today let all who listen in bear in mind that racial animosity was a total stranger to this man and that nothing of the kind was ever permitted to enter his writings. His life was an object lesson indeed. As he himself has written in his autobiography: “My life has been the most beautiful fairytale of all.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
