She Slept in Hitler’s Bed
By Enyaj Pitchford, Photos by Enyaj Pitchford
Evelyn Popp
I remember Evelyn Popp from my days of hanging at the Sponto’s Art Gallery. That was a mystical vortex where all the creativity and eccentricity of Venice gathered; a wild open door to the Magic Theatre of Herman Hesse and the Wonderland of Lewis Carroll. And it went on for years free of incident despite this raw amalgamation of talent and street life and money. It was beautiful and free and spontaneous, and a missing piece of most venues that survived the cultural cleansing that gentrification got ripped from the Soul of what was once Venice.
Evelyn Popp made Poppets or puppets. She would meander into the gallery or any artistic affair with a poppet or two ‘walking’ beside her. Each time I saw her, a new brightly wardrobe creation would be trailing beside her. She was creative and eccentric and foreign born, as her accent clearly revealed. Now, in her 90’s and not looking much different from the distinguished, artist I met decades earlier, I was thrilled to finally have a time to sit and chat with her in her newly acquired abode.
Evelyn was born in Munich in 1933. She remembers the very first day of World War II. She was 6 years old the day the war was announced. She remembers it clearly. Her mom was going to another town with two left shoes that she and her sister wore down. There was an official calling the entire town to the streets to hear the formal decree. She begins to speak in German, annunciating the words she heard that day. “It was a rainy day and her and her sisters were in the cold streets, each with one right shoe on. “The War has begun” the megaphone announced. Everyone was crying, wailing , in the streets.
Her mother was single with three girls. They moved around a lot .One time, she stayed in a woman’s home who announced to her that she slept in Hitler’s bed , his actual bed; Hitler’s bed! (She joked how people assumed when she told them that statement that she slept with Hitler, maybe along with Marlene Dietrich , as she was a blue eyed blond beauty.)
As a result of the aftermath of World War I, so she never went to school, as schools were closed. The only real industry was making clothes for the soldiers. Her mom was an expert seamstress and always busy and Evelyn learned to be a proficient seamstress by the tender age of 4 Her work became recognized by people who visited Kings and Dignitaries. She recalls one very large woman in particular who would stay with them for a whole month while Evelyn sewed her entire wardrobe for a year. Many would fly annually to Munich to get their yearly wardrobe done! . This particularly large woman was the wife of a president. Evelyn was making fine haut courtier with her tiny nimble fingers hours upon hours a day. She remembers this time with great joy as this was her passion. One time this client said, “Oh Gosh, Eveylyn, it must be so hard for you to dress a woman of my size” To which Evelyn innocently responded “Oh no! It’s quite easy! It’s like covering a potato sack.” The woman laughed like she had never laughed so hard in her life, nearly falling out of her chair! No one ever spoke to her like that! . Despite being a war baby, Evelyn squints with delight when she remembers her childhood “ I remember my childhood so well. I wouldn’t trade it with anyone else!” She goes on, ( BE PREPARED! IT”S A DOOZY! ) to say “ The good thing was that Hitler was saving the children from the American soldiers who killed the German children.” It seems the Fuhrer sent families with 2 or more children into the Alps, high up, where the falling bombs would potentially miss the mountain side and fall into the valleys below. Evelyn and her mom and two sisters were sent there. Evelyn and her mom spent every waking hour knitting socks, scarfs and mittens to trade in exchange for food at different farmhouses, She remembers it with fond memories, as she and her mom traveled in the cold snow with her wet feet and brought back the food to all the other refugees, mostly children, staying with them. She speaks with great joy and pride of being the hero of this group at the time, as can well be imagined.
They were safe and fed in their mountain citadel, eating fresh food from the local farms. She was so admired and had such a good time. When they came from the farmhouses their backpacks were filled with food to the brim! It was hard to even buy anything during the war as stores were closed. The local people would donate material like yarn and scissors to help the children survive. She reiterates “ This kept them safe from the American soldiers who would come into a town and kill everyone, woman and children included.” Hitler was not the one these particular children feared!
Because of what was definitely a new light casted on this war, I did a little digging. I found that recently, German historian Miriam Gebhardt, well known in Germany for her book about leading feminist Alice Schwarzer and the feminist movement, has now published a new volume casting doubt on the accepted version of America’s role in German postwar history. .The work,, which came out in German on Febuary 2015, takes a closer look at the rape of German women by all four victorious powers at the end of World War II. In particular, though, her views on the behavior of American GIs are likely to raise eyebrows. Gebhardt believes that members of the US military raped as many as 190,000 German women by the time West Germany regained sovereignty in 1955, with most of the assaults taking place in the months immediately following the US invasion of Nazi Germany.”
I think it is a reminder that history is always written by the victors to their favor. As well as that the horrors of war, all wars, even the “good ones”; are ongoing and do not end with the victors’ flag being raised. Besides the ongoing violence, particularly to women and therefore falling onto the children,the despair remains for decades and passed intergenerationally. Then there are the irreplaceable cultural gems lost as well as irrepairable environmental damages with the burning of the forests and orchards and species being erradicated that occur in all wars ;it’s worth taking a pause, especially in our current predicament and do all we can to press our country to better diplomacy and trade, collective solutions and cease fires. And now back to our main story.
Evelyn’s mom died when she was in her early teens. Her father disappeared shortly after he impregnated the mom. It was only recently she learned or came to the realization that he was Jewish and needed to scaddadle for his life. She never even met him. But I’ve met her daughter and I believe his genes have passed on to her. The moment I met the talented Yvonne I was bewildered when she assured me she was not from New York City, she was not Italian and she was not Jewish. Having grown up there, where then the Jews and Italians were always in business together, I couldn’t understand how she could be so lively and full of hand gestures without being one of the three; now I am satisfied that my instincts were right! But Yvonne also got her mothers artistic genes, and she is famous for playing her magical kartels with all the top kirtan artists of the Bhakti and Shakti festivals and local kirtans.
After spending some time with her grandmother in Bulvaria, she continued to sew to make a living. Eventually, she lived on her own, in a big beautiful home next to the train station, making it convenient for clients to travel and stay for her while she worked on their wardrobe. She had become quite famous for her work. Her clients continued to be amazed when they saw the pint sized famous seamstress Evelyn Popp, still quite young, in her late teens. Her fame gave her an opportunity to go to America. Her sister was already in America, in California, .
She had a reservation by boat, using the contact of the Big Potatoe sack woman. She had 600 mark for a fine cabin on a boat but though she was there on time, the boat left two days earlier! Here she was on the dock with two suit cases and a very distinguished gentleman was standing nearby . She approached him, with her big blue eyes and curly blond hair believing he would have the right contacts Her insticnts proved right. He did have good contacts and her told her to wait there and he would take care of it for her. He got her another ride from a very distinguished gentleman’s luxury boat that was leaving in the next couple of days. So she left in grand style, in the captain’s quarters, who could not make the boat, , at 31 years of age. She left behind her lover, a blue eyed German professor, who lived in India most the time, and was so dark from the sun, that people assumed he was a black man. The director of the boat liked her too, and upon arrival to New York, offered to show her around town for a few days. She enjoyed her stay, then went to visit friends in Washington DC, before catching the train to California.
She finally arrived in the 70’s, and got to see her sister, in Santa Monica. Unfortunately,, her sister died shortly after. She had made her living hanging wall paper and the toxic glue that was used then gave her cancer.
Evelyn Popp very soon got her own place, doing her sewing and developing a series of dolls and and puppets, or Poppets. She has been written up in magazines from all over the world during her career Her bohemian life lead her to a string of lovers, and moving about. She lived with her child in a bus parked behind the old Wildfire Pizza Place on main street in Santa Monica. She also stayed, ironically, in the Charlie Chaplin designed Gingerbread house, directly on the Ocean front Walk for a while. I say ironically because Hitler and Charley Chaplin were born just four days apart, Chaplin born 4/16/1882 and Hitler on 4/20! (more irony!) And when Chaplin played the Great Dictator, it was then his resemblance to Hitler caught everyone’s attention, and probaby exacerbated his troubles, despite being their ideology being dialectically opposite.
It was there in that tiny room on the Ocean Front Walk that she was able to sell and display her poppets. Unfortunately, she created one design she called “piggy” and saw a version of it be used on TV called “Ms. Piggy.” It was a great disappointment to have not received any compensation nor given her proper credit for the inspiration. But this is an old story, that happened repeatedly in my experience; hollywood vultures using the songs, art, jewlery and fashion of the local artists. They may come simply to get “inspiration” from the boardwalk artist. This was especially true in the 80’s and through the early 2000’s when the scene was thriving. But while inspiration is great and free, pirating an artist’s idea and not compensating them is really criminal, and not easy to prevent when ethics don’t count for much.
For many years, while her daughter worked in hair and makeup in the film industry and secured herself an apartment, Evelyn lived content in a cute little bus, until the police towed it away and she flound herself, while in her eighties, living in a shelter for nearly a decade, I am happy to say she has now gotten herself a nice little apartment, with the help of her grandson, on Lincoln blvd.
I have known Evelyn for many years and am glad to see her settled down, especially being in her 90’s. Thank you for all the art and charm you have brought to the Westside all these decades and thank you for sharing your unique story. It’s great to see some of her dolls and poppets she has remaining hanging out happily on her shelves in her new safe space. Congratulations Evelyn on a bohemian life well lived!
Categories: Art, Enyaj Pitchford, Ocean Front Walk