Background

Hanna Spencer was born on December 16, 1913, in Kladno, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). She was the daughter of a grocer and had a sister, Mimi.

Education

In 1937 Hanna Spencer received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the German University in Prague (now Charles University).

Career

When German Chancellor Adolf Hitler invaded her country, Hanna Spencer lost her job; shortly afterward she escaped to England and, eventually, to Canada, where her family joined her in August 1939, just days before war broke out. She kept a diary throughout this transition period and eventually published it in 2001 under the title Hanna’s Diary, 1938-1941: Czechoslovakia to Canada.

Spencer’s diary was actually begun at the request of her Christian lover, Hans Feiertag, a musician, and composer whose career - if not his very life - would have been in danger if their relationship had continued once the Nazis took power. The diary was a way to "fill the gap" during their time of separation which they believed would be temporary. Hanna’s Diary, begun in 1938, tells Spencer’s story as she and Feiertag realized they would have to stop seeing each other. Except for a fleeting meeting on the street where they could not acknowledge each other, and a secret meeting in the woods that Spencer recorded as a ’dream' to protect her lover should her diary fall into the wrong hands, she and Feiertag separated. As it turned out, they never met again. It was not until fifty years later that Spencer learned Feiertag had been drafted into the German army and had not returned from the Russian Front. His musical manuscripts survived the war and are now housed in the Gustav Mahler Room at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.

Spencer’s entry permit into Canada stipulated that she work in her uncle Louis Fischl's glove factory, which she did. Eventually, thanks to intervention by Senator Cairine Wilson, she was able to return to her former profession as a teacher at Elmwood School in Ottawa. One of her colleagues at Elmwood was Edith Spencer, who introduced her brother, Elvin, to Spencer. They were married in 1942. Elvin Spencer’s career as a research chemist took the family - soon to included children Erica and Martin - to many parts of Canada, from Ontario to British Columbia, from Quebec to Saskatchewan, and eventually to London, Ontario, where they lived after 1951. Here Spencer was able to resume her academic pursuits. In the meantime, the old diaries lay forgotten in a wooden box used as a footstool under Spencer’s desk. It wasn't until sometime in the 1990s, when Elvin Spencer suggested she translate the diaries from German into English for their grandchildren, that Spencer brought her writing out of the box.

Spencer began teaching the German language and literature at the University of Western Ontario in 1959, where she remained until she retired as professor emerita in 1979. She also wrote and published two books about Heinrich Heine, a German poet, and journalist. The first, Dichter, Denker, Journalist: Studien Zum Werk Heinrich Heines, was published in 1977, two years before Spencer retired. It contains a collection of essays on various aspects of Heine’s writing, verse as well as prose. One of the essays points to and documents Heine’s kinship with Nietzsche - now a generally accepted fact but regarded as controversial at the time.

Spencer’s Heinrich Heine was published in 1982 and focuses on the same subject, albeit in an entirely different way. An introduction to his life and writings, it is part of a Twayne series of compact volumes devoted to the biography and critical analysis of world authors. The work has eight chapters: one devoted to Heine’s biography and the remaining seven arranged chronologically and topically. Spencer focuses on Heine’s unique way of expressing religious, personal, and social views and feelings while allotting relatively little space to the politics underlying his writing. Spencer also translates Heine’s prose into English, along with quotations and titles English readers would otherwise miss.

Achievements

• Hanna Spencer is best remembered as the author of Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941: Czechoslovakia to Canada and two books on Heinrich Heine. Her works received high praise from critics.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941: Czechoslovakia to Canada

    (Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941 offers an intimate view of sweep...)

    2001
  • Dichter, Denker, Journalist: Studien zum Werk Heinrich Heines 1977
  • Heinrich Heine 1982

Religion

Hanna Spencer was a non-practicing Jewish.

Politics

Hanna Spencer was politically active.

Membership

Hanna Spencer was a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German, the Canadian Association for Health Humanities, Heine Society, the Internationaler Germanisten Verein, the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Unitarian Fellowship of London, Ontario.

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  Canadian Association of University Teachers of German , Canada

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  Canadian Association for Health Humanities , Canada

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  Canadian Federation of University Women , Canada

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  Unitarian Fellowship of London , Canada

Personality

An intrepid traveler, accomplished pianist, and avid tennis player until the age of 90, Hanna Spencer was one of the earliest participants in the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging. She went to the gym three times a week until a few weeks before her death. Spencer entertained and hosted dinner parties, for which she cooked herself.

Interests

• traveling, cooking, playing the piano

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

In 1942 Hanna Spencer married Elvin Y. Spencer. They had two children: Erica, Martin.

late spouse:

Elvin Y. Spencer

Son:

Martin Spencer

Daughter:

Martin Spencer

Sister:

Mimi Fischl

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011