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Savitri Devi moved into a home that she shared with Katja U. in the town of Emsdetten, which is in the Steinfurt district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in May of 1953. She completed the manuscript of Pilgrimage during her time there, and also worked on the manuscript of The Lightning and the Sun [1]. In December of 1954 her residence was searched twice by the German police, who were suspicious of her National Socialist beliefs, and Savitri herself was interrogated. She was finally forced to leave Emsdetten in May of 1955.
Below is a scan of the front cover of the official address book for Steinfurt for 1955, as well as the page on which Savitri’s address is listed under her birth name of Maximiani Portas. She is listed as a language teacher, at the address Hembergener Damm 115.
Front cover [2] (JPEG)
Address page [3] (JPEG)
Below is a scan of an archival card that was made in 1987 as part of a “wartime index” compiled in Germany during the 1980s from data obtained from earlier official sources, intended to help families find out about the fate of relatives during the period of the Third Reich, the Second World War, and their aftermath. The card shows when Savitri was registered in Emsdetten during the mid-1950s. The text written in pencil reads, “Aufenthaltserlaubnis beantragt am 18.8.54 b. d. Ausländeramt in Burgsteinfurt,” which means “Residence permit applied for on 18.8.54 at the Aliens’ Office in Burgsteinfurt.”
Front [4] (JPEG)
Back [5] (JPEG)
